Our Mission
We believe
the three main components of sustained happiness are
having a purpose in life,
making meaningful human connections,
and experiencing authentic joy.
We know
from our own experiences that music has the power
to access all of those simultaneously.
Music is a part of being human,
and everyone has the ability
to express themselves through music.
Music is not solely for our entertainment...
It’s a divine instrument for healing in the body, mind, soul, spirit...
Music has such tremendous power.
To me, that’s our job as artists...
You must bring joy.
- Bobby McFerrin -
Our Story
Especially Everyone is a culmination of founder Pete Kozak’s experiences as a musician, event producer, educator, therapist, and coach.
The idea was born in 2016, while working as a job coach, Pete invited a client to his band’s local concert. While this particular individual frequently expressed his affinity for music, he admitted that he had never been to a live concert and made it clear that he had no interest in going.
Though he could not express why, it quickly occurred to Pete that many of the elements of a traditional concert were not conducive to people with sensory challenges - they were loud, late at night, and in dark rooms. From this Pete saw the need to create a sensory-friendly concert series; so he got a band together and in 2018 founded Especially Everyone.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, the project hung in suspense along with the rest of the world. It was during this time that Pete and members of the band began to develop concepts for original music, and explore different ways to expand on the past performances to allow for the audience to get more involved. There was a soft relaunch of the project in December of 2022 to try out some of the original songs, and then the material was developed into a full show, The Especially Everyone Experience, which debuted in October of 2023.
Now in 2024, Especially Everyone has expanded to include a team of like minded individuals with a diverse background of knowledge and experiences.
As an organization, we aim to continue exploring the ways in which we can make music accessible to people, and create opportunities for everyone to participate and share in the creation and creativity of music.