Girard College
and Spring Garden School
partner for
Drum Program
At 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 7, the music department held a concert featuring Girard third graders in partnership with third graders from Spring Garden School at 12th and Melon.
Students were led in their “World Rhythms” program by two visiting artists, drummers Doc Gibbs and Joe Tayoun. Their participation was made possible by an Arts in Education grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and by funding from the Girard College Alumni Association. Gibbs and Tayoun had visited third-grade music classes at each school (taught by Paul Eaton at Girard and by Betsy Solomon at Spring Garden) for eight weeks to prepare students for this concert. The partnership between our two schools was set up with the assistance of the Philadelphia Arts in Education Partnership.
Every third grader played a drum or supporting percussion instrument. Doc Gibbs led students first in performing African rhythmic patterns, featuring engaging call-and-response interplay. Joe Tayoun led performances of Middle Eastern patterns, including lively student dancing. Spring Garden and Girard grades each “showed their stuff” separately, then both artists joined both schools on stage for a wonderful, high-energy grand finale.
Left to right,
Eaton, Solomon,
Tayoun and Gibbs
