BroadwayBoundAK: ACPA Creates Competition to Bring Alaskan Youth to Broadway’s Hamilton by ACSA Staff

Bring Alaska students to the room where it happens!

Starting this summer, the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts (ACPA) and Broadway Alaska are bringing some of Broadway’s biggest hits to an Alaskan audience with runs of four major shows in Anchorage. This first show is the smash-hit HAMILTON.

As a way to create opportunities for youth around Alaska to attend Hamilton and get to know more about Broadway productions, ACPA is partnering with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and HAMILTON on an Alaskan specific, statewide competition for students in rising grades 7-12 to submit a HAMILTON-inspired 2-minute video or 2-page written piece showcasing their original work. Continue reading BroadwayBoundAK: ACPA Creates Competition to Bring Alaskan Youth to Broadway’s Hamilton by ACSA Staff

‘Haa Tóo Yéi Yatee Haa Yoo X̱ʼatángi: Our Language is Inside Us – Juneau Alaska Music Matters (JAMM) Resilience Project’ by JAMM Staff

Student participants and Athabascan songster Yuxgitsiy George Holly developing songs for the JAMM resilience project.

Juneau Alaska Music Matters‘ (JAMM) resilience project is a series of two Língit songs, Daaḵ Nadéin (“the tide is coming in”) and Yánde Kg̱waláa (“the tide is going to go out”), inspired by conversations with Língit elders and JAMM students. These songs are presented in a music video project that brought together students, staff, musicians, dancers, and elders, showing the rich diversity of Juneauʼs culture and showcasing efforts of multiple organizations in Southeast Alaska to revitalize the Língit language before it is lost forever. This project was filmed both at JAMM school sites and throughout Juneau, home of the Áak’w Kwáan  people. Continue reading ‘Haa Tóo Yéi Yatee Haa Yoo X̱ʼatángi: Our Language is Inside Us – Juneau Alaska Music Matters (JAMM) Resilience Project’ by JAMM Staff

‘Preludes Program Brings Huge Benefits to the Paul Banks School’ by Sam Jordan at ASDN

For the past three years, students at the Paul Banks K-2nd Elementary School in Homer, Alaska have been spending part of their school week learning to play violin. The ‘Paul Banks Preludes’ program was inspired by the JAMM music program in Juneau, which itself was inspired by the El Sistema music program in Venezuela. Kindergarten and 1st grade students have violin sessions three times per week, while 2nd graders have optional after school sessions twice per week. The program is open to every student, including those with special needs.

Continue reading ‘Preludes Program Brings Huge Benefits to the Paul Banks School’ by Sam Jordan at ASDN

‘Is Maith Leis a Bheith Ag Seinm Ceol!’ (Irish Gaelic for ‘I like to play music’) by Valdez City Schools Superintendent Shawn Arnold and Sam Jordan at ASDN

Valdez City Schools students perform as part of the Dublin Choir Festival

Thirteen Valdez High School students, three teachers, and a number of family members recently returned from the Dublin Choral Festival in Ireland.  The group toured with Music Contact International for a seven-day experience full of music, culture, art, history, and architecture.  During the tour students visited monastic ruins in the Irish hills, toured the Edwardian inspired Dublin Castle built atop medieval ruins and experienced the levity and local flair of a century old pub. Continue reading ‘Is Maith Leis a Bheith Ag Seinm Ceol!’ (Irish Gaelic for ‘I like to play music’) by Valdez City Schools Superintendent Shawn Arnold and Sam Jordan at ASDN

‘Violins, Trumpets, Flutes, Bassoons, Cellos…and Recorders!’ by Taylor Young, Music Teacher in Juneau Public Schools

Our Alaskan Schools blog

Violins, trumpets, flutes, bassoons, cellos…and recorders! In January 2019, all fourth and fifth grade students in the Juneau School District attended the annual ‘Music in the Schools’ concert, sponsored by the Juneau Symphony and Any Given Child. This year, some 800 students were bused to Juneau-Douglas High School for an interactive concert inspired by a special curriculum developed by Carnegie Hall’s Link Up program. Continue reading ‘Violins, Trumpets, Flutes, Bassoons, Cellos…and Recorders!’ by Taylor Young, Music Teacher in Juneau Public Schools