The Virtual School Song Project
As a winner of the 2020 New England Conservatory Entrepreneurship Grant, I started the Virtual School Song Project at Dogwood Elementary in Reston, Virginia, my hometown.
The program consists of two virtual assemblies with 5th and 6th grade students. The first session involves teaching basic composition techniques and its integration into the online composition tool “Noteflight”.
The second session includes instrument demonstrations by four brass players. Students are then aided in composing short chamber pieces to be recorded by the brass musicians and circulated in the community.
This project is an expression of gratitude for my musical upbringing in Virginia. Giving students at a Title 1 Public Elementary School the ability to create music to be performed by professional musicians (who are also Northern Virginia Natives) is an opportunity to build school-wide community and music engagement in the virtual era.
The founding principles of this project have continued into my work in new educational spaces. In February 2023, I partnetred with the Rotella Magnet School in CT as a traching arttist for Arts For Learning Connecticut.
The residency included 3 30-minute sessions for each of the 4 1st grade classes.
In the first session, wee learned about rhythmic notation by counting words and syllables in student-written SEL-focused phrases. In the second session, we then incorporated contour and musical pitch by creating gestures with string and drawing shapes on empty staffs.
Lastly, each student notated a musical line of pitched eighth and quarter notes for all six phrases.
The final product above includes a combination of student submissions; it was such a gift to see each child's creation. I believe that composition is a great way to incorporate independence, confidence, and social-emotional learning into music literacy.