SNAP! After School

GlobalGiving Quarterly Report: Summer 2013

Stax Music Academy’s SNAP! After School 

This summer has been one for record books at the Stax Music Academy! From packed house venues to delivering soul in the bayou, these kids have really out done themselves this quarter!

100% Acceptance into college!!!

The 100 percent acceptance rate was achieved last year in May. This year, it happened in February.

Just some of the schools to which students have been accepted this year are Rhodes College, Wesleyan University, Wake Forest University, Tufts University, University of Tennessee Knoxville, Barnard College, Morehouse College, Carleton College, Sewanee: The University of the South, Centre College, University of Virginia, and Rice University. Together the students received a total of over $9.2 million in scholarships.

SMA on Beale

As the Stax Music Academy marks its 10th year in 2013; its students can look back on a decade of performances with famous music stars, appearances at legendary venues and travel to exotic locales. What they’ve never done, however, is play regularly in Memphis.

All that’s changed this summer as a dozen Stax Music Academy alumni have been performing together as part of a series of free concerts at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music and at B.B. King’s on Beale. It’s the first time such a group of former students — billed as the SMA Alumni Band — have joined forces.  READ MORE HERE.

Summer Music Experience (SME)

The Stax Music Academy’s (SMA) June 2013 Summer Music Experience focused on “Soul Rockin’ Blue,” focusing on the evolution of early blues through later urban blues. With guest faculty members as diverse as Sun Records artist Randy Haspel of Randy & the Radiants to internationally renowned opera star Kallen Esperian, the students studied – in addition to the music itself – music business, marketing, production, songwriting, intellectual property law, and more.

Full House SME Finale!

The Summer Music Experience culminated with a public concert at Memphis’ Levitt Shell on June 30, 2013, in front of an estimated audience of 6,000 people, the largest to date this year in the Levitt Shell Concert Series. The show featured several original numbers written and produced by the kids themselves over the summer. Leaving the audience wanting more, we are already looking forward to next summer!

Summer Soul Tour

Following the SMA sendoff concert, the Summer Music Experience took 25 students on a trip through the Mississippi Delta, performing at some of the region’s top blues venues and culminating with two concerts in New Orleans.

First stop was Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale, Mississippi. While in Clarksdale, the students also toured the Delta Blues Museum. From there, the Summer Soul Tour moved on to Indianola, Mississippi, where the students performed the same evening at one of the region’s most important juke joints, Club Ebony.

Fulfilling a last-minute request for Saturday night, the students were the featured entertainment in New Orleans for the Texas Southern University’s National Alumni Conference. Between sets, the students were treated to dinner at the famed Sweet Lorraine’s Jazz Club in New Orleans 9^th Ward, where they witnessed both the remaining destruction and new revitalization in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Before heading home, the students performed at New Orleans’ legendary Tipitina’s music club during a youth music festival hosted by the Tipitina Foundation. Like SMA, the Tipitina Foundation is a Berklee College of Music City Music Network site. FULL ARTICLE HERE.

These are merely a few rare and unique opportunities to mentor Memphis youth through music education and unique performance opportunities. Please continue to assist our efforts and know that your gift is being put to use, celebrating the soulful past—and securing the bright future—of this legendary ‘Soulsville’ community. Thanks for your generous support.

Links:

• http://www.staxmusicacademy.com