James Fauntleroy, 4x GRAMMY Award-winning songwriter, artist and producer (Drake, Rhianna, Justin Timberlake) brings the Beat Garden series to the Stax Music Academy in Memphis with an inviting space filled with technology and plenty of “gardeners” to help plant the seed of computer literacy through music for kids today. Young people will experience the basics of music production and create beats using various Roland instruments. James Fauntleroy’s Beat Garden is a partnership between Stax Music Academy, 1500 Sound Academy, and Roland.
- What: Beat Garden, Stax Music Academy, 1500 Sound Academy, & Roland
- Where: Stax Music Academy, 910 E. McLemore 38106
- When: September 30, 2003, 3-6 pm
- Adults: Will receive vouchers to visit the Stax Museum of American Soul Music next door free
Participants must register HERE through Eventbrite.
The event is September 30 from 3-6 pm and is free for middle school and college age students. Adults will receive vouchers to visit the Stax Museum of American Soul Music next door.
In preparation for the Beat Garden event, where youth participants learned to create a beat using professional Roland gear, Fauntleroy took inspiration from a technology assembly he attended in school, which largely inspired his successful career. By creating the inviting space filled with technology and plenty of gardeners to help plant that seed for kids today, he hopes to spark that same passion, especially for kids who would otherwise not have had the access to it.
“When I was young and growing up in South Los Angeles, we didn’t have exposure to this technology at all,” said Fauntleroy. “One day, a guy came to our school and held a technology assembly.?It was not that long, and he did not go that deep, just enough to open my eyes to the possibilities out there with coding, programming, and this entire world of emerging tech at that time. That hour completely blew me away and changed my life forever. I was hooked! I always knew that when I had the chance, I would come back and do the same for the kids in my community,” he said.
“This is such a great opportunity for our students and they are very fortunate to be exposed to this,” said Stax Music Academy Executive Director Isaac Daniel. “Not everyone gets to have this kind of experience and we are very grateful to James and his team.”
Fauntleroy will plant the seed of computer literacy with teens in Memphis at the Stax Music Academy through the basics of music production, while providing a space to create their own beats using various Roland instruments and tools including Roland Cloud, AeroCaster, AIRA Compact and more.
Visit Stax Music Academy, 1500 Sound Academy, and Roland.
ABOUT STAX MUSIC ACADEMY
The Stax Music Academy is a premier afterschool and summer music institute that provides industry-centric music education combined with creative youth development programming. It is the only music institute in the world that focuses on the musical art form created at Stax Records in the 1960s and 70s and how the evolution of that music can translate into the renditions of Stax music students are creating today. The Stax Music Academy is located at the original site of Stax Records in the community known as Soulsville USA and shares a campus with the Stax Museum of American Soul Music and The Soulsville Charter School.