ICE Music Department Fundraiser Concert

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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

ICE June Calendar

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There are some schedule changes to the ICE Calendar for the month of June. The changes will allow teachers to better support students in completing their work, provide the time and space for students to present on panels to teachers and parents, allow 8th grade and 12th grade graduations to occur on the last days of school, and give teachers enough time to give meaningful feedback to students on their work. Please take a look at the schedule for each grade by clicking on this link. The schedule was also handed to students today in advisory.  Again, it is different than the NYCDOE School Calendar in some cases.

If you have any questions, please reach out to your child's advisor or the main office.

ICE PAC

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Disclaimer: Submitted by high school parent Kemala Karmen, as myself, not in any official PTA capacity

Finally!  NYS Senator Robert Jackson and Assembly Member Harvey Epstein have authored legislation in the State Senate (S5394) and Assembly (bill # forthcoming) that codifies and affirms parents’ right to refuse New York State grades 3-8 ELA and math assessments and requires notification to parents on behalf of their children.   

What can YOU do NOW in support of this historic opportunity? You can ask your state reps to sign onto the legislation by FILLING OUT THIS BRIEF FORM! It takes less than 2 minutes. This is the opportunity we’ve been waiting for years and there is no time to lose.

Subway Moon 

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Dear Parents:

Since I "retired" from ICE (I'm still around a bit...) I've been really concentrating on the goal of developing truly inclusive music/theatre/poetry experiences with our "Subway Moon" non-profit organization.  To this end, this years program at Abrons Art Center at Henry Street is a truly magical mix of our wonderful ICE kids with equally wonderful poets and a few musicians from two schools in the south Bronx - Bronx Early College Academy and School for Violins and Dance.  In the piece, all the  various students and my Jazz Passengers band are" Stuck" together on an imagined subway bridge with the moon above and water below.  The poetic transformations that follow are a tribute to the students visionary imagination.

 Please come out May 23rd  or May 24th for the show at this beautiful theatre.  We've never before had a real theatre experience with professional lighting, direction and set.


Natalie has helped as well.  It really will be quite something...