Durham Charter School’s orchestra is made up of middle schoolers who often picked up an instrument for the first time thanks to the band. But this summer, they are looking to capitalize on a recent moment of internet fame – sharing some of their songs with the world and uplifting a blossoming school program.
Instructor Daniel Levin coached his group of a few dozen young musicians in the biggest space Manifold Recording could offer last Thursday. After an extensive set-up and tuning process, the orchestra dove into a hours-long recording session of their covers of popular songs – ranging from music by ABBA to Nina Simone to the Fugees.
“You have two notes to prove how great you are…make it count,” Levin said to the ensemble after returning from a break and starting recording of “Lay All Your Love On Me.”
The opportunity and idea to record arose after the public charter school’s students completed a three-day trip to the nation’s capital where they played in libraries and other schools. One particular performance was filmed by a library visitor surprised by how well the young musicians played – and the videos went viral on TikTok, with people celebrating both the students and Levin.
“The kids started sending me messages a few days after the tour and said, ‘We’re famous,’” Levin said. “I didn’t even have TikTok – and then it just started to grow, and now we’re close to 3 million views on these [clips].”
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James Cabrera, an eighth-grade violinist in the program, said it was “crazy” to see how many people were reacting to the 45-second clips. It built on an experience that was already special since many of the students had never visited Washington D.C. before, let alone doing so to play their music.
“We were expecting just, like, a normal performance in Washington…just the people who were there, saw us, and that’s it,” Cabrera said. “But once we saw the recording, we were like, ‘Oh no, this was something serious. We’re going to go worldwide, there are people from all over the place watching us.’ It’s a new step where we [were] not just [playing] in Washington, we’re in the whole world now.”
To capitalize on the interest, the ensemble booked time at Manifold to tape an album of some of their covers. The hope is to further expose people to the investment the public school is making in the performing arts and to celebrate the hard work of some of the first musicians in Levin’s program, which just finished its third year.
Jada Caudle, who plays the keyboard, is one of those students. She said the recording session was among the highlights of her time with the orchestra.
“It was very cool to see how it worked there, how organized they were when it came to sound-checking and even placing where a certain string player should be,” said the eighth grader. “Also, it was kind of funny because we were able to mess up and still feel very comfortable around each other since the orchestra is just cool with each other like that.”
Daniel Levin (standing) speaks to his orchestra students during their session at Manifold Recording on July 10. (Photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
A sound engineer sits and listens in the mixing room while the Durham Charter School Orchestra plays one of their tunes. (Photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
The trip to Manifold and project of creating a record is part of Levin’s strategy of teaching the students a professional musician mindset before slowly building their skills and technique. An accomplished cellist himself, he sees the strategy as one that helps the students far beyond just the recording studio or performance space.
“The thing is,” Levin said, “it’s not about [that mindset] so that they can become a pro. It’s so they know what life has to offer to them. That they know there’s a richness of experience, emotion and nuance as a human being, which they can experience through music or dance or [other performance arts]. What they do afterward is going to be informed by the fact they had this [recording] experience.”
And his students embrace that message – with Caudle saying the efforts to overlap music with other areas of education are beneficial to her.
“I want people to realize how dedicated [Levin] is for us to be able to express our musical interest – when it comes to being a strings player, singing or even dancing,” she said of her instructor. “He’s really about to incorporate us being able to play into other curriculum and it’s helped a lot of us emotionally and physically. Honestly, we just really appreciate him – and since I’ve been here this long and I’m picking up a whole bunch of other instruments just from him teaching me how to play piano, I’m super grateful for him and I hope others can see that too.”
After the recording session, Levin sent the music files to an engineer he regularly works with in New England, and they hope to have the finished versions back in a few weeks. As of Thursday, there is no release date for the album as the orchestra and school will examine the copyright rules from playing covers of songs and pull a distribution plan together.
But when people can listen to it, Cabrera said he hopes it inspires others to push their boundaries and expand their musical interests just like performing with the Durham Charter School Orchestra has done for him.
“Try playing an instrument,” said the middle schooler, “find whatever you like, listen to other music genres – I know you’re going to like it, I promise. You’ve just got to find the right one [for you.]”
Featured photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.
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