3rd Annual "We Are One Jazz Project" in Concert

Jazz great Barry Harris joins TDSB students in concert Thursday

All About Jazz Online Report, January 25, 2011

 

Founder and Director Howard Rees, proudly presents a creative and timely solution to the issue of disappearing arts programs in schools. After four months of weekly rehearsals in Scarborough Junior Public Schools, they invite you to witness how the power & beauty of Jazz ignites change in young lives.

 

In the 3rd year of our mandate, this ambitious program brings together internationally acclaimed Jazz master Barry Harris; special guest soloist Charles McPherson; the We Are One Big Band; the North Toronto CI Senior Strings; St. Joseph's College School Jazz Choir; the Toronto Jazz Chorus and the Howard Rees Trio, supporting the project's centerpiece—a 250 voice children's choir representing elementary schools in North Scarborough.

 

“There is tremendous excitement surrounding this project”, says Toronto based Rees, director of Howard Rees' Jazz Workshops. “This community building event, which provides Toronto with an important 'good news' story, empowers its participants while offering them insight into the beauty and power of jazz music."

 

“We realize that the current lack of school funding for the arts is a multi-layered issue”, Rees continues. “While everyone enjoys the performance, appreciation of the artistic process is often lacking. This treatment of the arts is not only shortsighted as it fails to secure and nurture a place for the arts in our educational system, but it comes at a point in time when the irreplaceable knowledge and wisdom of master musicians is leaving us at a rate far greater than it is being replaced."

 

Rees adds, “The apprenticeship model—itself an almost lost art, is what we are offering here. An invaluable learning experience that is at once beneficial for the student, who gets to work directly with a master musician and for the master musician, who gets to impart a lifetime of knowledge. This is qualitatively different from text-book based learning in a classroom." At the conclusion of this years' project, Dr. Harris will have visited the project on four occasions, traveling to Toronto from New York to inspire and guide the students.

 

As for the music—make no mistake—these are not simple children's songs. The ensemble will be performing a selection of Barry Harris' orchestral works rich in the melodic beauty and harmonic complexities that has made Dr. Harris one of the most celebrated voices in jazz.

 

In Concert at the Toronto Centre for the Arts. January 28th, 2011. 7pm

 

Original Article: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=74599

 

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Project Partner
Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board
Lead Sponsors
Lead Sponsors Telus Mobility Black Artists' Networks Dialogue TD Canada Trust
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