Excelsus Music Collaborators

Excelsus provides music education to school-​age children in the Long Beach area. There are After School programs at Emerson, Twain, Bixby and Garfield elementary schools. Excelsus follows and enhances the LBUSD curriculem. There are two community bands: Jazz Band and the Classic-​Rock-​Jazz Band which meet once a week after school. All of the faculty are professional musicians who love to teach and the goal is to inspire kids to play. In several cases, kids who did not make the school band, made the school band after spending time in Excelsus programs.
I am part of the Women’s Choir which just finished its Winter-​Spring session. It was wonderful. Director Jen Pratt combines humor and patience in a wonderful way. Accompanist Nancy Lanpher, who recently performed vocally at Carnegie Hall, can play, sing, turn pages and help with instruction simultaneously. There are currently about 12 women in the group but there is room for 20. It meets at a residence weekly on Wed. nights. We recorded our music and made a CD. Cool!