Center for Musical Development and Wellness announces it's Summer Music Program will be offered again for the second year in 2017! Sponsored by the Jazz and Heritage Foundation and individuals like you, this program allows highly motivated young musicians to gain experience playing together in an ensemble. While the focus on piano ensures a solid foundation in music theory, harmony, and accompanying, participants explore techniques and sound effects of a variety of instruments to develop aural skills and create their own unique orchestrations to favorite songs. The program features master classes with New Orleans' own world-class local musicians and concludes with a community performance. Participants also work collaboratively to co-produce a music video highlighting their summer experiences and co-design the T-shirt for the following year.

Thanks so much to all who came out to explore our "Instrument Petting Zoo," co-facilitated by our Youth Trio Ensemble. Following their superb debut performance, the ensemble members really got the crowd excited and involved - kids and grown-ups alike! We explored the sounds of all the percussion instruments we played in the concert an more, including maracas, din-din drums, castanets, djembe, and kalimba, along with a wooden tongue drum shared by an audience member (and actually hand-made by another friend in the audience)!

Following a bit of Q&A and exploration, the audience joined in for an improvisatory jam session! Musicians and non-musicians alike were surprised how quickly they got into the groove!

At the end of the show, we were treated to a surprise pizza party - how perfect was that!? However, while many went straight for the dough, others stayed behind to browse information on the instruments and have fun coloring animal friends playing it cool - like the gecko on the glockenspiel, meerkat on the maracas and more)!

​​Thus, our Instrument Petting Zoo - tons of fun and participation for everyone!
Many thanks to Good Shepherd Lutheran Church for hosting our Instrument Zoo and pizza party; to our sponsors (NOYEC, DME, Little Caesar's Pizza, and individual contributors); to everyone who came out to support the event; and to friends near and far who could not attend.

See you at the next one!
Miss April

Our Summer Youth Music Program was a huge success! 

We assembled a talented trio ensemble of young musicians ages 9-12yrs who learned or improved keyboard, percussion, and vocal techniques and performed in our well-attended presentation of "Instrument Zoo!"

The young musicians - already talented singers - worked hard to learn new instruments, techniques and concepts in just 5 sessions. Don't get me wrong - we had plenty of fun too! Each session began with improvisation on our favorite percussion instruments and ended with snacks and crafts, including decorating the t-shirts we would wear in the performance. Lessons and rehearsals happened somewhere in the middle, but playing and singing together and creating our own music felt more like an adventure. As I like to say, time flies when learning is fun!

​The day of the performance, the 6th session, the kids were cool, calm and collected - total professionals! The "house" was packed to capacity, and everyone loved the beautiful