Making an m-pact on the community
Members of m-pact posed with New Philadelphia Central Elementary students Elizabeth Johnson, left, Easton Butler, Santiago Ixcoy, Antonio Rojop Pastor, Thien Vo and Quintin Carpenter. The members of the group are Aaron Schumacher, back, Andy Degan, Jamond McCoy, Jeff Smith, Frank Hobbs and Daniel Weidlein.
When the a cappella group m-pact came to Kent State University at Tuscarawas Performing Arts Center in New Philadelphia last week, it was for more than just a single show. The group and the PAC joined forces for one important cause.
“It’s all about access; it’s all about giving students in our community access to the arts and something that they might not get a chance to see,” said David Mitchell, general manager of the Kent State Tuscarawas Performing Arts Center, on a recent trip to Central Elementary School in New Philadelphia.
There are two parts of the PAC’s educational mission: a Class Acts series where students come to the PAC and see a show for $1 and an educational outreach where the PAC brings shows to area schools at no charge.
“I think there’s something that is kind of special when, if you’re an elementary student, an artist comes to visit you, comes to the environment that you’re familiar with and engages with you in your school,” Mitchell said. “So that’s why we started going out into the schools and just making sure that they have access.”
Mitchell has seen countless times how students are moved by the music provided at the educational outreach shows.
“Whether they struggle with reading or writing or anything in their life, they can always come back to music. Music is all about making people happy and having that positive influence on your life. So anytime we can make that connection, that’s what we have to do,” Mitchell said.
The members of m-pact visited four schools on Thursday and Friday. They performed at Claymont Intermediate in Dennison, Central Elementary in New Philadelphia, Newcomerstown West Elementary and Ridgewood High School, where they provided a vocal clinic for the school’s a cappella group.
On Saturday they provided a vocal clinic for choir members from Dover, Indian Valley, New Philadelphia and Tuscarawas Valley high schools. The students then joined m-pact on stage for a performance of their final song, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours),” by Stevie Wonder.
The members of m-pact are committed to educational programs too.
“Education is super, super important to m-pact,” said Andy Degan, who is known as m-pact’s most prolific arranger. He won a 2019 CARA Award for Best Jazz Song for his arrangement of “Stay.”
“We all kind of join this group knowing that is a huge part of what we do. We go to a lot of festivals. We masterclass. We clinic with other groups. That’s really important for us, to just connect with kids and adults, to just anybody who’s looking to learn. We try to share what we know with everyone else,” Degan said.
Degan said he enjoyed performing at the elementary schools and said it’s something they don’t typically get to do.
The other members of m-pact are Aaron Schumacher, Jamond McCoy, Jeff Smith, Daniel Weidlein and Frank Hobbs, who recently joined the group and performed his first show with them at the PAC.
Claymont Intermediate School music teacher Clara Warner called the m-pact program fantastic and reported what she had heard from one of the students after the show.
“That was so amazing; I loved every second. They kept looking at me and smiling,” the student said.
The programs the PAC provide help with the music programs provided in the schools. In her music classes, Warner plans to have her students keep exploring by watching more performances by the group and learning more about them and their style of music.
“I loved it. I thought the kids were engaged. I thought the group was super talented. I’m glad that our school got to experience something like this,” Warner said, adding it means everything for the PAC to have these programs available for students to give them an experience they might not otherwise have.
The m-pact performance at Central School also was well received.
“I thought it was awesome. I think the kids are really into it. I just love the way they could imitate all the instruments with their voices. It’s amazing,” Central School Principal Marsha Reed said. “I think it exposes a lot of kids (to the arts). I don’t think a lot of kids in this school get to see a lot of different cultural events or different types of music. This is a chance of a lifetime for some of them. I’m so glad that they had an opportunity to come and visit us, and I hope they can do more in the future.”
Mitchell said the PAC’s educational programs are reaching about 10,000 students every year.
“It took a little hit during the pandemic, and we’re not quite up to that 10,000 mark that we have been in the past, but we’re getting close,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell is grateful for the funding they receive to present these programs at little or no cost. The educational outreach programs are offered free to the schools. In addition to donations, Mitchell also writes grants. For those wishing to support the educational programs, any donation amount from small to large is welcome. The money goes into a fund to offset the costs of extra hotel nights, fees for the artists and extra meal costs that it takes to bring artists in for several days versus a single performance.
The m-pact performance was supported by the GIG Fund, a program of Arts Midwest that is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional contributions from the Ohio Arts Council. Additional support for the performance and educational outreach activities was provided by Dr. Daniel and Mary Miller, the Dover Exchange Club, and individual donations to the Performing Arts Center’s Education Fund.
To learn more about the Education Fund or to make a donation to support these opportunities, visit www.kent.edu/tuscpac/educational-outreach.
“It’s a mission that we believe in at the Performing Arts Center that we need to provide access to the arts to all students in our community,” Mitchell said. “Sometimes I just wish we could do it faster and more often, but with the budgets that we have, we go as quickly as we can to get to all the school districts in the county.”