By Mabel Pais

The New Jersey Youth Chorus (NJYC) hosts two benefit concerts this month to raise community awareness and funds for local charities Oasis (oasisnj.org – a haven for women and children), on Saturday, February 11, and Matheny (matheny.org – a New Jersey-approved private school for children with disabilities) on Sunday, February 12.

The Heart to Heart Benefit Concert, featuring singers from NJYC’s Primo Coro and Coro Vivo ensembles, students from the Paterson Music Project, and members of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church choir, will take place on February 11 at 2:00 p.m. at St. Paul’s Church located at 451 Van Houten Street, Paterson. The Middle School Treble Choral Festival Kids for Kids Concert, featuring NJYC’s Sola Voce ensemble and area middle school choirs, will take place February 12 at 5:00 p.m. at Mt. Olive Middle School located at 160 Wolfe Road, Budd Lake.

TICKETS

Both concerts are free and open to the public with a free-will offering. For more information, visit WhartonArts.org.

In 2001, during NJYC’s 10th Anniversary Season, the youth choir adopted the philanthropic philosophy of “Kids for Kids” to teach choristers the importance of giving back to the community. The annual benefit concert has supported local charities including the Hugs for Brady Foundation, Casa of NJ, Goryeb Children’s Hospital, Relay for Life, Matthew Larson Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation, Brooke Healey Foundation, Team Campbell Foundation, and Good Grief, and more. In 2014, NJYC produced and distributed a CD entitled ‘Stand Together: Music for Hope and Healing,’ a project benefiting cancer patients in local hospitals.

Founded in 1992 by Trish Joyce, the New Jersey Youth Chorus is an auditioned choral program for children in grades three through twelve, divided into five performing ensembles. The Chorus, which joined Wharton Arts in July, performs frequently with professional ensembles including the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and Canadian Brass, among others.

Past highlights include performing at the White House for “Christmas at the White House, 2019,” with Queen Latifah at Super Bowl XLVIII, with six-time Grammy winner The Chieftains in NYC, with Barry Manilow at the Prudential Center, at the New Jersey State Theater’s Gala under both Oscar and Grammy award-winning composer Marvin Hamlisch and Bill Conti, with Ronan Tynan, at the Jimmy V Basketball Classic at Madison Square Garden, and multiple performances at Carnegie Hall. In addition, they have been a featured choir at regional and national music conferences and invited to perform the national anthem for several sports teams.

NJYC has participated in numerous festivals and tours to New Orleans, Hawaii, Canada, England, Italy, Ireland, Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Budapest, Vienna, and Wales. This summer, members of both high school ensembles, Coriste and Camerata, will tour Italy.

Wharton Arts

Wharton Arts’ mission is to offer accessible, high quality performing arts education that sparks personal growth and builds inclusive communities.Wharton Arts’ vision is for a transformative performing arts education in an inclusive community to be accessible for everyone.

Wharton Arts is located in Berkeley Heights, New Providence, and Paterson, NJ and reaches students from 12 counties. All of Wharton Arts’ extraordinary teaching artists, faculty members, and conductors hold degrees in their teaching specialty and have been vetted and trained to enable our students to achieve their personal best.

———————————

PMP WITH TATI HOSTS MUSIC TEACHER TRAINING EXPERIENCE

PMP-TATI Students. (Credit: Wharton Arts)

By Mabel Pais

The Paterson Music Project, New Jersey(PMP) one among five nonprofits across the US, was selected to host a tailored professional development teacher practicum. The Paterson Music Project (NJ) and Teaching Artists Training Institute (US) collaborate to offer a two-day professional development experience for music Teaching Artists across the Northeast. The Northeast Regional Practicum will be held February 16-17, 2023 in Paterson, NJ, with afternoon visits to Paterson Music Project’s after-school program sites.

Chosen as part of a national application process to host a Regional Practicum, the Paterson Music Project will partner with the Teaching Artists Training Institute (TATI) to help Teaching Artists across the Northeast, including CT, NJ, NY, PA, and MD, gain new skills and tools that directly support the continued growth of their teaching practice. “A majority of Teaching Artists working with community music programs have extensive music performance backgrounds, but don’t necessarily have experience working with students in classroom settings. Providing foundational training not only increases their confidence and success, but also builds a stronger network of support for their students,” shares Anna Barson, Managing Director of TATI.

Designed to be highly interactive, this Regional Practicum will provide hands-on workshops centered in classroom management, culturally responsive teaching, and youth voice and leadership by utilizing group discussions, problem-solving challenges, and peer networking. Practicum attendees will have the opportunity to learn from guest clinician, Alice Tsui, Founding Music Teacher at Brooklyn-based elementary school: ‘New Bridges.’ Alice is a GRAMMY-nominated music educator focused on “decolonizing, ABAR (anti-bias, anti-racist), abolitionist public music education and empowering the individual and collective voices of youth through music as expression.”

In addition, Practicum participants will visit Paterson Music Project’s after-school programming to tour and engage in teaching observations, implementing some of the newly learned classroom strategies, as well as giving and receiving peer feedback on their teaching practices. “I am excited that TATI will be providing high quality teaching artist training that is tailored specifically to the needs of music for social impact programs like PMP. Teaching Artists…often face similar challenges, so having an opportunity for them to come together and work on these challenges in a very practical way is invaluable.,” says Shanna Lin, Director of the Paterson Music Project.

Registration for the Northeast Regional Practicum is open now through February 1st for any music Teaching Artist working with a community music or El Sistema-inspired program in the Northeast region. For more information, visit tatraininginstitute.org/northeast-practicum. About Teaching Artists Training Institute: Founded in 2020 the Teaching Artists Training Institute (TATI) believes that transformational music education starts with transformational training for teachers. For more information, visit tatraininginstitute.org.

About Paterson Music Project: The Paterson Music Project (PMP) is a program of Wharton Arts that empowers children to achieve their full potential through the joyful pursuit of musical excellence. For more information, visit whartonarts.org/programs/paterson-music-project.

(Mabel Pais writes on The Arts and Entertainment, Social Issues, Health & Wellness, Cuisine and Spirituality)