Imagine growing up among music royalty, the guitar-string makers to the stars. These days, the roll call of artists using D’Addario strings includes the likes of Keith Urban, Dave Matthews, Joe Satriani, Al Di Meola, Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits — and if you’ve got a few hours, we could supply you a list of hundreds more. Is it fair to say that the D’Addario family — which has been at this string-making thing since at least the 1680s — changed popular music history for good? Let’s put it this way: It would be unfair to say they didn’t.

And yet Suzanne D’Addario Brouder isn’t one to rest on her family’s laurels. Whatever share of the spotlight she could claim she directs instead toward the children, volunteers and organizations that inspire her work with the Brooklyn-based D’Addario Foundation. As director, she works to support the most effective organizations fighting to improve access to music education.