This season, more than 4,000 1st and 2nd graders will experience the joy of making music while also exploring the diverse cultures and neighborhoods found in New York City through Musical Explorers: My City, My Song, a new yearlong school program developed by The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall.

The My City, My Song curriculum introduces students to the stories of three local musicians each semester. This fall, featured musicians are Gregory Rahming, a classically-trained opera and gospel singer from Harlem; Falu, an Indian vocalist from Manhattan’s Little India; and Anne-Marie Hildebrandt, an Irish musician from Woodside, Queens. Yearlong curriculum-based activities in the classroom explore the rich musical traditions found in each of the three artists’ communities, while inviting kids to make music of their own, using the instrument we are all born with—the voice. In the program, students learn songs from the different cultures and traditions, examine how music can tell stories and bring communities together, and experiment with the sounds of different languages and vocal techniques such as the ornamentation heard in traditional Indian music.

At the start of each semester, teachers from this year’s participating 22 public schools, 6 private schools, and 2 charter schools—all from New York City and the surrounding area—attend activity-based Professional Development Workshops based on the curriculum, and then implement the program in their classrooms using Carnegie Hall-designed and provided materials. Through classroom lessons and activities, students then learn the stories of Rahming, Falu, and Hildebrandt as well as their neighborhoods and daily lives, in addition to learning basic music fundamentals such as melodic contour and scales, age-appropriate vocal technique, and rhythms. Students are encouraged to make connections with the artists’ lives by sharing details about themselves and their own New York City communities, writing postcards to the artists throughout the year.

Students will attend two interactive concerts in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall during the school year—one in the fall and one in the spring. Concerts presented from November 18–21 will feature Rahming, Falu, and Hildebrandt performing their own music and then coming together to perform a single culminating work, which provides an opportunity for students to experience firsthand how different communities and people can unite through song. Concerts presented from May 5–8 will feature three new artists from New York City, each representing a different vocal tradition, including Eastern European, classical voice, and South African.

The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall
The Weill Music Institute creates wide-reaching music education programs that play a central role in Carnegie Hall’s commitment to making great music accessible to as many people as possible. With its access to the world’s greatest artists and latest technologies, The Weill Music Institute is uniquely positioned to inspire the next generation of music lovers, nurture tomorrow’s musical talent, and contribute to the evolution of music education itself. Its educational programs are woven into the fabric of the Carnegie Hall concert season, serving over 115,000 children, students, teachers, parents, young music professionals, and adults in New York City metropolitan area, across the United States, and around the world annually. The Weill Music Institute’s school-based programs alone reach over 50,000 New York City and area public school students each year.

The Weill Music Institute’s Family Concerts at Carnegie Hall and free Neighborhood Concerts in all five boroughs bring music to thousands within the greater New York City community each year. School-based programs provide sequential, in-depth music education curriculum for pre-school through kindergarten-age children (The McGraw-Hill Companies CarnegieKids); grades 1–2 (Musical Explorers), grades 3–5 (LinkUP!), middle school (Perelman American Roots), and high school (Citi Global Encounters and Global Encounters: Cultural Exchange). Professional Training Workshops connect emerging young musicians with internationally renowned artists. The Academy—a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and The Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education—provides extensive performance opportunities and intensive music education training in an innovative two-year fellowship for post-graduate musicians. The Weill Music Institute also brings its educational programs to national and international audiences, using web-based and distance-learning technology.

Program Information
Tuesday, November 18 through Friday, November 21
10:15 a.m and 11:45 a.m. (2 performances each day)
Zankel Hall
MUSICAL EXPLORERS: MY CITY, MY SONG
Falu, Vocals
   Gaurav Shah, Vocals
   Borahm Lee, Keyboard
   Satyan Shah, Tablas
Anne-Marie Hildebrandt, Vocals, Piano, and Bodhrán
Gregory Rahming, Baritone
Shane Schag, Accompanist

No general admission tickets available. This event is for students enrolled in the Musical Explorers program.

Sponsored by Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP

Musical Explorers is supported, in part, by the Marma Foundation Fund for Youth Education.

Bank of America is the Proud Season Sponsor of Carnegie Hall.

Images at top of release by Stefan Cohen.