A new documentary about the coming together of two local student choirs demonstrates the power of music, fellowship and community-building.
The documentary will be released on Thursday, June 23, at 10 a.m., chronicling the performance last April of the choirs from Friends School of Baltimore and City Neighbors High School. The film will be available on the website of the local nonprofit Music United (music-united.org/unitythroughmusic), and on all Music United social media (@musicunitedinc on Facebook and Instagram).
The collaboration is part of an initiative developed by Music United, which was established by 16-year-old Harrison Fribush in 2021. A rising junior at Friends School, Harrison formed the organization to build on the success of his 2019 bar mitzvah service project Music Matters Now, which raised awareness and funds for music education programs in Baltimore City.
Music Matters Now united the middle school choirs of Krieger Schechter Day School and the Cardinal Shehan Catholic School. Under the direction of Fribush, then a KSDS student, the school choirs met for the first time in January of 2019 for a morning of singing, collaboration and community-building.
The effort culminated in the release of a documentary chronicling the project, which garnered 100,000 views, and launched a fundraising effort for two local music programs. Nearly $12,000 was raised, and the two choirs appeared in 2020 on ABC’s daytime talk show “The View,” singing a medley of songs — including John Lennon’s “Imagine” and Diana Ross’s “Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand)” — with Broadway star Billy Porter on the national observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
With this new partnership, Music United is expanding Music Matters Now’s efforts of uniting two schools to more of a community-wide effort. The Friends School and City Neighbors High School collaboration will kickstart an effort to unite additional school music and performing arts programs throughout the Baltimore region.
“We aim to demonstrate the critical role music and performing arts play in connecting communities and bringing people together,” Harrison said. “We have an opportunity to bring Baltimore youth together through a medium that everyone can get behind.”
Approximately 50 Friends and City Neighbors students participated in the April performance and new documentary. As a group, they rehearsed Bill Withers’ 1977 classic “Lovely Day” (with an arrangement by Robert T. Gibson), and the effort culminated in a final filmed performance. The choirs also shared a meal and worked together.
The collaboration led to a fundraising effort, with 50% of funds to be contributed to the City Neighbors High School Music Program. The remaining funds will enable Music United to launch its widespread programming.
Extensive fundraising will begin with the June 23 debut of the documentary.
For information, email musicunitedbaltimore@gmail.com or call 410-922-1447.
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