All 90 WHEELS 7th graders performed in concerts today! Every student played piano as well as percussion, and some played additional instruments, performing songs like "Oye Como Va," "Compadre Pedro Juan," and "Lean On Me." We're very proud of our students' hard work in 7th grade general music class and band class, and thankful to all of the families, teachers and students that came to hear them play.

WHEELS music students in 8th-12th grades played three concerts in a row Thursday, Friday and Saturday. First was Capital One's holiday party, next was our annual College March, and last was Synpulse's holiday party. We're very proud of our music students' professional and creative performances, and of all our seniors we celebrated at the College March!

Thanks to Access Orpheus, WHEELS music students got to see the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra perform at Carnegie Hall yesterday evening.

On Friday we received a drum set courtesy of VH1 Save The Music! We are very grateful for all the support we receive from our partner organizations.

On Wednesday 6th-8th grade WHEELS band students performed at our first middle grades awards ceremony of the school year. It was many of our 6th and 7th graders' first performance! We're very proud of our band students and all of the students that received awards for academics and character.

Last Friday WHEELS band students were fortunate enough to perform for a live studio and television audience at the Johnny Pacheco Latin Music and Jazz Festival at Lehman College. They performed "La Murga," "Oye Como Va," and "El Cuarto De Tula," and received positive and helpful feedback from Dr. Kurt Gartner. Thank you to Mr. Allan Molnar for organizing the festival and inviting WHEELS to perform for the second year in a row!

Last night WHEELS music students performed at the National Honor Society induction ceremony for WHEELS high school students. Congratulations to all of our new inductees!

Middle and high school WHEELS band students performed at our National Junior Honor Society induction ceremony today. Congratulations to all of our middle school students that were inducted into NJHS!

Thank you to Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for inviting us to their rehearsal this afternoon! In addition to listening to beautiful music by Mendelssohn and Schumann, WHEELS music students got to meet many of the musicians and ask questions.

Thank you to The Empress of Soul, Gladys Knight, and the VH1 Save The Music Foundation for an inspirational afternoon! Gladys Knight visited WHEELS today, listened to some of our band students perform, and offered encouraging advice to all our young musicians.

Seven WHEELS students and one of our alumni are playing amazing jazz, Latin, classical and pop music at Camp MSM this summer! They get to study with incredible professional and student musicians from all over the world.

We finished the 2014-2015 school year with performances at our high school graduation and eighth grade moving up ceremonies. Congratulations to all of our graduates!

Some of our alumni will go on to study music at Lehman College and The College of Saint Rose. We also have alumni currently studying at SUNY Purchase and Berklee College of Music.

Thank you to WQXR, Kevin Bacon's SixDegrees.org, and The Bacon Brothers for including WHEELS in the kick-off event for the Second WQXR Instrument Drive! Check out the video of WHEELS students performing at The Greene Space. We were fortunate enough to receive a variety of instruments through the first WQXR Instrument Drive, thanks to collaboration between WQXR, the NYC Department of Education, Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation and Sam Ash.

Our first annual Elementary End of Year Show was a hit last Thursday! Pre-K and kindergarten students were supported by middle and high school students to put on an amazing show involving singing, dancing, drumming and visual art. The musical selections included pop, salsa, and Gahu dancing and drumming from Ghana.

Our high school and middle school music students have collaborated with our elementary school students throughout the school year. One project involved building musical instruments from materials that otherwise might have ended up in landfills. This project was part of our school's winning entry in the NYC Department of Sanitation's Golden Apple Awards. Here is a link to our winning entry, which describes recycling and composting projects at WHEELS.

Thank you to DonorsChoose.org for helping WHEELS raise funds for books, metronomes, reeds and hand drums! Our students enjoyed sharing their experiences with DonorsChoose.org at a reception last week at the DonorsChoose.org office.

One of our 7th grade music students was featured in two segments on ABC News! He plays piano and viola at WHEELS, and plays viola in the Harmony Program. He was recently part of an all-star group that performed with musicians from the New York Philharmonic.

Segment 1: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/day-life-music-helps-change-life-boy-underserved-31560292

Segment 2: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/children-philharmonic-31567314

This afternoon WHEELS music students performed at the TAC-D Summer Institute at the Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools at NYU.

Yesterday some of our middle and high school students rehearsed with the Crane Latin Ensemble from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam. We are very fortunate to have such talented college musicians visit our school to play and inspire our students with such enthusiasm. Among the tunes we played yesterday were "Llego La Banda," "Afro Blue," "La Murga," "Ran Kan Kan" and "Uptown Funk."

Additionally, one of our middle school students performed viola with members of the New York Philharmonic in the Harmony Program All Stars at Lincoln Center.

WHEELS middle school band students and members of the National Junior Honor Society visited Isabella Geriatric Center on Monday afternoon. The band entertained an enthusiastic audience with jazz and Latin standards, and visited with residents after the performance.

Yesterday eleven WHEELS music students performed with the Middle School Jazz Academy and Youth Orchestra at Jazz at Lincoln Center. They were featured alongside professionals like trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, and put on two incredible concerts including original music and jazz by composers like Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Charles Mingus.

Thank you to the jazz combos from Manhattan School of Music that taught our elementary and middle school students about jazz music today!

WHEELS music is very fortunate to have a partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center. Last night one of our high school students performed in the beautiful Atrium at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Thank you to all the donors that supported our project that was just fully funded on DonorsChoose.org! Please continue to check this page for projects to support, and thank you for your ongoing support of WHEELS Music!

Congratulations to our two students that are also involved in the amazing Harmony Program! These students played cello and viola with members of the New York Philharmonic.