“After putting in long hours, seven local teen musicians are seeing their hard work pay off in a big way: Atlanta rapper T.I. is taking them to … perform with him in a live concert on NPR’s ‘Tiny Desk’ series,” of live radio performances, writes Fleming Smith in Thursday’s (7/12) Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “According to the Atlanta Music Project’s executive director, Dantes Rameau, the chance to perform with T.I. came together only a week before today’s concert. AMP is a tuition-free music education opportunity for local children, [who] are provided with instruments as well as free music instruction.… The project involves around 300 children during the school year, and depending on their age, they practice from three to four days a week after school for two to four hours.” Sixteen-year-old violinist Landon Isaiah Wilkins “recently finished the tenth grade with a 3.8 GPA and all A’s. He said that playing an instrument has taught him to be adaptive both in music and in life. Rameau, [a bassoonist who] co-founded AMP in 2010, has seen the program grow from around 19 students to more than 300.”
Posted July 16, 2018
