We bring music to our youth through workshops…
For many years the Miamians, as one of its primary missions, has been sponsoring a continuing series of “Youth Harmony Workshops”. We work closely with our area High School Choral Directors to ensure that their young students have a fun, satisfying and educational experience.
Choral students are drawn from local high schools and enjoy an immersive, full-day music experience. Under the supervision of professional music clinicians, young male and female quartets demonstrate to the local students examples of barbershop music, teach the basics of harmony, vocal production, stage presence and more.
The male and female high-schoolers are divided up by voice part and are taught a barbershop arrangement. Later in the day, the students perform the music that they have just learned in real all-male and all-female choruses.
It is always a pleasure to see the looks on their faces, hardly believing the sound of the music that they themselves are making! It is rewarding to open up the door to the world of music-making to these young folks and the enrichment that it may bring to their lives.
…and through visits to our local schools.
Through the school year, quartets of Miamians visit local elementary and middle schools and introduce the students to the basics of Barbershop Harmony music. Our singers discuss a little history, a little theory and give some demonstrations of Barbershop music to the students at a level appropriate to the students in the class. Sadly, in most cases, with school budget reductions, our visit is the only formal music education that the students receive for the school year.
