- August 11, 2026
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In 2016, Winter Garden’s Jeff Hanson received a wake-up call.
He was diagnosed with Stage 4 neck and head cancer with a tumor in his throat that had spread. Doctors gave him a 30% chance of survival.
Hanson had spent his life finding and developing stars and managing musicians and bands. He discovered Creed while the band was performing cover songs in December 1997 in Hanson’s live-music venue, Floyd’s Music Store, in Tallahassee.
He went on to artist development and management, handling major musicians and bands including Sevendust, Alter Bridge and Paramore.
But with the diagnosis, Hanson’s time as a classic alternative DJ, club owner, concert promoter and manager had to come to an end.
He chose to retire, stop traveling and spend more time with his children. He changed his principles and decided he never would work with any artists he didn’t personally and professionally love and want to be successful.
That’s when inspiration struck to open a music school, giving children opportunities to be introduced to music in a variety of ways that he didn’t have growing up.
“Why die and put all that wisdom in a coffin?” he said.
A decade later, Hanson is opening Musicology, a contemporary music school providing lessons in vocals, guitar, piano, drums, DJing, woodwinds, brass, song writing and production at 15504 Stoneybrook West Parkway, Suite 130, Winter Garden.
The grand opening will be Tuesday, Sept. 1.
Hanson grew up in a musical family. His father was a folk singer in the 1960s. His grandmother was Polish-American pianist Arthur Rubinstein’s accompanist, and the organ player at their church. Both Hanson and his brother sang in the choir.
He didn’t have anyone to teach him how to play any instruments, which now is driving him to ensure children have the opportunities he didn’t.
“I’ve always been jealous of people with that talent, because I know that I had the physical traits to do it; it was in my blood,” he said. “I should have been able to do it, but I had no one to teach me. My love for music inspired me to get into music, but since I didn’t have talent on that end, I became a DJ, concert promoter, artist manager, all sorts of music-related things.”
As a DJ, he toured around with MTV’s “120 Minutes” opening shows for Big Audio Dynamite and others. He went on to open a club that hosted about 100 concerts per year.
After he discovered Creed, Hanson moved to Orlando for ease of travel and expanded his career to artist development, working with Paramore, Tantric, Candlebox and more.
Combined, Hanson said his clients have sold about 60 million records, and he is about to receive his third Diamond Award, which is the certification the Recording Industry Association of America gives to albums or singles that reach 10 million equivalent units sold or streamed in the U.S.
Hanson later started his own record label.
But Hanson found his passion for working with children — not through music but rather sports.
As his children were growing up, Hanson coached more than 1,000 kids in Southwest Orlando. He worked at Triple Double Basketball Academy and coached every sport his children participated in from 3 to 16 years old at the YMCA.
He knew the impact he made on those he coached after he was diagnosed with neck and head cancer.
The more than 1,000 children he coached started a nationwide prayer chain, all praying for Hanson to recover.
He believes it was the power of prayer, along with the heavy doses of chemotherapy, radiation and multiple surgeries, that healed him.
“They were all praying for me, and I know that’s why I was healed,” he said. “Maybe it was psychosomatic, because my mind went along for the ride with what they were doing, but they willed me to live, which is another reason why I’m so excited to give back to young people. I will always credit those young people for caring about me, and in this world, you won’t find many people that care about you outside your family. That was a large group of young, innocent-minded people that really cared about me.”
His cancer forcing him to retire and his desire to give back all are part of God’s plan, he said.
“Maybe God needed me to retire so I could do something that was way more important in the big picture, because I look at this (school) like it’s the most important thing I’ve ever done,” he said.
Inspiration to open a music school came from Flea, bassist and founding member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He had a similar upbringing as Hanson and opened a nonprofit music school of his own 20 years ago in Los Angeles.
Hanson recruited others in the music industry who were contemplating retirement or the next steps in their careers.
He tapped Jay Stanley, a founding member of Matchbox 20, to be a part of this new chapter. Stanley not only is part owner of Musicology, but also he will serve as a guitar teacher.
He also enlisted Mark Goff, vocal coach and choreographer of boys bands Backstreet Boys and NSYNC.
Musicology is for everyone, regardless of age. Hanson said he has a passion for introducing music and instruments to youth, but he also has a group of three retired gentlemen who need a place to practice. They also are wanting to take lessons because they dream of playing in venues in Orlando.
If someone has an interest in a particular instrument or musical aspect, Hanson is striving to meet the need. For example, someone asked if Musicology offered flute lessons; the next day, Hanson hired a flute teacher.
Hanson dreams of Musicology being more than a place for students to go for lessons. He wants it to be the place where children find their community. He wants to give opportunities for the shy students to come out of their shells or for the students who are struggling in school to walk into Musicology and thrive musically.
He remembered being the kid who wasn’t academically astute and wishing he had a place to go to stay out of trouble.
Now Musicology can be that safe haven for children to potentially discover a talent or express their creativity.
“You don’t have to have talent to be a musician,” Hanson said. “You just have to have the desire, because we can teach you the talent. What I feel like you need is the desire to be creative and to make sure you don’t have things you’re keeping inside because you don’t have any way to express yourself.”
Hanson already has plans to take students on field trips, such as visiting the Rock Hall of Fame next summer or taking them to various studios. The school also will host Parents Night Out to give parents a chance to have a night to themselves while their kids enjoy free activities at Musicology.
He also has commitments from NSYNC’s Chris Kirkpatrick, Evanescence’s Will Hunt, Fuel’s Kevin Miller and Peter Keys from Lynyrd Skynyrd to come to the school to speak to the students and do a meet-and-greet.
“We’re trying to charge pretty much the same as any other place but give them a lot more; that’s the goal,” Hanson said. “We want to give them the culture. We want to give them fun opportunities. We want to give them movie nights. We want to let them meet famous artists. We want to give them everything we can afford to give them because some of the stuff we’re going to give them doesn’t cost money.”
Hanson believes in teaching the best methods available at the time, changing if the industry shifts. For example, Musicology will be using guitarist and music educator Troy Stetina’s music program and Carmine Appice’s drumming methodology.
“We’re taking the best of the best that we can find and utilizing their methodologies that are the most current,” Hanson said.
Musicians and their bands will be able to rehearse at Musicology, take lessons, learn the business and songwriting sides of the industry and simply be a part of a music community.
Hanson hopes to someday open multiple Musicology schools in other areas, including Tallahassee, opening avenues to music he wished he had as a child.
“That would really be the ultimate (dream), to go back to my hometown and be able to get back there, the place it all started,” he said.
