CORRECTION TO THE PRESS RELEASE: Admission to both events is pay as you wish; $10 suggested donation per family. These funds will support the work of the PTA, including their music and art programs.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
On Friday-Saturday, May 11-12, 2018, the P.S. 130 PTA will present its fourth annual Music Festival. This year's festival WEEKEND CELEBRATION consists of two events:
- a concert on Friday, May 11th, featuring parent performers playing music representative of the cultural diversity of our community
- and, on Saturday, May 12th, LaFrae Sci & Sonic Black, an interactive workshop and educational performance celebrating African–American history, jazz, the blues, and improvisation.
Both events are open to the public. Admission is free for all. These family-friendly events will be presented in P.S. 130's multi-use Auditorium in the 713 Caton Avenue Upper School building.
With musical styles ranging from Appalachian to Latin, traditional Hebrew song to Russian folk, rock and R&B to jazz, reggae, and musical theater, the P.S. 130 Music Festival will be a musical celebration of our diverse neighborhood and school community.
The May 11th Festival Parent Performance line-up will feature P.S. 130 parent and faculty performers, both professional and amateur musicians, including:
- JD Allen, Elijah Allen, Gael Allen, Jacob Arnold, Alex Basson, Allieson Book, Graham Brice, JD Davids, Debbie Deane, Michael Devellis, Aleksandra Kameneva, Josh Levine, Christine Long Gabel, Emma Graves, Paul LaPlaca, Joe Maximo, Larry May, Susan May, and
- Jill Montagna, John Montagna, Gretchen Nealon, Robby O'Sullivan, Bennett Paster, Don Rodríguez Gómez Rosa, LaFrae Sci, Simeon Seigel, Ben Struck, Deidre Rodman Struck, Eleanor Taylor, Philippa Thompson, Carol Wei, Jim Whitney, and Eldad Zvulun, plus guest house drummer Scott Neumann.
Master drummer/educator LAFRAE SCI returns to P.S. 130 to perform with her quartet SONIC BLACK after her successful teaching visit this past February. She worked with P.S. 130's 5th Grade students, enriching their Great Migration unit with a hands-on study of the blues.
Each class wrote its own blues song, some of which will be performed by the students, accompanied by Sonic Black, at this event.
Sci will be joined by longtime bandmates Greg Lewis : Hammond B3, Lakecia Benjamin : Sax, and Queen Esther : Vox.
LaFrae Sci is an internationally sought-after composer, drummer, and educator who teaches at Jazz at Lincoln Center and is also a founding teaching member of the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls in New York City.
As a Cultural Ambassador for the U.S. State Department, she has taught master classes and performed in more than thirty countries. This experience led LaFrae to develop and launch the NGO Groove Diplomacy, whose mission is to create youth engagement programs internationally using musical expression as a vehicle to empower, ignite, heal, and create mutual understanding.
LaFrae’s band, Sonic Black, is an educational collective that creates interactive presentations focusing on the genius of the Black American musical contribution to U.S. and world history.
P.S. 130 is a public elementary school serving over 700 students in Kensington and Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn. Its students come from dozens of countries, speak over twenty-two languages, and embody a myriad of ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds. It is the most ethnically and racially diverse school in Brooklyn’s District 15.
The P.S. 130 PTA Music Committee supports music education at the school and brings visiting artists directly into classrooms. This year's roster of visiting high-profile teaching artists includes JD Allen, LaFrae Sci, Martha Redbone, Min Xiao-Fen, and Michael Hearst plus presentations by parent musicians.
P.S. 130 teaches music in the classroom as an essential part of its mission. The school has two music teachers on its faculty. All students receive general music instruction, including three years of keyboard study, recorder study, and music fundamentals; electives include guitar club and band.
The Upper School building also includes a music suite with a band room and two practice rooms. To equip these rooms, in 2015 , the school received three new pianos and a complete collection of new band and rhythm section instruments from the New York City Department of Education.
Admission to both events is free to all, but donations to the P.S. 130 PTA will be graciously accepted. These funds will support the work of the PTA, including its music and art programs.
P.S. 130 Music Festival: Parent Performance
Friday, May 11th
6:15 p.m.
LaFrae Sci & Sonic Black: Workshop and Performance
Saturday, May 12th
11:00 a.m.
P.S. 130 Upper School Auditorium
713 Caton Avenue
between E. 7th and E. 8th streets
Admission is free and open to the public. All donations will benefit the P.S. 130 PTA.
www.ps130pta.org
info @ ps130pta.org