Barry Manilow loves Christmas music. “These songs are standards that come from the ’40s and ’50s and I’m crazy for music like that,” said the iconic singer. This explains his three studio albums of Christmas music recorded over his 45-year career, and his show A Very Barry Christmas, coming to the Amway Center on Saturday, Dec. 8.
But the Brooklyn native’s penchant for the holidays goes beyond the music. “It seems like it’s the only time of year that people stop hollering at each other,” said Manilow. And demonstrating his commitment to the season of giving, his foundation, The Manilow Music Project, will be donating a piano to Orlando’s Jones High School.
The piano won’t be alone. Manilow and the Amway Center have invited the community to bring new and slightly used instruments to the arena for donation. “I beg the audiences that if they have any instruments in their garages or their attic that are collecting dust to bring them down to the arena,” said Manilow.
“It means the world to us,” said Jones band teacher Jamaal Nicholas. “It’s an opportunity for the children to play on an instrument of quality and it is a demonstration that someone in the community cares about their participation in music and is supporting them.”
Jones was recommended to the project by the staff at the Amway Center.
Chorus teacher Andrea Green, who teaches piano classes on keyboards, is looking forward to giving her students time with the new instrument. “For students to actually feel a piano, that brings it to a whole new level,” she said.
Manilow, 75, started the project more than 10 years ago when someone asked him to get a sax for his daughter because her school was out of instruments. “So I started to do a little investigation and, sure enough, at high schools and middle schools all around the country, the first thing that goes are music and arts,” said Manilow.
The Manilow Music Project has conducted music instrument drives all over the country to assist local schools with their music programs.
This is the second time in a year that a celebrity has aided the Jones High music program. Earlier this year, Ellen DeGeneres presented them with $100,000 from Walmart to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Senior Jevon Baldwin was part of the group that went. The percussionist says that anything people donate to the music program will have a positive impact on the high school, located in Orlando’s low-income Parramore neighborhood. “Being in the neighborhood that we’re in, a lot of people can’t afford these instruments,” he said. “[Manilow is] helping generation after generation that’s coming in.”
Known for hits such as “Mandy” and “Can’t Smile Without You,” Manilow easily recalls the impact a piano had on his young life. “I was the geek of the neighborhood until I played the piano,” he said. “And then suddenly everything changed. I became popular because I was good at it and I was in demand.”
Baldwin, who also plays at his church, concurs on the benefits of music in his life. “God and music … really made me who I am,” he said. “It changed my in drastic ways. It made me not go the bad route that I could have went.”
“I hear it from teachers and from principals,” said Manilow. “These kids that take music classes, their grades go up, they learn to interact with other students and they become better people.”
Science tends to agree. A study published this year in the scientific journal Neuron found “musical training has the capacity to foster the development of non-musical skills across a host of domains, including language development, attention, visuo-spatial perception, and executive function.”
Jones’ music program was founded by Orange County teacher James “Chief” Wilson in 1950. “It was a time when there wasn’t much support for African Americans in the music classroom,” said Nicholas, who gradated as valedictorian from Jones in 2009. “We still have some instruments from way back then. Obviously we can’t use many of them because they’re in quite a state of disrepair.”
The school has one piano already, but Nicholas has plans for the new one. “We can use it for teaching of course,” he said. “And we can debut it at our concert in the spring.”
Nicholas does have something of a specific request as far as donations go. “I need a new oboe,” he said. But ultimately, he said they will be happy to care for anything that they can get. “Anytime we get something new it’s like Christmas around here.”
People who wish to donate instruments can bring them to the Amway Center in exchange for a pair of tickets to the show.
The arena will be accepting donations from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. through Friday and then an hour before the show on Saturday. Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. show are $18.75-$246.25. Details can be found at amwaycenter.com.
