Registrations for the Jazz Power Youth Spring Performance Workshop are open!

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2023 Open Studio Class Registration

5:30-7:30 PM
Jazz Power Initiative studios
5030 Broadway Suite 651, New York, NY 10034

Inwood

Jazz Power Youth Spring Performance

Jazz Power Youth Spring Performance workshop is an award-winning, transformational, 12-week multidisciplinary program in singing, dancing and acting for youth ages 10-17. With support from the National Endowment from the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the Miranda Family Fund with the Hispanic Federation, the Common Sense Fund, the Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation, and the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, the program is offered at no cost to families who fully commit to the program schedule and attendance policy.

Jazz Power Youth’s 2023 Spring Performance workshop will perform Nora Ark’s, the jazz musical by Eli Yamin and Clifford Carlson. Nora, a scientist, predicts the melting of the poles and the flooding of the Earth. Rescuing the animals at the Bronx Zoo, Nora and her daughters, Dora, Flora, Lora and Fitzi rent a cruise ship. It seems all are saved, except that daughter Fitzi forgets to bring food. Predators look on their fellow passengers as prey. All animals discover that freedom is a greater sustaining force than food and all ultimately cooperate in finding an edible solution. 

Jazz Power Initiative’s holistic, cross-cultural and multidisciplinary approach to jazz education activates an inclusive atmosphere that fosters creativity, collaboration, and discipline. African American and Latin American cultural foundations of jazz guide our process including the models of excellence we provide the children, the background of our faculty, the repertoire we select, the communities we serve, and the “Jazz Power Tools” we teach such as improvisation, making a soulful sound, call and response, syncopation, and swing. Our culturally relevant jazz-based pedagogy increases artistic and social emotional skills and aligns with New York City, State and National arts learning standards as well as best voice practices published by the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS).

Jazz Power Initiative’s voice pedagogy cultivates awareness of voice function for healthy, expressive and free singing in African American singing traditions from the foundation of many styles of American singing; including jazz, blues, gospel, R&B, rock, pop, and country. Our dance pedagogy uses African American dance traditions to increase kinesthetic, spatial, and musical awareness, and our theater pedagogy theater pedagogy explores key questions for the actor in a scene in support of internalizing lyrics of Jazz Power songs as well as basic stage directions.

JPI’s youth education program is wheelchair-accessible according to the ADA guidelines. For additional accommodations, please contact our Accessibility Coordinator Janny Gonzalez Velasquez at email hidden; JavaScript is required.

Download printable pdf

Get to know Jazz Power’s youth programs teaching artists!

Dr. Eli Yamin (Dr. Eli)
Managing and Artistic Director and Jazz Power Initiative co-founder Eli Yamin is an award winning pianist, composer, singer, producer and educator who has been spreading the joy of jazz through his work for 30 years including 10 years as founding director of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Middle School Jazz Academy. Dr. Eli has released eight CD’s featuring his compositions, published three youth centered jazz musicals in four languages and has performed at The White House, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and over 20 countries as a cultural ambassador for the U.S. Department of State. Dr. Eli sincerely believes learning about jazz should feel as creative as playing jazz and consistently shares this experience with students of all ages. He has written a book, So You Want to Sing the Blues, published by Rowman and Littlefield in partnership with the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and recorded over 100 interactive videos for Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jazz Academy reaching nearly two million views. He has a BA in Music from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, a Masters Degree in Music Education from Lehman College, City University of New York and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from Stony Brook University, State University of New York (SUNY).

Ms. Antoinette Montague
Senior Voice Teacher, Antoinette Montague, a/k/a “Jazz Woman to the Rescue,”  is Jazz Power Initiative’s 2022 Community Artist in Residence, and an esteemed, award winning jazz and blues singer and entertainer, who has performed internationally as a cultural ambassador for the U.S. Department of State. Ms. Montague is a Level III Certified Teacher of Somatic Voicework, the LoVetri Method (™), and teaches at The New School, Newark School of the Arts, Jazzmobile in addition to Jazz Power Initiative. She co-produced, created and hosted the zoom series “Music While We’re Inside,” and serves as a member of the WBGO Community Advisory Board. Ms. Montague has mentored dozens of young jazz musicians and vocalists over the past twenty years passing on the knowledge of her experience and what she learned from her mentors Carrie Smith and Etta Jones. Her latest CD is “World Peace in the Key of Jazz,” with Danny Mixon, Paul Beaudry, Winard Harper, Jay Hoggard, and King Solomon Hicks.

Kena Onyejekwe
Theatre Teacher, director, Kena Onyejekwe, is an actor and musician whose credits includes co-writing, co-producing, and performing lead vocals for the album WE ARE by Stylophonic which was distributed by Universal Music Italy.  Regionally, he has performed in Marley at Center Stage in Baltimore and To Kill a Mockingbird at Virginia Public Arts Center of Coastal Carolina. Mr. Onyejekwe is an alum of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. His film and TV appearances include the film Begin Again and The View on ABC. For the past fifteen years, Mr. Onyejekwe has created, implemented, and facilitated several Theater productions/ education programs in theaters, community centers, schools, churches, and summer camps around the New York City area.

To begin your child’s journey into Nora’s Ark, the jazz musical and enter a world of transformation at Jazz Power Initiative, please follow the directions below.

Open Studio
In preparation for the audition, students must attend at least one of the two Open Studio Classes. At the Open Studio, students will learn one of the songs from Nora’s Ark in preparation for auditions to be held February 7th, 8th and 11th.

6-7:30 PM
Alianza Dominicana Cultural Center
530 W 166th St, New York, NY 10032

Washington Heights

4:30-7 PM
Holy Trinity Episcopal Church
20 Cumming St, New York, NY 10034

Inwood

Thank you to our sponsors!

This Program is supported, in part, by public funds from the National Endowment from the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the Miranda Family Fund with the Hispanic Federation, the Common Sense Fund, the Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation, the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, and individual contributors.