We live in an activated and inspired world with endless examples of humanity. Music and art give us the opportunity to add space and time to our understanding of the human experience, but so much of this artistic expression is limited by high entry levels. Further, while standard beginner repertoire gives the opportunity for vocal development, it lacks modern themes and students are left re-imagining the stories or even changing text to perform it authentically. How amazing would it be to create an anthology of new music intended for young voices using the text of inspiring youthful voices?

Enter, The Young Activists’ Songbook: An anthology of new works for young voices. In collaboration with the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts (RASOTA) in San Francisco and Kids & Art Healing Pediatric Center, Concert Rebels is commissioning new works to be performed by the Vocal & Piano Department at RASOTA under the direction of Michael Desnoyers! This project will give students the opportunity to work with operatic activist Chelsea Hollow and professional composers to premiere brand new works composed especially for their voices. We will develop authentic text song delivery in addition to vocal technique and art song performance traditions.

Please click here to donate directly to the project, to help us continue to provide opportunities to raise the voices of our students! Much of our text for this project comes from Because This City: An Oakland All-Town Poem. Please visit them for more details about their wonderful project at: http://www.chapter510.org/writeyourroots