Third grade students from Glover Elementary School, with music teachers Mrs. Fraser and Mrs. Castelluccio, spent much of November and December learning about jazz music and black American history in preparation for their Fine Arts Night performance which took place on Thursday, January 17th at the Veterans Middle School Performing Arts Center.
The performance featured music ranging from spirituals to jazz to other music through the first several decades of the twentieth century. Aside from singing, students also presented a short play about the life of Ella Fitzgerald, the “First Lady of Jazz,” performed choreographed movements with music, and ended with Stevie Wonder’s upbeat song “Sir Duke.” Biographies of great figures throughout black American history such as Harriet Tubman, Duke Ellington, and Martin Luther King, Jr. were interspersed with the musical selections. Artwork created in Mrs. Guthartz’s art class continuing the theme was also on display, both onstage and through the hall.
