On a toasty Thursday afternoon at Edna Brewer Middle School, about two dozen eighth graders filled the risers in the auditorium, belting out the lyrics to That’s What Friends Are For by Dionne Warwick. Keenan Foster directed the choir, signaling to the altos, tenors, and sopranos when to come in.
The students are preparing for the upcoming East Oakland Vocal Festival—the second annual concert featuring more than 100 East Oakland students showcasing the vocal skills they’ve honed over the year.
2nd Annual East Oakland Vocal Festival
Date: Wednesday, Apr. 24
Time: 6 p.m.
Location: Castlemont High School Phillip Reeder Auditorium
Free tickets can be reserved online
“Art and music have saved my life, being from the inner city. And I’ve seen it save other people’s lives,” Foster said. “And I’ve seen how with music, you do better in chemistry and science and reading. You’re better able to tackle your work, being musically inclined.”
To revive the legacy of choral performance in Oakland schools, Foster and his organization Town Business Inc, have partnered with Elevate Oakland, a local nonprofit that supports music and arts education in public schools, to provide vocal classes to East Oakland youth for the second year in a row.
Both organizations grew out of a need for more arts and music instruction after years of budget cuts saw those programs being slashed in schools—especially at schools where families may not be able to fundraise to continue providing those sorts of programs. The goal is to make arts education just as indispensable as other subjects. Elevate Oakland was co-founded in 2011 by Oakland native and musician Sheila E., Oakland jazz club owner Yoshie Akiba, singer Lynn Mabry, and entrepreneur Jason Hofmann.
“People tend to think that music and the arts take the sideline to things like STEM, but there’s all this research that shows aside from music being a creative outlet or potentially something students can develop skills around and become professional musicians, there’s a social and emotional benefit from students getting to engage in music and arts and creativity from a young age,” said Natalie Cassidy, the program director for Elevate Oakland.
Wednesday’s showcase will be held at Castlemont High School, where Foster teaches choir. The concert will feature students from Castlemont, Elmhurst United. REACH Academy, Edna Brewer, Urban Promise Academy, and Coliseum College Prep Academy. Tickets are free and can be reserved online.
Foster wanted to start the vocal program with Elevate Oakland because of what he saw when he first joined the faculty at Castlemont. Foster, who has also worked as a music producer for artists like Too $hort and Mac Dre, attended Castlemont and was a member of the Castlemont Castleers, an acclaimed high school singing group that was prominent in the 1950s through the 1990s. Four years ago, he joined the staff at Castlemont because he wanted to give back to his community.
Foster has dreams of reviving the Castleers, but he realized more ground work was required.
“When I got to Castlemont, nobody could sing. I realized that all the vocal music had been cut from elementary and middle school for 25 or 30 years,” Foster told The Oaklandside. “What we have to do is go back to the elementary and middle schools first, and then by the time they get to Castlemont or whatever high school they get to, they can sing.”
The vocal program collaboration began in 2022 and this year serves about 300 students in OUSD, and also recently launched programs at the elementary school level in Emeryville. The idea is to create continuous programming, starting in second grade, across feeder schools in East Oakland so that students have the opportunity to continue vocal classes as they move from elementary to middle to high school, Cassidy said.
Each week, teaching artists visit the schools to give lessons in vocal leads, scales, songs, and performances. Their roles include more than just teaching the technical singing, and often, they step in to be role models or parents.
“I think the most challenging part for me is to see how many of the kids come with issues—grown adult issues,” said JaCoree Prothro, a vocalist teaching the Edna Brewer choir students. “We try to get buy-in from them and to get them to elevate and open their mouths to sing. Once they see that they actually have a voice, it changes everything.”
The choir program is new at Edna Brewer this year, although the school’s existing music program is renowned, particularly its jazz band, which was featured in the Pixar film Soul. At Wednesday’s showcase, Edna Brewer students will sing “On A Clear Day,” as arranged by Phillip Reeder and Foster, and Healed by Donald Lawrence. Edna Brewer students will also join all the vocal program students to sing renditions of That’s What Friends Are For and Flowers by Miley Cyrus.
The concert will also feature string accompaniment by the San Francisco Symphony.
“Listening to these vocal kids starting in the second grade, how they’ve grown when they get to the fourth and fifth grade, how they’ve grown when they get to seventh and eighth grade, and when they get to high school,” Foster told The Oaklandside about his favorite aspects of his work. “I remember when you couldn’t even hold a tune, and now you’re a soloist. I’ve seen it, and it’s a wonderful thing.”
