Kids and opera; usually they go together – well, like...kids and opera. Yet, every year, Hamilton Wings, an Elgin, Il, based organization, promotes academic and social success through the arts, boasts dozens of happy kids participating in Students Creating Opera to Reinforce Education, (SCORE,) with no pre-teenage angst or parental pressure.
The director of this unique program is Dr. Rise Jones, who founded Hamilton Wings in 1995, through an endowment from her late father.
"When my father passed away, my mother and I wanted to have a living memorial in his honor. Both my parents were dedicated to children learning, growth, and development. We decided to insure that all children in the community have the opportunity to access the arts in meaningful ways," Jones says.
Although the program is open to all children within the accepted age group, SCORE targets Elgin's District U-46, the second largest district in Illinois. Teachers and community leaders recommend students who are economically disadvantaged, have behavioral issues, live in high crime areas, or are simply not living up to their potential at school. The program, which runs from October through July, culminates in an opera, completely produced by the children.
Hamilton Wings especially focuses on the needs of five schools in the district that are currently on, or recently have been on the Illinois Early Academic Warning List due to poor performance or put on the back burner to concentrate on remedial education.
"Because of the cuts in the school system, many of the teachers are struggling to provide for arts experiences," Jones says. "We think the arts are so important in terms of being able to engage in a process where children can define and articulate their voice. Being able to communicate with others about their thoughts, their feeling, and their ideas is a meaningful way for the children to contribute to the community around them.”
Once they receive the recommendations, representatives meet with the students and their families to present an overview of the program and stress the importance of parental participation. The program expects parents to attend forums three times over the course of the program's year to discuss leadership roles within the family and the goals they hope to achieve.
"Parents and adults within the family are the first teachers and we want to honor that, celebrate it, and find ways to support it," Jones explains. "Also, it's important for children to have adults in their lives; it's meaningful for healthy development. We're on the same team supporting youth."
Parents are not the only members of individual families to influence the children. Alfonso Valdespino and Maggie Kohler, both 11, are younger siblings of veteran performers. "I was excited because my brother went through the program," Alfonso says. "I thought his opera looked really cool."
"My brother and best friend were in it last year so I was excited," Maggie adds. "I like acting and singing, and you get to use all of your talents."
Although Alfonso has been enjoying the entire process, he cites the professionals that volunteer with the group as a favorite aspect of the experience. "Getting to work with all the fun actors and artists makes our opera grow," he says.
More than 30 professional singers, actors, composers, instrumentalists, creative writers, designers, and directors present an overview of the many disciplines related to opera. Kids choose their areas of interest from such topics as Story/Character Development, Music Composition, Movement Direction and Choreography, Costume/Make-up, Set Design and Construction, and Stage Crew/Stage Management. They then divide into groups, at least one per student, where they begin the immersion process, along with like-minded kids.
Past participants are encouraged to get involved in their neighborhoods and mentor the current crop of budding artists. Eighteen-year-old veteran of SCORE, Ashley Brooks, stepped up to that challenge. "It's really good to work with the kids and watch their personalities unfold when they're working on their projects," she says.
Finally, rehearsals take place for two weeks before the opera, and accompanied by members of the Elgin Youth Orchestra, they perform the opera free in front of family and friends, and then once more for a general audience at Elgin Community College where participants earn college credit.
This year's production, "The Search for Happiness," has a very dramatic plot according to Maggie. "It's about a girl whose parents die and she finds out she has this power but she's stuck in her house. She helps her grumpy neighbor whose wife has died."
Although this opera is unlikely to be handed down from generation to generation, it is one of many tales told across cultures that unites us as people.
"Storytelling in cultures, families, and historical traditions are so important in connecting people; opera is simply a story set to music so it integrates all the art forms," says Jones. "It exposes young people to the art form and infuses opera with a young voice; and because they are infused in this art form, it exposes them to diversity."