 
After months of rehearsing, furious fundraising and high anticipation, 45 students from Robert A. Millikan Middle School and Performing Arts Magnet embark today on a once-in-a lifetime trip: performing at the 2008 Olympic Cultural Festival in Beijing.
Students from the Sherman Oaks school will be performing excerpts from their musical theater production of "Ain't Misbehavin,' " as well as ballet, jazz and hip hop dance numbers and musical pieces such as the Pink Panther remix and "Tequila" performed by the school’s jazz band.
Selection of the Millikan students to represent the U.S. is a coup for the Los Angeles Unified School District.
"These students have a unique opportunity to serve as ambassadors for our country, our community and our district while performing for the eyes of the world to enjoy," LAUSD Superintendent David L. Brewer said in a statement.
The group also includes two student violinists from the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts and a violinist from Harvard Westlake, a private school, who will also perform.
The trip was arranged through the nonprofit Intercultural Educational Exchange Assn., which contacted the LAUSD about potential student performers. Millikan was chosen from a list of performing arts schools and sent copies of some of its production numbers to the Beijing Cultural Committee.
The school received the invitation in January, said assistant principal Leah Bass-Baylis. They then had to figure out how to cover the $3,000 per student costs of the trip.
Read more Millikan students travel to Beijing for Olympic Cultural Festival »
Oliver Brown, a student in the music magnet at Hamilton High School, writes:
Pushing beaten half-stack amps and spray-painted guitar cases up Hollywood Boulevard, a group of musically minded high school students contended in the Blastbeat USA West Finals recently at the Musicians Institute. In a tremendous display of talent, these musicians came together to test their entrepreneurship and melodic ability in a nonprofit competition that is relatively new here in the United States.
 
Read more A battle of the bands »
Gabriella Charter School says it might be the only dance-themed public elementary school in the nation. We don't know if that's true, but it sounds like fun. Students get one hour of dance instruction daily -- ballet, jazz, tap, creative movement and world dance.
 
But dance is not just dance at Gabriella:
Twice a week, in "reading In motion" classes, kindergartners and first-graders twist their bodies into letters while singing corresponding sounds.
In a school where most of the students are English learners, vocabulary is introduced regularly and systematically −− parts of the body, directions, places in the room. And students improve graphing skills by plotting points to choreograph a dance.
Last night, the school held its recital -- the photos above -- and on June 19, the school will celebrate its first culminating fifth-grade class. Twenty-five students will participate.
Read more Dance charter school finds its rhythm »
Patrick Henry Middle School in Granada Hills was one of 10 schools awarded a $9,000 grants meant to encourage schools to stage productions of one of the young set's runaway hits, "High School Musical."
This photo shows the opening night performance last year of Disney's High School Musical live stage show at the Kodak Theatre.
The NAMM Foundation and Disney Channel announced the recipients of “Disney’s High School Musical: The Music in You Grant Program” at a recent trade show.
Patrick Henry was the only California school to win one. Its production is scheduled for June 12-13.
-- Mary MacVean
Photo by Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times
The Times' Molly Hennessy-Fiske wrote recently about a musical performed at Dorsey High called "Phi'La" that explored African American-Latino relations. This morning we received some photos of the production, which is expected to be performed at other schools in the city.
At left, Dorsey student Godwin Thurton-McDonald sings "Expectations," one of the many original songs in the show about a black student from Philadelphia who moves to L.A. and falls in love with a Latina classmate.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa presented Dorsey High drama teacher Jamal Y. Speakes and the drama department with a Certificate of Achievement for addressing African American/Latino racial conflict in the show.
-- Mary MacVean
Photos from Andreas Branch
I went to a musical at Susan Miller Dorsey High School in South Los Angeles last night and left humming. And I generally hate musicals.
The song? "Expectations," an original piece composed for ""Phi'La," a new musical about a black student from Philadelphia who moves to L.A. and falls in love with a Latina classmate. Imagine "West Side Story" with a backbeat, Spanish-language raps and step-team choreography against a graffiti-scrawled backdrop.
Writer/director Jamal Speakes, a Philadelphia native and Dorsey drama teacher, said the show can be seen as a response to recent interracial violence in the city, such as the brawl at Alain Leroy Locke High School last week or the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Jamiel Shaw Jr. on March 2.
"The message we’re looking to send is that the students who are part of that community are willing to do whatever they can to make a change," Speakes said this morning. "We stereotyped our roles to show how silly this is. We really want people to see that if we don’t do anything about it, this madness will really hurt people."
Read more Dorsey High musical looks at race »
Herbie Hancock, legendary jazz pianist and 11-time Grammy winner, will join students at a free concert this afternoon at 2 at Washington Preparatory High School, for the culminating event of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz program.
The concert will showcase the work of young artists who took part in “Bebop to Hip-Hop,” a collaboration between the L.A. Unified School District and the Monk Institute.
For the last year, 25 Washington Prep students studied daily with professional jazz and hip-hip artists. The class explored both forms of music, along with the influence of jazz on hip-hop.
The students today are performing their own compositions, combining both musical genres. Hancock, the institute's chairman, will perform alongside the students. The concert will also feature actor Bill Cobbs and renowned hip-hop performer DJ Spark.
Read more Herbie Hancock to join high school students in concert »
A concert that almost wasn't filled much of the Kodak Theatre on Sunday night with an enthusiastic audience of parents and other fans of more than 300 middle school musicians.
The fifth annual L.A. Unified Middle School Honors Music Program, along with a recent concert for elementary school musicians, had been eliminated last fall to save money. Julie Korenstein, one of four school board members who attended the concert, told the audience that she was outraged by the cuts, and went to Supt. David Brewer to lobby for the funds. When she was rebuffed, she sponsored a resolution to restore them. It was approved unanimously. Giving Brewer the benefit of the doubt, she said he wasn't familiar with the concerts and didn't know how important they were to the district's music program.
If Brewer was in the house Sunday, no one introduced him. His office this morning said the concert was not on his calendar. Korenstein said he attended the recent elementary schools honor concert.
She said this morning that she remained worried about the future of the concerts, given the prospect of budget cuts ahead. "There's no way I will vote for the budget" if the concerts are eliminated, she said.
The two concerts cost $150,000, according to her office.
(Coming clean: I attended the concert because one of my children performed.)
-- Mary MacVean
Oliver Brown, a student in the Music Academy at Hamilton High School, writes:
Regardless of the preparatory classes we take and the clubs we haunt, very little that we, as students, learn in school can be applied to the world that awaits us. The harsh and unforgiving employment atmosphere is decidedly hard to teach in an educational setting.
Searching for an environment that would prepare us for our musical and business aspirations, several friends and I set out to create a program that would simulate the obstacles and dilemmas that we will face in our futures.
Working with a student outreach foundation, Blastbeat, we founded a production company in our high school. This mini corporation, A6 Records, gathered a force of students dedicated to a like cause and set out to achieve our life goals on a smaller scale. A6 came to accomplish more than that. In the last year, an intense dedication to our program has been a driving force in many students’ lives, allowing for a workspace that provided a sort of home away from home. Working long hours, we exceeded the expectations of friends and teachers, moving beyond the confines set for a vagabond group of hopeful teenagers.
As we booked shows, developed bands and honed our skills, A6 members gained an acute and wary understanding of the business world. We interviewed advertisers and courted investors. Soon, we found that what had once been a feeble after-school club had become the true article, a well-run commercial enterprise.
Read more Music and the music business in high school »
Wonder what the future of this country sounds like?
Harmonious. At least if you judge by the 1,000 voices of high school students gathered in Disney Hall downtown today for a choral festival.
Row after row of black-tie tuxedos and vibrant dresses and gowns filled the seats in the modernist hall. The teenagers have practiced for months to master songs centuries old from countries throughout the world. Vivaldi, Astor Piazaolla, Georgia Stitt, and Gabriel Faure were the musical favorites of the crowd, sung without instruments or occasionally a piano.
Nearly 1,000 students from 28 high schools in five Southern California counties are taking part. Grant Gershon, music director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, warmed up the choral contingent with a few physical exercises -- "everyone do jazz hands"; and motivational speak: "It's amazing that you're all here from throughout Los Angeles to other counties around us, all to be in a community of musicians."
As the rehearsal escalated from a few vocal humming exercises to a full-on gorgeous, soothing version of Vivaldi's works -- the teenagers' faces, as varied as this region is, eased into smiles.
Read more High school students sing at Disney Hall »
Antero Garcia, an English teacher at Manual Arts High, writes:
When was the last time you tuned into MTV? Logged onto MySpace? Downloaded a popular ringtone or wallpaper for your cell phone? If this isn’t a part of your daily routine, you’re likely in for a surprise when it comes to a look at popular youth culture these days.
Then again, just about any billboard or newsstand magazine will clue you into the fact that we are immersed in hyper-sexualized and overtly violent forms of entertainment. Throw in graffiti, videogames, provocative clothing, and misogynistic lyrics and it’s easy to see how some of our students can be led astray by what they learn from the media. In fact, popular culture is the ultimate, hegemonic pedagogue that classrooms are either teaching in tandem with or resisting. One only needs to look at a phenomenon like the Soulja Boy dance and the many youth-created videos it inspired as an example of the way students are engaging, learning, and rewriting culture today.
Read more Reflections on youth culture »
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