Dear parents,
I'm thrilled to invite you to our annual ICE Music Department Fundraiser Concert at DROM, this Sunday, June 2nd at 3pm! Please don't miss this opportunity to support our department, and see students, teachers and former students perform. Peter Karp will play with his rock band (yep, the principal is a great rock drummer!), I will perform with the genius Roy Nathanson (founder of this program), Isaiah Barr (former ICE student) will play with his amazing Onyx Collective band, there will be performances by two ICE jazz ensembles, and the songwriting elective will present their most recent original compositions.
The ICE Music Dept provides a music education to 170 students every year. We offer free instruments to all saxophone, trumpet and trombone players, and provide guitars, basses, drums, amplifiers and keyboards to the students to be able to rehearse. We purchase these instruments and we pay to repair them. We have a recording studio that is used to record albums (check out the new Free Basement album!) and as a rehearsal space. ICE also employs seven music teachers to make sure that Middle School Jazz Big Band members have free private lessons as well as group instruction, which is extremely unusual in public schools. As you can imagine, all of this costs a significant amount of money, and we depend on the generosity of parents like you to continue providing this kind of comprehensive music education to our students.
Not only do students learn to play, they also perform regularly and get to hear fantastic musicians perform at ICE. This year we organized four "Breaking the ICE" featuring two HS jazz bands and the songwriting elective class. These students had the amazing opportunity to play in some of the most renowned rock and jazz venues of the city. We also organized seven "ICE on Fire" concerts at ICE, where we brought some incredible artists to play for the students, including 4-time Grammy Award winner Arturo O'Farrill. Students also perform at Town Meeting, and in the after-school Free Jazz orchestra conducted by William Parker. Our students are also being recognized for their hard work and talent: the Middle School Jazz Band won top awards at both the Six Flags Music Competition, and NYSMA, the most important statewide music competition for students!
Students at ICE are very fortunate to have this kind of music education, with the facilities and instruments necessary to develop their talents, skills and creativity. But all of this doesn't come cheap: the ICE Music Program is very expensive, and we need your help.
Please join us this Sunday for a terrific concert, and help to ensure that ICE maintains this unique program and the ability to educate students, help them win competitions, expose them to world class musicians and play in incredible professional venues.
Buy tickets in advance here.
If you can not attend the event, please consider making a donation here.
I look forward to seeing you there!
Albert Marques
ICE Music Dept
