Mindful Music Moments presents Heroes. from City Silence & True Body Project on Vimeo.
Mindful Music Moments is a program started locally by Stacy Sims, with ArtWorks serving as fiscal agent, that encourages students to focus and positively prepare for the day ahead by hearing a recorded prompt accompanied by Classical music. Originally just at Cincinnati Public Schools' Academy of World Languages, it has since grown to include 75 schools and camps across five states, mostly in Ohio. Arts organizations allowing use of their recorded music include Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Opera, Columbus Symphony, Opera Columbus, Columbus Association for Performing Arts and Cleveland Orchestra.
But in May, Sims got permission to feature in the 40 participating Cincinnati schools a version of David Bowie's classic "Heroes" that was performed by David Byrne and a large choir in January at New York's Under the Radar Festival. It was done as part of Choir!Choir!Choir!, a drop-in public singing event started in Toronto in 2011. The video of students at Cincinnati's Academy of World Languages listening and being moved by the performance was recently posted to Vimeo.
"It's a beautiful piece of music and an exceptionally beautiful version," Sims told CityBeat. "We've had school shootings in our nation, and some young people have had to be heroes in their classrooms just to survive them. Or to overcome the stress of poverty or being refugees. So I thought this would be especially beautiful for our schools at the end of the year."
For more information about the program, which is expanding next school year, visit citysilence.org.
Watch Byrne and choir performing "Heroes" here:
