Queens is one of the most diverse places in the world. How can music serve as a “common language” for diverse students?
This week, I am joined by Shanan Estreicher, a middle and elementary music teacher in Queens, New York. Shanan is also a composer, and songwriter who has found a magic formula to reach the students of a Title 1 school with a constantly in flux student population. The formula includes general music, chorus, songwriting and more to bridge cultural, language and prior knowledge gaps.
In this discussion, Mr. Estreicher and I discuss the challenges as well as the life enriching benefits of teaching at-risk students, as well as the mindset he developed as he began his teaching career hoping for that “dream gig” and discovering that he had the power to build the dream in Queens. Many teachers “burn out” in Title 1 schools, but Shanan provides an inspiring story of how a teacher can make a difference in the lives of kids that desperately need a reason to come to school.
Tune in, and have your thinking stimulated and challenged. Then, weigh in yourself on Facebook in the Choralosophers group or over on choralosophy.substack.com.
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Shanan Estreicher is a composer and songwriter living in New York City. He studied music at the Manhattan School of Music and Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College.
He has composed orchestral, choral, and chamber music, art songs, and music for theater, TV, and film. His compositions have been performed at Carnegie Hall, featured on NBC, Lifetime, and Fox, and can be heard on Composer Concordance Records (Naxos). As a songwriter, he released five albums as a solo artist and with the alt-country group The Brown Trousers. Shanan has collaborated extensively with Grammy Award-winning producer Brian Forbes and received grants from New Music USA and Queens Council on the Arts.
Recent premieres include “A Concordance of Leaves”, a new cantata for choir and baritone soloist with poetry by Philip Metres (Copper Canyon Publishing) by choral director James John, the Queens College Vocal Ensemble, and baritone soloist Andrew Wannigman, “I Laughed So Hard I Cried” by the Overlook Quartet, “All You Shining Stars” by the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra featuring multi-genre trumpeter Itamar Borochov, “Songs of Emily Dickinson” by Sarah Shafer (Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera) and the Chamber Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall, and various commissions for Composers Concordance and Access Contemporary Music.
As a founding board member of the Chamber Orchestra of New York, Shanan has helped lead the ensemble to international success and acclaim. He served as Co-Artistic Producer for the orchestra’s Naxos recordings of Respighi’s “The Birds”, Ralph Vaughan Williams’s “The Lark Ascending”, Respighi’s “Ancient Airs and Dances”, and Salvatore Di Vittorio’s Symphonies 3 and 4. Shanan has also designed and launched an educational outreach program called Maestro Juniors for the orchestra which brings live classical music performances to title-one schools in New York City.
One of Shanan’s greatest joys is sharing his passion for music with children. For over seventeen years he has taught music at a public school in Queens, NY. The documentary “Rise Up and Sing—The Movie” chronicles his work with the P.S./I.S. 127 Chorus. He is also the founder and director of the Queens County Choral Festival for elementary and middle school students.
website
Any other relevant links or Social Media pages you would like me to plug for you?
Links to stream or download his new album “A Concordance of Leaves”
https://songwhip.com/queenscollegevocalensemble/shanan-estreicher-a-concordance-of-leaves
Instagram Page
https://www.instagram.com/shanan_estreicher_composer
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