This month our students performed in the world-premiere of a piece co-composed by Robert Butts and our staff member, Elijah Souels. The performance moved many to tears not because our children were so adorable (which they are) but because it showed us all that music connects us as a humanity - it breaks down physical and psychological barriers which needlessly separate communities. We appreciate partners like you who believe in our mission. We hope you enjoy this glimpse into what gives us joy in this journey.

                        Jee-Hoon Krska, Executive Director

 

World Premiere: Simple Gifts

This past Friday, Keys 2 Success and the Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey debuted our latest musical collaboration, live streaming on both Facebook and YouTube. This project, supported by the Junior League of Summit and the Investors Bank Foundation, is the first time that K2S students have performed alongside these professional musicians. The tune of choice is an arrangement of the classic shaker tune "Simple Gifts" arranged for orchestra and piano by the director of the BONJ Robert Butts and our very own Elijah Souels, a native Newarker and graduate of Newark Arts High School.

This video is the finale to a series of seven online performances we've produced to showcase the hard work and musicality of our students, even in this complicated time. However, unlike the previous videos which sprung up as a product of the circumstances, this collaboration has been in the works for many months leading up to the performance. As they say, the show must go on, so when COVID hit we couldn't just scrap the project; instead we worked around the many difficulties of not performing together in person to put out this showcase of the students' hard work.

As Maestro Robert Butts said so eloquently about the collaboration:

"We are doing this because of who we are; We are doing this because of what we believe in. We believe in each other. We trust each other. We work with each other. We inspire each other"

 

A word from our parents

Parents are one of the greatest driving forces behind our organization, and we are so grateful for them! This week, you hear from Lydia, the mother of our first grade piano student Alex.

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Transcription:

Hi, my name is Lydia Alvarez and I am the mom of Alexander Alvarez. We got connected with Keys 2 Success with his school at South Street. He began this program I believe in kindergarten, and the have been amazing teaching piano and teaching him how to read notes and how to just absorb the music.

This past year, Alexander has not been able to participate the way he was, because he was diagnosed with leukemia and he was out. And what I truly love about this program is both his private teacher through Keys 2 Success Patricio and the organizer of this program Mrs. Krska worked with him virtually to make sure that he could continue his learning with this program and that he didn't feel isolated.

When he was able to return to school, but not be around too many students, they would have one on one lessons with him in the classroom. And what he extremely loves about Keys 2 Success is the fact that they have continued the learning through this pandemic and they do zoom lessons so they still meet with the kids.

Keys 2 Success has been revolutionary in our lives because it has opened up a passion my son never knew he had and he's developed a deep love for music and you can see him pick out the various notes in the songs that we hear on the radio now, or he'll question "mommy that's a piano song and I think I know those keys that they're playing!" So I completely and absolutely love Keys 2 Success. They will continue to shape my son's life for as long as possible.

 

Breathing Easy

A thoughtful donation is just as valuable as any other, as Prodigium Strings demonstrated with their donation of 100 fanciful cloth face masks. Their mission is to make music education fun and accessible to young students through custom music accessories, so when COVID hit, Prodigium Strings pivoted to create face masks for their students and customers. When they heard about Keys 2 Success, they immediately reached out to donate masks to our students. One of the places these masks were distributed was Pennington Court Public Housing, which is home to many of our piano kids.

 
 

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Questions? Contact us today (908) 280-8969, or through our website