By: Renee Ulman, AASD Fine Arts Coordinator
In 2022, my husband and I were at Mile of Music (Mile 9) at the Chapel to watch one of the bands we had seen the previous year, The Accidentals. To my surprise, their entire set was performed with a student orchestra. Watching the performance gave me goosebumps and – because I’m the Fine Arts Coordinator and can’t turn that off – I thought: we HAVE to do this in Appleton! If there’s any place that should be giving students an opportunity like this, it’s here.
I learned The Accidentals worked with Kaboom Collective, a nonprofit based in Ohio. Kaboom Collective works with motivated musicians and artists ages 15-25 who want to explore the arts and entertainment industry. They deliver production-based learning designed to complement traditional music education, inspire a new generation of artists, and connect students to fulfilling careers in the music, arts, and entertainment industries.
My background is in art education. I knew in order to even contemplate a project like this, I needed music help and expertise. I enlisted the help of my friend, Audrey Nowak, who is an orchestra teacher, an accomplished musician, and the Fine Arts Coordinator for the Howard-Suamico School District. Audrey reached out to Lucinda Roberts, Fine Arts Program Coordinator at the Fine Arts Institute at East High in Green Bay, and a collaboration among our districts began. The three of us reached out to the Kaboom Collective and asked if they would put together a similar program for our orchestra students like I saw at Mile of Music. This is something Kaboom had never done before, but they said yes, and agreed to travel to Wisconsin to work with our students.
After more than a year of planning, we now have our own Kaboom Orchestra made up of 41 high school musicians from AASD, Howard-Suamico, and the Fine Arts Institute inside Green Bay East.
Currently, these students are rehearsing with their peers from their own city. Starting in January, there will be combined rehearsals with the full orchestra of students. Dr. Michelle Dewhirst, a music professor at UW-Green Bay will run those combined rehearsals.
In April, students will have a week for final rehearsals and they will learn more about career opportunities in the music industry through specially designed workshops delivered by the Kaboom Collective team. And finally, the experience will culminate with students performing a professional level concert with The Accidentals at the Weidner Center on Thursday, April 11, 2024.
More to come about the performance. We would love to see you there!
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Appleton Education Foundation awarded a $10,000 Big Idea grant to AASD for this experience. Additional support from the Heid Music Family Foundation.
Special thanks to the Weidner Center for donating use of their facilities for the concert.