Thursday, December 12, 2024
The Uniondale school district and Symphonic Pops of Long Island orchestra partnered over the last year to feature the music of underrepresented Latin artists, which culminated in a big performance at Uniondale High School.
“This year, the Symphonic Pops sought to partner with the Uniondale School District because of our long-standing reputation for diversity in the arts and for an opportunity to collaborate with our renowned Rhythm of the Knight Show Choir,” Kelvin Jenkins, Uniondale school district’s Director of Fine and Performing Arts, said. “This proved to be a most rewarding experience for our students of Latin heritage and our vast demographic population of students, staff, and community.”
The orchestra and show choir gave a combined performance on Nov. 8, which gave students “a valuable platform to perform alongside experienced musicians,” Jenkins said.
At the “Sabor Sinfónico” concert, the orchestra and choir collaborated to showcase a variety of compositions, including Latin jazz, Brazilian music, Dominican folk, a Spanish opera and choral music from a Colombian composer. They closed the set with the opening number from “In the Heights,” the play by Lin-Manuel Miranda set in Washington Heights.
“We were able to represent Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Brazil and the United States in one concert, which was really gratifying,” Taylor Massey, orchestra conductor, said.
The partnership and culminating concert came from a grant awarded as a part of the Statewide Community Regrant program through the Huntington Arts Council. The purpose of the grant is “to have a community impact with a focus on underrepresented and underresourced communities,” Patty Eljaiek, Long Island Grant for the Arts Coordinator for the Huntington Arts Council, said.
“They really did the work of reaching out into the community and providing something for them that was needed and that they enjoyed,” Eljaiek said about the orchestra. “So I think they really did a great job of listening to their community.”
The Symphonic Pops of Long Island is a nonprofit orchestra encompassed of “retired professionals, retired educators or just hobbyists who stuck with music or people who picked it up,” Massey explained. He said the orchestra enjoyed working with the “excellent” and “award winning” show choir.
“They just had such a strong work ethic and appetite for new things,” he said.
Massey said his two priorities for the experience were “a good experience for the musicians, to include the student musicians as well as the orchestra members” and to “really do honor to the people’s music that we’re playing.”
“The mission was very worthwhile, and it seemed like the audience really (loved) the orchestra,” he said.
