Connecting Through Rhythm: The Language of the Heart

A film about World Music Week 2021 at The Chicago HS for the Arts

World Music Week Description:

With funding provided by the U.S. State Department's Alumni World TIES to Fulbright Fellow, Dr. Julie Koidin, 19 instrumental students from the Chicago High School for the Arts ["ChiArts"] embarked on a whirlwind cultural immersion experience during the challenging Covid-19 pandemic. For a period of one week (March 22-26, 2021), professional musicians from Brazil, New York, Austin, and Chicago worked remotely with ChiArts' students, presenting Brazilian choro's history, performance practice, and social and cultural tenets through daily classes and recording sessions (on the Soundtrap platform). One of the significant goals of the project was to introduce students to not only a new musical genre, but to new paths of communication and cultural understanding through music and its culture bearers.

The teaching faculty were Vitor Gonçalves (Music Director, NYC/Brazil); Julie Koidin (woodwinds and brass, Austin/Chicago); and members of the Chicago Choro Club: Heitor Garcia (percussion, Chicago/Brazil); Marcel Bonfim (strings, Chicago/Brazil); and John Beard (guitar, Chicago/Manchester, England).

Dr. Sarah Bartolome, Associate Professor of Music Education and Fulbright Fellow, and her doctoral student, Diego Pinto developed daily exit questionnaires for the students. These surveys asked for students' reflections on each day’s activities including their perceived growth as they proceeded through the program.

Dr. David Rosenwasser (Fulbright Fellow) is the project's marketing director and guitarist/composer Ricardo Vieira (Brazil), arranged the music.

Rachel Choice, the project's film editor and director, recorded over 50 hours of classes and interviews, resulting in both a trailer and documentary film - both are linked below.