Two Schools in Concert in Every Way

After a year of planning, a very special concert became a reality yesterday at the Glenwood School as the Glenwood Chorus and the Apprentice Chorus from the Newark Boys Chorus School performed together yesterday.

The concert, though, was much more than special for all of the participants, the administrators and teachers who planned it.

It all started last year when the Apprentice Chorus came to perform at Glenwood and Glenwood's chorus teacher, Grace Johnson, invited Michael Sanflippo – NBCS’ chorus director, to ask his chorus if they would like to do warm up exercises with the Glenwood students.

The groups both were surprised that they all knew the same vocal warm ups.  They all enjoyed the spontaneous experience and the resulting sounds. 

Glenwood’s principal, Dr. David Jasin, and Johnson were inspired by the experience and planned a joint concert for this year. In between, there were several visits back and forth between the schools.

In September, Jasin and Johnson visited the Newark school to meet with HeadmasterLarry Emery. During these visits, the pair noticed a shortage of books. And so, Glenwood collected hundreds of books for NBCS and they were delivered to them in October.

Since September, the students from Glenwood also became penpals with the NBCS students.  And they have been corresponding ever since. 

 Last week, NBCS hosted the first joint concert at Grace Church in Newark, which is down the street from their school. At that concert, the Glenwood Chorus came and performed with them.

While there, Jasin said the church was beautiful and it was the perfect setting, "The sounds of their singing resonated beautifully throughout the church."

After the concert, all the students had lunch together.  Even though most of them were meeting in person for the first time, they felt they knew each other because they had already become friends through their letters.  

Yesterday was Glenwood's turn to host. Sanflippo remarked on how much they enjoyed collaborating with Glenwood. After NBCS finished their set of music, it was Glenwood’s turn to perform. When they finished, both schools joined together and sang songs together.  

Jasin said, "I am very proud of the collaboration between Mike Sanflippo at NBCS and Grace Johnson at Glenwood.  They have proven that when you bring together the power of music, wonderfully eager children and truly exceptional teaching, awesome things can be accomplished.  Together both schools really accomplished something special."