Kid Pan Alley Concert at Rappahannock Elementary

We just wanted to thank the entire Rappahannock Elementary School community for its wonderful support for the Kid Pan Alley residency at the school this year. This is what we did this year:

· Wrote 10 songs with more than 200 children at RCES, Hearthstone and Belle Meade;

· Performed the songs for more than 700 people in an afternoon school concert at RCES;

· Performed in an evening community concert for 500 people at RCES;

· Presented a workshop for teachers on the use of Kid Pan Alley techniques in the classroom, and;

· Presented our character-development assembly program, Stand Up and Be Heard, One Little Song Can Change the World, for the entire school. This program features songs we’ve written with kids across the country that deal with issues of respect from the point of view of the children themselves.

Kid Pan Alley started right here in Rappahannock in 1999 and has since spread throughout the country. It started here thanks to the vision of Sharon Wyrrick, Joy Rollins and Harriette Rosenblatt. Each year, when we return to Rappahannock for a residency, Joy and Harriette are the ones who are guiding the project.

We’d like to thank Carol Johnson, Dr. Chappell, Martha Kidwell, Susan Hoffman, Whyla Beaman, Jill Duvall, Anita Sherman, Victoria Gladstone, Ray Boc, Jane Mullan, Frances Miller, Gary Kirby and all the teachers and staff that helped put this together.

It was a rocking night of music with the Kid Pan Alley band: Terri Allard, Paul Reisler, Nate Brown, Steve van Dam, Smiggy Smith, Ben Mason, Linda Orfila, Kelsa Settle and all the kids.

Though more than 60 percent of the funding for this program comes from outside the community from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, it’s the sponsorship of our local organizations and donors that make it happen: Headwaters, Rappahannock Association for the Arts in the Community, the Curriculum Enrichment Fund, Kid Pan Alley, the Darby Foundation and the support of individuals.

So thanks to all of you and especially the children of Rappahannock, who once again inspire me and remind me the purpose of music and why I do it.