Michael Braunstein

The Les Paul Foundation, whose mission is to honor and share the life, spirit and legacy of Les Paul through the generations has announced multi-GRAMMY Award winning composer, producer, arranger and guitarist, Nile Rodgers, to be honored with the third annual Les Paul Spirit Award at this year's Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival.  The award will be presented to Rodgers on Saturday, June 9th, 2018, the same day Les Paul would have turned 103 years old. Previous recipients of the prestigious Les Paul Spirit Award were Grateful Dead founding member Bob Weir (2016) and U2's The Edge (2017).

The NAMM Foundation has announced that singer-songwriter Jackson Browne will receive the prestigious Les Paul Innovation Award at the 33 rd Annual NAMM Technical Excellence & Creativity Awards (NAMM TEC Awards), being held Saturday, January 27, 2018 in Anaheim, CA.

With a legendary career as a hit-making musician, solid-body electric guitar trailblazer, and an inventor of unprecedented recording techniques, he has impacted and influenced the many facets of the music industry like none other.

With a legendary career as a hit-making musician, solid-body electric guitar trailblazer, and an inventor of unprecedented recording techniques, he has impacted and influenced the many facets of the music industry like none other.

The Les Paul Foundation, whose mission is to honor and share the life, spirit and legacy of Les Paul through the generations has announced GRAMMY Award winning artist, U2's The Edge to be honored with the second annual Les Paul Spirit Award at this year's Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival.  The award will be presented to The Edge on Friday, June 9th, 2017, the same day Les Paul would have turned 102 years old. In 2016, the Les Paul Spirit Award was presented to Grateful Dead founding member Bob Weir.

The Les Paul Foundation has announced the official “100th Birthday of Les Paul,” a year-long celebration to launch the famous inventor and musician's 100th birthday - June 9th, 2015. The celebration, which will last through May of 2016, will include exciting programs beginning with the star-studded June 9th event in New York's Times Square. Fans of Les Paul will have the opportunity to rub elbows with some of the most famous names in music at the official kick-off event. Music legends including Steve Miller, Joan Jett, Journey's Neal Schon, guitar virtuoso Johnny A, Chickenfoot's Joe Satriani, Count's 77 and others will appear at the event. Musical acts will continue to be announced on les-paul.com over the next several weeks.

The Les Paul Foundation awarded Little Kids Rock with a grant that will power music education initiatives in public schools over the next year. To further the partnership, the foundation's Executive Director Michael Braunstein visited Lower Manhattan Community Middle School- MS896, a Little Kids Rock school in New York City, on Wednesday, December 11th surprising the students with a delivery of Epiphone Les Paul electric guitars. Simultaneously, supporters of Little Kids Rock's Chicago chapter delivered Epiphone Les Paul electric guitars to Edwards Elementary in Chicago and the young rockers jammed via Skype from nearly 800 miles away! The guitars will be used to augment the successful Little Kids Rock music programs.

The Les Paul Foundation (www.lespaulfoundation.org) announced a grant to the GRAMMY Foundation (www.grammyfoundation.org) for its ninth annual GRAMMY Camp program.

The official grand opening of the Les Paul Exhibit named the 'Wizard of Waukesha' at the Waukesha County Museum in Waukesha, Wisconsin opened this weekend. Michael Braunstein, Executive Director of the Les Paul Foundation, and Sue Baker, Program Director, Les Paul Foundation appeared at the opening. Scroll down for a photo!