BPS Students Share Music, Dancing & Opportunities

Last Friday, we gathered 3-5th grade students from our Boston Public School partners (Philbrick, Edison and Winthrop elementary schools) for a special concert at Boston’s Roland Hayes School of Music. The goal was to link the  elementary students who have participated in our three year program, Turn it Up!, funded by the Wallace Foundation, with opportunities to study music within the Boston Public Schools as they enter high school.

High school students from Roland Hayes School of Music and Boston Arts Academy performed a variety of music – a solo vocalist, young men’s choir, solo pianists, and a superb steel drum band – for about 160 students, faculty, and a few parents. There was a pre-concert tour of the Roland Hayes School for the entire audience led by four Roland Hayes students, as well as a Q&A session following the concert.

Two of our four From the Top/NEC Fellows Audrey Wright and Irineo Cabreros, who have been leading sectionals and providing inspiration for these budding young elementary school students, were on hand to join in on the event. In fact, Audrey planned the entire concert!

“We were as excited and inspired by the performance as the rest of the audience,” says Audrey.

And who wouldn’t be, with teachers, elementary kids, and high-schoolers all dancing together during the steel drum band’s finale of Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie”?

After the concert, there were some great questions, and a few kids even asked about the schedule at Roland Hayes School and how they could attend. One parent commented that since From the Top started visiting her school, her son has enjoyed listening and watching our shows and looks forward to the live radio tapings he’s been invited to attend at NEC’s Jordan Hall thanks to this partnership.