Congratulations to our seniors who marched in our annual College March last Friday! Band students helped them celebrate with jazz and salsa tunes.

Thanks to our friends at Booker T. Washington Middle School for a great jam session yesterday! We played standards like "So What," "Blue Bossa," "Ran Kan Kan" and "Work Song."

This weekend WHEELS band students performed at Scribble Art Workshop's exhibition at the American Academy of Arts and Letters. It was an honor to play at a beautiful venue surrounded by incredible art by people of all ages. It was also great to have one of our alumni, Saudy Familia, sit in with the band. We are very fortunate to have him coaching our band students.

We are very proud of our Pre-K through 3rd graders for presenting their work from movement, art and music classes in our Winter Arts Showcase last Friday!

Sixth and seventh grade band students performed for the first time this school year on Wednesday. Many of the sixth graders just started playing their instruments in September, and they already are playing and improvising over standards like "Afro Blue" and "Second Line!"

Thank you to Harlem Stage and Soul Science for engaging WHEELS middle school band students in an inspiring, interactive hip hop concert today!

On Friday 8th-12th grade WHEELS band students performed at the Lehman College Latin Music and Jazz Festival. They received excellent feedback from Jim Mair and got to participate in workshops with Aldo Mazza and Wally Barrett!

Thank you to Matt Davis and his trio for performing for one of our 6th grade music classes! They played a beautiful original tune and the whole class got to jam with them on "Sonnymoon for Two!"

We're very excited to have Ms. Webster leading WHEELS' first chorus! Chorus is open to all middle grades students and meets every Monday after school.

WHEELS band students put on an energetic performance at the National Honor Society/National Junior Honor Society induction ceremony at WHEELS last night! We're very proud of our band students and the new inductees!

Great news from the American Academy of Arts and Letters: https://artsandletters.org/pressrelease/graham-johnson-awarded-presidential-citation/

Band classes are starting the year strong!

And today we had our first group music lessons with the Manhattan School of Music Outreach Program!

Thank you to cellist Sofia Nowik, soprano Julia Lamon, and Michael Lamon from The Apollo Fund for performing for WHEELS third grade music students on Friday! They presented beautiful new songs about Greek goddesses to the third graders. And the third graders got to perform one of their recorder songs, "Who Has Seen The Wind," with cello accompaniment!

Thank you to Christian Scott for visiting WHEELS on Friday and jamming with our 6th grade general music students and 6th-12th grade band students! And thank you to Harlem Stage for bringing us together. It was amazing to hear Mr. Scott's inspiring music and wise words about hard work and self expression.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BZEgsv4BYWV/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BZEgJnahGt5/
https://www.facebook.com/christian.scott.music/videos/10154696097015755/

Mr. Johnson had a great time presenting and jamming at Modern Band Rockfest 2017!

Seven WHEELS band students are currently attending MSM Summer. They're playing jazz and Latin music with amazing student and professional musicians from all over the world!

Band students performed at the WHEELS 8th Grade Moving Up Ceremony last Tuesday. Congratulations to all of our 8th graders that are moving up to high school, and congratulations to all of our 6th and 7th grade band students that started playing their instruments for the first time last September, and are already putting on exciting performances!

Yesterday WHEELS band students received an enthusiastic reception when they performed at the Institute Opening Ceremony for Teach For America New York. The keynote speaker was former US Secretary of Education John King, who had a powerful message about the importance of teachers. Many WHEELS teachers are TFA alumni.

Some of our second grade general music students participated in a video call with the students of Mr. Martin Urbach. The students performed "This Land Is Your Land" for each other, including some of the original verses and verses they wrote themselves in English and Spanish!

Band students performed at the graduation ceremony for the WHEELS Class of 2017. Congratulations to all our graduates!

Thank you to Luke Folger for performing for and improvising with all of our 7th graders last week! He presented music from his innovative Unigen project, explained his process for composing and improvising, sampled tunes composed by WHEELS students, and jammed with students on electronic and acoustic instruments.

Last Tuesday WHEELS band students performed their own arrangement of Duke Ellington's "Caravan" at the Manhattan Borough Arts Festival at the Apollo Theater!

Here's a video of the full performance.

Here's a video posted by Manhattan FSC on Twitter.

Earlier this week WHEELS band students performed at a benefit for Reach Out and Read at the beautiful Central Park Boathouse.

Thank you to legendary percussionist Ray Mantilla and his quartet for an amazing concert at WHEELS! Jazz in the Schools and the Jazz Foundation of America brought Mr. Mantilla to WHEELS, where he was generous enough to both play a concert and jam with our students!

On Wednesday WHEELS Lower Grades presented our Spring Music and Movement Showcase. Congratulations to all the Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade musicians and dancers, and thanks to all who came out to support them! These kids' energy and creativity are truly inspiring. And thank you to the WHEELS high school band students that showed such leadership and accompanied the younger students.