In Garner Saguil’s 4th grade Seminar class at Dingeman Elementary, music is part of the curriculum. In just the first two weeks of school this year, the students had learned to tune their ukuleles and play three chords. Recently, the students of Room B9 have had some special visitors that inspired their music-making: two recording artists who are alumni of Dingeman Elementary. In fact, during their time at Dingeman, the two were Seminar students of Mr. Saguil’s, performing in classroom musicals as well as the Dingeman Choir.

The first alum to visit virtually was Daniel Jay Woods, who also attended SDSCPA. He has been releasing music on Spotify since 2016. A few weeks later, the class had a second guest - Elyssa Camerino, who Zoomed in all the way from Germany. Her first mini-album was in 2019 under the name Elyssa Isaac. Both artists played guitar and sang for the class. Bringing in the guest artists was integral to ‘motivate my kids to keep practicing their music through distance learning,’ says teacher Garner Saguil, also noting that ‘both have incredible voices and are passionate with their music.’ He looks forward to having others musicians come in - not necessarily just those who have produced albums, but former students who are just enjoying music for fun.