News & Events

Nick Page—CLCS Artist-in-Residence

The Conservatory Lab Charter Schools is thrilled to have been awarded a two-year “Creative Schools” grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.  This grant will allow the CLCS to collaborate with Nick Page as an “Artist-in-Residence” during the next two years.  Mr. Page will work with teachers during professional development time with a focus on learning how to incorporate multicultural materials across the curriculum in interdisciplinary “Learning Through Music” lessons.  He also will work directly with teachers and students in classrooms.

Nick Page is a composer, conductor, author, and song leader. From 1983 to 1986, Mr. Page was a conductor with the Chicago Children’s Choir and he currently directs the Mystic Chorale of Boston as well as leading sings and workshops throughout the Americas and Europe. He is the author of two books for teachers and his choral music is published by Boosey & Hawkes and by World Music Press. He has a Music Education degree from Ithaca College and a Masters in Education from Lesley College.

Believing that there should be no separation between the talented and the untalented, Nick Page makes his living as a song leader.  He works with children who have an inborn love of singing and he works with adults, many of whom have lost their love of singing a long time ago. Nick renews the love.  He also works with educators, both classroom teachers and music specialists. The main themes in his teacher workshops surround the perspectives of multi-cultural and multi-sensory learning, particularly with the aid of singing.

In addition to his many choral pieces and songs, Nick has written three musicals. The first two were for children, THE GIMME GIMMES and OLLY OLLY END FREE. His last musical was a three-act comedy, ATTACK OF THE WINDMILLS.

Mr. Page is the author of two how-to music books. The first, Sing and Shine On! The Teacher’s Guide to Multicultural Song Leading (World Music Press), explains why singing and music are essential for learning and it gives detailed song leading instructions. The second book, Music As A Way Of Knowing (Stenhouse), shows how to use music to teach reading, writing, math, science, and social studies. Nick’s articles on music have appeared in numerous choral journals.  Check out Nick’s essays on multicultural learning on his website:  http://www.nickmusic.com/newshome.html.

http://www.massculturalcouncil.org/programs/creativeschools_funding.html#C http://www.massculturalcouncil.org/programs/creativeschools.html.

Violin Wall Dedication a Smashing Success!

October 28, 2005

Friday, October 28, was a very special day for the CLCS. The school dedicated its new violin wall in the first floor lobby honoring over 70 individual and family donors who made it possible to buy 70+ violins for use by the CLCS students.

The morning started with a reception for our generous donors, and then a brief ceremony honoring the donors and the event committee, chaired by Pat Maddox, who ran the gala fundraising event last year at New England Conservatory with Frederica von Stade, Chris Brubeck, Benjamin Zander, and others.

At Friday’s ceremony, the beautiful violin wall was unveiled. We hope you will come and see it next time you are in school!

This was followed by a wonderful concert of our children.