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POMPTON LAKES - Lenox students join in world's largest concert
(by Leslie Scott - Staff Writer - October 22, 2008)
POMPTON LAKES - Fourth-grade students at the Lenox School will sing for thousands across America.
Lenox School was chosen to participate in the 2009 World’s Largest Concert, a highlight of Music in Our Schools Month, which is sponsored by the National Association for Music Education (MENC).
This concert links six million students, teachers and music supports with a sing-along concert that will be held 1 p.m. Eastern Time on March 12.
In the past, Lenox School students sat in the audience and watched the concert on tape during this event. This year things changed and now the school was chosen to sing.
To get ready for the show, the students will be filmed as they sing “I’ll Make A Difference” while walking to the Joe Louis Memorial at the Elks Lodge on Perrin Avenue later this month.
“Children around our nation are filmed for this, so it is quite an exciting feat,” said music teacher Susan Piombo.
All the selected schools submitted a proposal to MENC. There were 10 songs to choose from and the Lenox School chose and received approval for this project.
“We thought the Joe Louis Memorial was fitting for one of the songs,” said Piombo.
“This is quite an honor,” said Lenox School Principal Vincent Iraggi. "We had been participating as a school for the last several years. But participating as a participating school of 2,000 or so is one thing, but being on the tape for those 2,000 schools is something really special."
What the school has to do is shoot the video based on specifications designed by the MENC and then send it to the national group. MENC will edit all the films into a video, which will be shown during the concert.
“When the concert is actually done nationally, the whole school will be there and they will all see the tape and they’ll see all 10 songs and our school will hopefully be on one of the songs,” said Iraggi.
MENC is the largest arts education organization. It marked its centennial in 2007 as the only association that addresses all aspects of music education. More than 142,000 members and supporters represent all levels of teaching from preschool to graduate school. Since 1907, MENC has worked to ensure that every student has access to a well-balanced, comprehensive and high-quality program of music instruction taught by qualified teachers.
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