SONG AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

This program is the Educational Outreach Project of Joy In Singing and was launched in 2002 with the expressed purpose of introducing classical art song to young children from kindergarten to eleven years old. Concerned educators, scholars and parents have written extensively on the profound importance and ramifications of a child's exposure to the arts. In these difficult times, however, we have also taken as our watchword the sentiments of Leonard Bernstein:

"Our response to violence is to make music more beautifully and more intensely than ever."

What are we offering to the school?

We are offering a demonstration of classical art song for the equivalent of a school period, which is about 43 minutes. Each demonstration is presented to a single class of no more than 35 students. A classical singer and pianist, whose program has been approved by the committee, introduces three to four songs in one of five languages chosen by the school.

The children are encouraged to listen sensitively and are asked to interpret emotion merely by sound, to speak as many words of the presentation language as possible and, of course, to sing. When possible, songs are chosen that have a dance component so that another dimension of music can be internalized. A brief history of art song is given and an explanation of why we are exposing them to this genre. At the end, we serve a dessert that is consonant with the culture involved.

The project is offered at no cost to the school.

What we have accomplished thus far

Since our inception, Song as a Second Language has performed classical art song for over 1200 students ranging in age from seven to 12 years. The classes have been presented by professional singers and pianists in French, German and Italian, and were performed in New York, Pennsylvania and Florida. The classes were reviewed four times in local newspapers and were taped and aired on cable TV channel 22 for two weeks. Nine schools are five singer/pianist duos participated.