Ending on a Happy Note!
Recognizing the increased need for joyful music-making during the time of remote learning, S’Cool Sounds expanded our teaching model in 2020 from in-person teaching to video-based residencies supported by live, remote lessons with our talented Teaching Artists.
We offered these video-based courses free to all public schools, along with free instruments. Schools were invited to add live, remote lessons to their residencies at highly subsidized rates. This flexible model has proved popular with schools struggling with slashed budgets, teacher shortages, and huge scheduling and logistical challenges.
Our Music in the Schools: NYC program expanded dramatically, and we now work with 27 public school partners and 2 nonprofits providing free after-school programs (Queens Community House and Washington Heights Choir School). These new partnerships allowed us to serve over 7,100 students, providing an average of 15 hours of music education to each student. More than 1,000 2nd and 3rd graders learned to play recorder with us, and we sent 900 free instruments to students’ homes to support those efforts.
Our newest course, Alegría Musical: Latin American Stories, reached 1,000 students and received very enthusiastic responses to the charming, bilingual puppet narrators, Pepe and Tito! Created by two of our SCS teaching artists, Juan Trujillo and Hery Paz, Alegria Musical teaches rhythm and percussion to K-3rd graders as well as the historical and cultural contexts of musical traditions from Latin American countries. As with all our courses, student excitement drove the design. As an example, Juan and Hery intended to focus a Dominican Republic unit on merengue, but shifted when they noticed how energized students were to explore bachata, a modern musical style that fuses Spanish guitar influences with Indigenous and African music. One teacher wrote of their last class, “my students surprised Mr. Paz with a musical presentation. Students performed the musical beats from the different countries we studied. One student also performed a cultural dance. It was very emotional for the students to say goodbye.”
Hery wrote, “it was so rewarding to create and teach this class. The kids really connected with their roots and their Latin American culture. They all showed me the music they listen to. There was a class where seven different kids showed me their favorite bachatas.”
New Summer Programs:
As we wrap up the school year, we turn our attention to Summer Rising, NYC's free summer learning program. Supporting programs in Queens and Staten Island, we will be offering a three-course combination program, which includes Build and Play a Drum, Musical Time Machine, and our newest course created by Teaching Artist Evan Harris, New York Stories. Students will build drums out of materials they bring from home and then learn to play music centered around rhythms from the Caribbean and African countries. In The Musical Time Machine, children will travel the world and through centuries to explore music from different eras. We can't wait to release New York Stories as Evan takes students across New York as they learn about different cultures and musical traditions.
Video of the Week
Our students put on a great performance at Engaging Communities: Recorders Beyond Borders on June 12th! Watch an inspiring video of students from across the United States performing "Quen a Omagen," a medieval song, and "Malaika," a Swahili love song. A special thank you to Boston Early Music Festival for presenting this event!
Link to "Recorders Beyond Borders: U.S. Students perform 'Quen a Omagen' and 'Malaika.'"
Community Member Highlight
The COVID-19 pandemic brought unforeseen challenges into the schools and homes of NYC children. Schools struggled with student engagement, attendance, hybrid and remote schooling, and so many other obstacles. S'Cool Sounds sought to continue our mission of bringing joyful music-making into the lives of NYC children.
Our mission cannot be achieved without the incredible dedication of faculty members at partner schools. Topaz Arthur, Community School Director at United Comunity Schools, was instrumental in coordinating enrichment programs such as ours with the school curriculum and classroom teachers at P.S. 30M. SCS Teaching Artist Juan Trujillo worked with grades K-5 for 20 weeks offering Jazz and the World of Black American Music, Alegría Musical: Latin American Stories, and The Musical Time Machine.
Topaz writes, "As a community school, a goal is to improve school-wide attendance and decrease chronic absenteeism. P.S. 30M started the 2020-21 school year with a school-wide attendance of 64% and chronic absenteeism rate of 65%. We leveraged our programmatic partners such as S’Cool Sounds with the hopes that enrichment will incentivize students to attend school. S’Cool Sounds was the only partner that had the capacity to start programming in January 2021. We are concluding the school year with a school-wide attendance of 85% and decreased chronic absenteeism by 21 percent!"
Thank you, Topaz, for your ongoing dedication and support.