Students in the Community
Andrew Zhang and Julianna Reala participated in the Braille Challenge on Long Island on January 10, 2009. Andrew Zhang won first place in his age division (he is 13) and will go to Los Angeles in June for the final competition
• CMPYP student Matthew Whitaker, who is seven years old, accompanied the Sunshine Choir on the drums in "I Am", by Maurette Brown Clark at the New Hope Baptist Church in Hackensack, NJ. Matthew got a huge ovation after Pastor Rev. Dr. M Frances Manning introduced him and talked about how far he had come in his seven short years. Matthew studies drums with Marc Wagnon in the Music School.
• On October 27th 2008, in conjunction with the National Disability Employment Awareness Month, Lighthouse music student, Bill Robinson, received the Entrepreneur Award presented by the New York State Regional Employment Alliance. This award was in recognition of the development of his music production business, which he achieved with the help of grants from the New York State commission for the Blind and the Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation which helped him develop a business plan. He is now producing and engineering music out of his own studio. In addition, Bill worked for several years as a performer (he has a CD with the group Total Soul called Just Doing My Thing).
• Music School student Frank Senior released an album in the summer of 2008 entitled Listening In The Dark With Frank Senior. Click here for more details.
• Daniel Gillen, a student in our music school, was one of four teenagers aged 14-16 selected to go to Provence, France by the French beauty company L'Occitane en Provence. Daniel cited, in his award-winning essay, the impressionistic music of Debussy, which he was currently studying in his piano lessons. The students will travel to France this summer to learn about fragrance at L'Occitane's perfume school for the visually impaired, Provence dans tous les sens (Provence in every sense). The idea for the summer school came from L'Occitane's founder, Olivier Baussan, who was inspired by watching a blind woman smell his perfumes, and wanted to help visually impaired teens explore their senses through the scents and flavors of Provence.