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!