Performing Arts Workshop
The city of New York hosted the maiden workshop of Child Spark Initiative children from African migrant and host communities in the United States of America in the Summer of 2017.
This workshop will be preceded by auditions in seven cities around the tri-State area. A total of fifty-four children will be invited to the workshop which holds in Manhattan.
The participating children are tutored in the art of singing by seasoned musicians and vocalists. They sing "LOVE IS THE GREATEST", the project theme song written by Tope Idowu and arranged by Richard Danley. They will be performing with a celebrity vocalist and a 35-piece orchestra.
An African children folk song will also be learnt, rehearsed and performed. The instrumentation has been arranged by a music producer from Nigeria who will interface with the children via the internet.
In addition to the singing and performances, the children will acquire goal setting skills and participate in the production of a stop-motion film based on a children book.
Themesong
Music is the most important aspect of this project. The song "LOVE IS THE GREATEST" is first performed by a group of seven children to creat the initial spark for the project. A 54-member choir of children between the ages of 10 and 13 years from communities around the USA will be established thereafter to perform nine other songs with concurrent performances from 25-member children choirs in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Canada, England, Haiti, Liberia and Jamaica.
Written and composed by TOPE IDOWU, the song was arranged by RICHARD DANLEY and performed by a group of seasoned instrumentalists in ..... Studios, in Manhattan, New York.
African Children Folk Songs
Eight children folk songs from the participating countries are performed by the children, a song from each country. This enables the children and the target audience to gain insight into the beauty of children at play in Africa and around the world; and appreciate the need to create more opportunities for disadvantaged children to aspire and reach for their dreams.
"Love Is The Greatest"
​
Love is the greatest of all
A never-ending joy
A fountain spurting
From your heart
Love is the kindness you show
Not the pain not the woe
You suffer
As though it’s fair
Look in the world and see
The love that surrounds us
How much of it do we deserve
What’s the worth of love we bear
Show love to everyone you see
And chase away all strife
The kindness you show
Reveals how beautiful you are....
Love is the passion you feel
The urge to make things right
When the world
Into slime drifts
Love is that helping hand
To pull your brother out
Of misery and
Despair
If we can act and we can give
Of ourselves and show true love
What a better world it would be
What a safer world to all
When we are capable of love
We beam our light so bright
We chase away the dark
And hope makes our world so brand new
Love… love… love….
When you love you’ve found
That peace that’s beyond reason
When you care you give
The strength for them to go on
When you help you love
And the world is all you ever dream it be