Aspiring musicians at Miami-Dade schools will learn how to compose music, play and perform

Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho joined members of the School Board and representatives of Little Kids Rock, a national nonprofit, to announce their new partnership called Modern Band Miami. Through this partnership, more than 1,000 musical instruments and resources will be brought to Miami-Dade County to expand musical programming districtwide.

Modern Band Miami will be a three-year partnership that will introduce classes to teach children how to play various instruments, compose their own music, and perform today’s popular music styles, which include Latin, hip-hop and rock. The program is made possible through the fundraising efforts of Little Kids Rock — which raised up to $1 million — and a matching grant from the Wildflower Foundation.

To celebrate this new partnership, students and teachers recently performed with Sam Moore, Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and member of former music group Sam & Dave, at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.

Women of AT&T Scholarships

Several former high school students from Miami-Dade County were recently named winners of scholarships from the Florida chapter of Women of AT&T. Scholarships ranged from $250 to $1,000, and students were selected based on their GPA and extracurricular activities.

The winning students include Natalie Aboud, an alumna from Westland Hialeah High School; Nia Symone, an alumna from Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart; and Daniel and Diego Torrejon, both alumni from Archimedean Upper Conservatory Charter School.

Natalie is a freshman at Florida International University, and she plans to study accounting and finance. Nia is a sophomore at Loyola University Chicago who’s majoring in global and international studies. Daniel is a freshman at the University of Florida, and he plans to major in biomedical engineering, and Diego is a junior at Syracuse University who’s majoring in biochemistry.

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This story was originally published August 23, 2019 at 1:49 PM.