December 29 & 30 Songwriting and Digital Music Production Workshop Open to All Kids Ages 10-18

The Plugged In Teen Band Program in Needham will be holding a Songwriting and Digital Music Production Workshop on Thursday, December 29 and Friday, December 30. The first day of the workshop will take place at the Chestnut Street Teen Center at 1254 Chestnut Street in Newton Upper Falls. The second day of the workshop will take place at The Record Company at 960 Mass Ave in Boston. The workshop is open to all children, ages 10-18. While music experience is helpful, it is not required. The fee for the workshop is $175.

Plugged In is a non-profit teen rock band program teaching kids about using music to create positive change in the world. Three times a year, students perform in benefit concerts that raise money for charitable organizations chosen by the students themselves. At the beginning of each session, students participate in a town meeting type of event, called Community Engage. Students present causes important to them and then vote to determine what their end of session concert will raise money for. Plugged In is about bringing young people together through music, teaching them the importance of using their music to make positive change in the world, and helping them gain self-confidence.

This session, Plugged In students chose to raise money for the Dup15q Aliance, which provides family support and promotes awareness, research and targeted treatments for chromosome 15q duplication syndrome. Chromosome 15q duplication syndrome (dup15q) is a clinically identifiable syndrome which results from duplications of chromosome 15q11-q13. Chromosome 15q duplications are associated with autism spectrum disorders, developmental delay, learning disabilities/mental retardation, and seizures/epilepsy.

The December 29 & 30 songwriting and digital music production workshop will provide students the opportunity to learn more about Dup15q and social responsibility. They will also learn song-writing techniques from professional song-writers, write, perform and record an original song for a CD that will be sold to raise money for the Dup15q Alliance, and will learn digital music production. Students then perform their original songs at the January concert.

On the first day of the workshop, which will take place from 1:00-6:00 PM, a representative from the Dup15q Alliance will talk with the students about their organization's mission and the work they do. Later, students will break into groups led by professional songwriters and write songs based on their reactions to what they have learned and/or on a subject of their choice.

On the second day of the workshop, students will go to a professional recording studio, where a recording will be made of the students performing their original songs for a CD. Songwriting groups will attend one of two 4 1/2 hour session (11:00-3:30 or 3:30-8:00). Groups will rotate every 1 1/2 hours through three sections: practicing their original song, recording their song, and learning digital music production in a computer lab.

Plugged in student, Nelson Barnett, whose younger brother, Roland, has Dup15q, pitched the Dup15q Alliance to his fellow students at the Community Engage Evening this past October. Nelson talked about the rare occurrence of this particular chromosome disorder, approximately 1 in 30,000. He explained the severity of Roland’s profile being non-verbal, frustrated, anxious, behaviorally challenged and constantly interrupted by daily seizures. Given that Nelson is often witness to the occasional awkward, inappropriate, and stressful situations experienced during community outings with his brother, he called on his fellow musicians to support Dup15q Alliance as a means to promote awareness and recognition of people with disabilities. In closing, he mentioned that Roland’s 9th birthday coincidentally would fall within a week of the concert. “Roland doesn’t understand the concept of a birthday party, but he loves listening to music. A concert in his honor would be a very special way to celebrate him.”

This year, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston opened the Dup15q Center, the first multidisciplinary clinic in the world for children and adults with duplications of chromosome 15q. Dr. Ronald Thibert, director of the Dup15q Center at MGH, commented on Plugged In students choosing to support the Dup15q Alliance. "We are very excited to open the first of hopefully many Dup15q Centers here at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. The Dup15q Alliance is an amazing group of families and professionals and we are so happy that we were chosen by the students to benefit from the upcoming concert through Plugged In."

To register for the workshops and/or for more information about Plugged In, please e-mail srizkallah@comcast.net, call 781-956-4281 or go to www.pluggedinband.org.

For more information about the Dup15q Alliance, visit www.dup15q.org.

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