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(Photo courtesy of Piano Slam)
The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County and the Dranoff 2 Piano Foundation Present Piano Slam 2022, now celebrating its 15th anniversary of performances in the center’s Knight Concert Hall.
Taking place on Apr. 21, audiences will be treated to a free show featuring Miami’s top teen poets paired with an array of artists including classical piano duo The Alonso Brothers, dance-pop act Afrobeta, and star choreographer Gentry George and his Zest Collective dance company.
Admission To Piano Slam 2022 is free. First-Access Passes, which give guests early access to general admission seating, can be reserved for the performance now. Reserve passes online at arshtcenter.org or by calling the Adrienne Arsht Center box office at 305-949-6722.
Piano Slam 2022’s music and poetry theme is “Fantasia de Tres Mundos.” The three worlds entail: Music, Humanness, and Home in Miami. Piano Slam is a high-powered cross-genre music, poetry and dance extravaganza recommended by The Miami Herald as “a fantastically hip musical showcase for the voices of Miami’s young poets in an extraordinary collaboration of top international and local artists.”
Piano Slam is a creative writing project in Miami-Dade Public Schools that presents live concerts, poets, scientists, and hip-hop spoken word to teens in Miami’s middle and high school classrooms culminating in a countywide poetry competition based on the role of music in their lives.
Out of thousands of creative submissions, 16 semifinalists are chosen to perform in the Grand Finals concert and competition on the Arsht Center’s Knight Concert Hall stage. Prizes of $1,000 are awarded to the top student poets.
“Music is the inspiration and the education that produces a desire for teens to strive for excellence while lifting their spirits. Their voices are always unexpected and electrifying,” said Carlene Sawyer, Piano Slam creator and producer.
Dranoff 2 Piano Foundation’s Piano Slam has been connecting teenagers’ love of music to professional performance artists across creative boundaries for more than a decade and is sponsored by Miami-Dade County, Miami-Dade Public Schools, Books & Books, The Children’s Trust, and the Miami Heat.
Piano Slam is directed by international theater artist Katie Christie with music direction by Martin Bejerano. Piano Slam’s wildly popular county-wide music-based poetry competition has worked with more than 103,000 Mami-Dade Public middle and high school students making classical music fun and an inspiration for their own creative writing.
About the Dranoff 2 Piano x Adrienne Arsht Center Partnership
The partnership came together in the first year of the Adrienne Arsht Center when the Dranoff Foundation, whose mission is to discover young artists, develop talent, and build a platform and marketplace for their music partnered with the Arsht, to create a community school-based outreach program in the performing arts for young people and their families in the neighborhoods right around the new performing arts center.
In the very first year of the Piano Slam program, five middle schools in Overtown, Liberty City, Brownsville, and Little Haiti participated. Today over 100 middle and high schools in Miami Dade Public Schools enjoyed in school professional artist programs and performances and submitted student poetry to the music-based competition.
Over the 15 years in partnership Arsht’s community engagement and education initiatives, Dranoff 2 Piano Foundation has brought artists, musicians, scientists, and educators into over 100 middle and high schools and every school and community district in the county.
The Arsht has partnered in teacher professional development, training educators in all core subjects to use music and arts-integrated curriculum in their classrooms.
Dranoff 2 Piano and the Arsht provide performance, art, music, writing, coaching, and training for students participating in Piano Slam. The Adrienne Arsht Center provides a community and high-art platform for students and top professional artists to perform in the finals competition concert in the Knight Concert Hall. Tens of thousands of families throughout Miami Dade County have become part of Miami’s art scene through Piano Slam in the schools and the Dranoff 2 Piano performances with award winning musicians, dancers, and top theater professionals as part of a student and professional artist extravaganza of great entertainment in the Knight Concert Hall.
For more information on Dranoff 2 Piano, visit www.Dranoff2Piano.org.
