Kids & Family

TV Spot for Rye Country Day School Student-Musicians

Upper School students Chase Goddard and Austin Weber in 2012 founded "A-Chord with Kids," bringing RCDS musicians to the Carver Center in Port Chester. Here's their spot on "Teen Kids News."

A volunteer group founded by a pair of Rye Country Day School students is receiving special recognition this week through a popular teen news program.

Last year, RCDS students Chase Goddard and Austin Weber founded “A-Chord with Kids,” which brings student musicians to the Carver Center in Port Chester to work with kids there.

In the video above from Emmy Award-winning TV show “Teen Kids News,” Goddard—a piano and saxophone player who also teaches at New Rochelle’s SongCatchers, according to a bio posted on A-Chord with Kids’ website—explains the impetus behind A-Chord with Kids this way: “Music has a big impact on us and we really wanted to share music with everyone here because they may not have the privilege to have enough money to buy an instrument.”

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Weber—who includes voice, guitar, music theory and percussion among his areas of study, and is lead singer with the Lagond Honors Band—says in the Teen Kids News video that Carver was receptive to the idea of A-Chord with Kids.

“We came here and we went to one of the directors here and we asked if we could start this program, and through those cahnnels we were able to get the program off its feet,” he said.

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The 4-minute spot on Teen Kids News features interiews with both teens, as well as with RCDS student instructors and clips of the instruction.

According to a notice posted by RCDS, more than 20 students have volunteered in the program since last year, offering lessons in piano, saxophone, voice, guitar and more.

An open letter posted on A-Chord with Kids’ website by Carver Director of Youth Programs Jacqueline Pezzuello reads, in part: “As the Director of Youth Programs at the Carver Center, I have had the privilege of observing the volunteer instructors at work and have seen the growth in music appreciation and confidence in the children being instructed. These young men and women instructors are encouraging and patient with the children.”

More information about A-Chord with Kids is available here.


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