Wolf Trap awards seven grants to DC-area high schools to fund performing arts projects

Projects span Prince George’s County, Arlington County, Fairfax County, Falls Church City, Loudoun County, and D.C. Public Schools.

Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts has awarded grants to seven local high schools across the Washington, DC area to fund music, dance, or theater projects as part of Wolf Trap’s Grants for High School Performing Arts Teachers Program. Projects will be in-person or virtual, and in some cases, students will be collaborating across schools and internationally.

Wolf Trap awarded 7 grants to DC-area high schools to fund performing arts projects for 2022-23. Photo by A.E. Landes.

This year’s grantees include teachers from PGCPS Virtual (Online) Campus (Prince George’s County); H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program (Arlington County); Herndon High School (Fairfax County); Potomac Falls High School (Loudoun County); Rock Ridge High School (Loudoun County); Meridian High School (Falls Church City), and The Duke Ellington School of the Arts (DC Public Schools).

Teachers applied for grants within one or more categories, including: Artist Residencies; Commissions; Master Classes; Technology in the Arts; Arts and the Environment; Arts Integration; and─new for the 2021-2022 academic year─Arts and Social Change.

“At Wolf Trap, we recognize that the arts can be a powerful medium for addressing community inequalities, so this year, we added a new category─Arts and Social Change─to our grants application,” said Cate Bechtold, Director, Internships and Community Programs. “We hope that the funds and platform we can provide through Wolf Trap’s Grants for High School Performing Arts Teachers Program help raise awareness about critical issues that affect our community, inspire dialogue, and offer solutions.”

Awardees’ projects include:

  • Dr. Donna Stancell, PGCPS Virtual (Online) Campus (Prince George’s County Public Schools, MD): PIECES: Year of Change, Year of Challenge

Working with a digital media consultant and videographer, students will perform a virtual piece about their experiences during the pandemic. This musical creative arts snapshot will give students the opportunity to remember and reflect on the past two years and to help inspire them to think about new ways to learn and prepare for the future. The virtual performance will premier in early June.

  • Risa Browder, H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program (Arlington County, VA):  Isaiah Chapman Commission for Strings & Percussion

Composer Isaiah Chapman will lead orchestra students through the composition process as he composes an original piece for strings and percussion to present in the Spring Orchestra Concert. Chapman will also speak with students about his experiences as a professional musician of color. The final composition will be performed with Mr. Chapman present in a spring orchestra concert.

  • Allison Devereux, Herndon High School (Fairfax County, VA): Xavier Foley Visits Herndon High School

Concert soloist and chamber musician Xavier Foley will teach a master class to Herndon High School and Middle School orchestra students. Foley will then perform a free evening concert that is open to members of the community.

  • Corinne Fox, Potomac Falls High School (Loudoun County, VA): The Great Johnstown Flood of 1889 One Act

Theater and dance students will collaborate with their social sciences and physics departments, local experts, and historians to create an original, theatrical drama based on the historic Johnstown Flood of 1889. Students will present their production to the community on April 23 and hope to perform the piece at the International Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland.

  • Jordan Markwood, Rock Ridge High School (Loudoun County, VA): Culturally Responsive Art Song Creation

In an effort to accurately reflect the diverse population of Virginia, composer B.E. Boykin was commissioned to compose an art song that will be presented to the Virginia Choral Directors Association as an option for the All-Virginia Chorus audition pieces. Students will learn about the composition process and use these skills to create art songs that reflect their own cultural diversity before presenting a culminating recital on May 19.

  • Mary Jo West, Meridian High School (Falls Church City, VA): The Peace Project

Students from Meridian High School will collaborate with students from Gems Academy in Dubai, UAE to define the word “peace” through the lens of their own cultural understandings. Students will step into the roles of researchers, creators, and performers to collaboratively produce a virtual International Youth Forum. As a component of the forum, students will learn about both electronic and traditional music composition in preparing for a virtual concert on April 18.

  • Kenneth Johnson, The Duke Ellington School of the Arts (Washington, DC): They Keep Coming

With the guidance of three teaching artists, theater students will explore the great tradition of African American music created as a way to process and respond to the world in which they live. Students will work to compile an original musical theater performance that looks both backward and forward, addressing the struggles for human rights.

Wolf Trap’s annual high school grants program acknowledges high-quality instruction and performance achievements of public high school music, dance and theater teachers. Awardees receive a financial grant in support of special projects that align with Wolf Trap’s performance and education priorities. For more information about Wolf Trap’s High School Grants Program visit wolftrap.org/grants.

Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, produces and presents a full range of performance and education programs in the Greater Washington area, as well as nationally. Wolf Trap features three performance venues: the outdoor Filene Center and Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods, both located at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, and The Barns at Wolf Trap, located down the road from the national park and adjacent to the Center for Education at Wolf Trap. The 7,028-seat Filene Center is operated in partnership with the National Park Service and annually showcases an extensive array of diverse artists, ranging from pop, country, folk, and blues to classical music, dance, and theatre, as well as multimedia presentations, from May through September. The Barns at Wolf Trap is operated by the Wolf Trap Foundation year-round, and during the summer months is home to the Grammy-nominated Wolf Trap Opera, one of America’s outstanding resident ensemble programs for early career opera singers. Wolf Trap’s education programs include the nationally acclaimed Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts, Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods, a diverse array of arts education classes, grants, and a nationally recognized internship program.

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