Classroom Cantatas Online Library Opens

In 1990, the Cantata Singers developed a unique collaborative program with the Boston Public Schools, called Classroom Cantatas, in which elementary, middle and high school students create and perform their own musical “cantatas.” The program has since touched the lives of thousands of children.

In residencies that range from four-week after-school workshops to 18-session semester-long classes, students from participating schools work with Teaching Artists—musicians from Cantata Singers—to compose original songs about subjects they are studying in class or about larger cultural and historical issues. Working with the Teaching Artists, the students choose or create texts; then, in small groups, they compose songs from those texts, which are translated into standard music notation and assembled into larger cantatas.

The program culminates in a performance where all participating schools jointly present their work to an audience of teachers, families and friends.

In over two decades of Classroom Cantatas, students have composed and performed over 300 songs. Now most of that material has been made available online, at www.cantatasingers.org/community/online-library.

The library contains engraved scores for classroom cantatas and, in many cases, recordings of the music. The cantatas and recordings in this library are a resource for classroom teachers who need a catchy tune to help their students remember a math concept; music teachers looking to incorporate composition into their own classes; or anyone wishing to share our collective history and culture—from the civil rights movement, to stories of immigration and celebrating diversity—with young people.