Marcus Blackwell is a classical and jazz pianist who was also inspired by the church. "Attending church and participating in music ministry was central to my musical development. Through these experiences, I developed the ability to play gospel music on the piano from only listening to it and also learned how to play the organ" Additionally, as a child, Blackwell showcased a strong proficiency in mathematics. He would eventually parlay this love for math into aa mathematics major at Morehouse College, however this did come with hesitation. "Although I was talented and excelled in math in school, I was hesitant to major in math at Morehouse. My hesitation came from a personal intimidation of the subject. It was always implied that math was a subject to be feared and not embraced. However, during my first year I read 'The Eight' by Katherine Neville, that described a pianist composing a musical piece from math movements of a chess game. This was interesting to me and I believed that I could make a similar connection between math and music, but I would need the math background to do it. So I decided to go for it and major in math." Blackwell graduated from Morehouse College with a B.S. in Mathematics and worked for GE Energy as a Lead Modeling Analyst while serving as the Music Director and pianist at Elizabeth Baptist Church. However, after three years with GE Energy and EBC, he knew he was ready to transition and begin fulfilling his dream of creating the "Make Music Count" program. Today, the Make Music Count program is an app being used in schools as a supplement in math and music class during the school day, as an enrichment after school, and at home as a method that can break down the barrier that prevents students from learning math. "In my curriculum, math is immediately seen as fun because the end result after solving a math equation is playing music."