1969 Woodstock Organizer Launches Plan For Pop Music College

WOODSTOCK, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- An organizer of the original Woodstock concert is behind a venture to establish a pop music college in the Ulster County town that lent its name to the 1969 music festival.

The Times Herald-Record of Middletown reported the Woodstock Music Lab purchased a former elementary school in Woodstock for $926,000 last Friday.

The school will be renovated to include rehearsal rooms, classrooms, recording studios and a music venue.

Professional musicians will teach workshops or two-year college-level courses. Classes are expected to begin in 2016.

Those involved in the venture include Michael Lang, producer of the Woodstock festivals, and Paul Green, founder of School of Rock. Green also runs the Rock Academy in Saugerties.

The 1969 three-day Woodstock concert took place in August on Max Yasgur's farm in Bethel, in Sullivan County 45 miles southwest of Woodstock. It was central to the music and history of the rock era – with an assortment of acts of varying styles from Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix to Ravi Shankar and Sha Na Na.

The 1994 festival marking the 25th anniversary was hosted in Saugerties, about 10 miles from Woodstock, and the 1999 Woodstock festival was held in upstate Rome, in Oneida County.

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