What do you think Hill School students would choose to write a song about? A love of nature? The problem of homelessness? Or maybe April Fool’s Day? If those are your guesses, you have correctly identified the topics that got the creative juices flowing in the 8th grade, 6th grade, and 3rd grade when those students recently spent several class periods working with the professional musicians of Kid Pan Alley.
The mission of Kid Pan Alley is “to inspire and empower children to work together to become creators of their own music and to rekindle creativity as a core value in education,” and their programs are “designed to promote teamwork, inspire creative thinking and expression, hone performance skills and self confidence, build vocabulary,
encourage respect for intellectual property and help children tie personal experience to what’s happening in the world around them.”
At Hill, a lyricist and musician coached the students to create songs that are meaningful to them. The children participated in a creative process and learned how a song is born. For each participating grade, these sessions were interesting, engaging, and tremendous fun.
If you would like a copy of the recording of any or all of the songs, please contact Dorsey deButts at ddebutts@thehillschool.org. Learn more about
Kid Pan Alley.
