BITS Programs
About BITS Support BITS Contact BITS BITS Programs Out Of The Box Festival
[ezcol_2third]
Artist in Residence (AIR) After School Program – BITS partners with local high schools by providing professional instruction to students on how to create and build a blues-based band. Upon completion of the program, each school’s bands perform in a showcase at a local all ages night club to live audiences. A goal of this program is to educate students and give them real life experiences in the positive aspects of the performing arts, while at the same time developing social-emotional skills that will carry them through the rest of their lives.
Performance Lecture Series – This program partners with K-12 and juvenile court schools, as well as local community organizations to bring in Blues historians and musicians to give lectures and concerts to students of all ages. The program can range from a single event lecture and performances to multi-event lectures and concerts. One of the options is a songwriting module in which students are given classes on how to write a song. Students create songs, and the best song is selected, arranged and recorded, and placed on our BITS CD. In over a decade, BITS has brought this program to over 25,000 local students. In addition we have an ongoing song writing program where students write songs and then we professionally produce and record them.
A sample of our song writing program. This song, Life, was written by a student from a court school.
All Star Series – Blues in the Schools partners with national award winning artists to give lectures and performances to students on various aspects of the Blues and the music business. BITS has been blessed to have such artist as Joe Bonamassa, KRS-One, Curtis Salgado, Deanna Bogart and more participate in this program. As with all of the Blues in the Schools programs, the artists get as much out of it as do the students.
Contact us to find out how we can bring this program to your school.
[/ezcol_2third]
[ezcol_1third_end]
“I’ve been so sad because my mom died and left me and my Dad. Your music made me feel like a normal person again. I forgot for awhile and felt like dancing and singing. Thank you, wonderful bluesmen.”
– Ashley, Sam Brannan Middle School
“The enthusiasm and camaraderie that students develop after they have been involved in Blues In The Schools last much longer than the six weeks that the students are in the program.”
– Steve Boettner, Music Teacher,
Rosemont High School
“Thank you for coming to our school because my head needed music to concentrate.”
– Charles, Elder Creek Elementary School
[/ezcol_1third_end]
