Category: Education

My opera neighbor is performing tonight!

On By scenebyginaIn Education, music, New York, PeopleLeave a comment
My neighbor, Carmen Elisa Cancél

If you follow me on Twitter you know that I have a neighbor who sings, and trains others, in opera. (And also other styles, such as Broadway show tunes.) Her name is Carmen Elisa Cancél.

It’s the coolest thing because it’s like living in a musical. One time, she was training a guy on West Side Story (one of my favorite musicals) and I spent a couple of weeks constantly humming along while he rehearsed “Tonight.”

Anyway, I ran into her in the elevator today and she’s performing this very weekend and it’s for a good cause! Here are the details:

WHO: Hailed as a singer possessing a “crystalline timbre and intense acting ability,” Puerto Rican soprano, Carmen Elisa Cancél is quickly establishing herself as an artist in the lyric soprano repertoire.

WHAT: In recital to benefit for the Singers Forum Youth Scholarship. She’ll perform classics and contemporary favorites.

WHEN: Friday, Oct. 26, at 8 p.m., and Saturday, Oct. 27, at 3 p.m.

WHERE: The Dorothy Jones Theater / Singers Forum / 49 W. 24th St. 4th Floor

Suggested donation is $20. Remember all proceeds go towards the scholarship fund.

Hip Hop: Saving lives in Colombia

On By scenebyginaIn Colombia, Education, music, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Via the Seattle Globalist.

MEDELLIN, Colombia–Henry Arteaga could have been a drug dealer.

Growing up during the 1990s in Aranjuez, long one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Medellin, Arteaga could have been a soldier, a gang member, an insurgent, or followed any number of violent paths which have attracted Medellin’s youth over the last 30 years.

But Arteaga was lucky: he found hip hop.

Read more here.

EDUCATION: Food for thought

On By scenebyginaIn EducationLeave a comment
Photo via Ourpubliceducation.org

From Fordham professor Mark Naison’s Facebook feed:

“If someone told you that you lived in a country where no leaders would send their children to the schools they designing for 90 percent of the population, you would say you must be talking about a feudal society or third world dictatorship, but unfortunately, you are talking about the United States in 2012. Whether it’s Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, Andrew Cuomo, Mitt Romney or Barack Obama, the wealthiest and most politically influential supporters of school reform send their children to private schools where none of the tests and evaluations they are deluging public schools with hold sway. If I was a cynical person, I would say they are trying to transform our children into an obedient low wage labor force that will work for the companies their children will run, but that would be unfair, right?”