EAST HARLEM — El Barrio’s young artists were treated to a few life lessons by a professional musician — and former backup singer for Aretha Franklin and Patti Labelle — who learned a few things traveling the world.
Dannis Winston, the band leader of Winston's Crew Collective, worked with a group of seven high school musicians Wednesday at the Boys and Girls Harbor at 1 E. 104th St. to take their act to the next level.
“As soon as I heard about the program I was like, ‘definitely, I want to go,’” Winston said. “The students here are great, very well mannered and serious about their craft.”
The class at East Harlem’s Boys and Girls Harbor — a camp started by a wealthy philanthropist in the 1930s that has become a pre-k and after-school program — was part of the “Life Lessons” program, which invites professionals to have a workshop with the students.
Their goal is to expose the kids to as many things as possible. The children may not go into the field they are studying now, but the skills they are learning will help them later in life, said Director Thomas Howard.
“The skills are transferable,” he said. “It’s a wonderful thing to see a kid stand with poise in front of an audience and deliver. What do you do during a job interview? Stand in front of an audience and deliver.”
Wednesday’s class was a little more special because the performance was really a preparation for the seven students who will play at the prestigious Berklee Music City Network Summit at Teachers College next week.
Instead of a one-off workshop, Winston has been working with the students in three separate sessions, according to Boys and Girls Harbor Artistic Director Joe Vigliotti.
“When we met Dannis we were, like, this feels like something different,” he said. “It’s like a life lesson, however it’s more of a way to train and do this master class.”
The school's musical resources were much better than he was used to when he was in school, he said.
“I think this is a great program,” he said. “They have access to so many instruments here. Even the schools that I went to didn’t have as much access as they have.”
