The Newport Festivals Music Lab showcased its second year of growth during performances at the Newport Folk Festival, with high school students taking the stage alongside established artists, Langhorne Slim and Nathaniel Rateliff.
The program, a partnership between Newport Festivals Foundation and the MET East Bay High School, provides local students the opportunity to learn “artistery”: forming bands, writing songs, and performing live music, as well as the business of musicianship. Students performed on both Friday and Saturday at the festival’s Foundation Stage, representing the culmination of year-long classes held every Tuesday and Wednesday throughout the school year.
“On Friday, we had Langhorne Slim come up and sing a song with the Music Lab program. And then on Saturday, we had Nathaniel Rateliff come perform. And those were the two highlights of the festival for me,” said Dan Swain, Director of Development and Programs for Newport Festivals Foundation.
The student performances represent part of a broader expansion in music education programs offered by the Foundation. This Foundation now operates free music lessons statewide, instrument donation programs, and weekly jam sessions, addressing what Swain describes as underfunded music education in public schools.
Chase Ceglie, who instructs the Music Lab classes with partner Chris Vaillancourt, spends entire school days with students from both the Providence and East Bay campuses of the MET School. The program accepts eight students per class based on auditions that evaluate willingness and teachability, rather than existing musical ability.
“I would come up with some ideas. Dan would, Chris would. And then we ended up auditioning a bunch of kids at the Met and we accepted eight in that first year based on their willingness and their teachability that we felt,” Ceglie said.
Students choose instruments and learn both individual skills and band dynamics throughout the year. The program emphasizes practical musicianship over traditional or classical music education approaches.
“[Growing up,] I wish I had teachers that are also musicians and artists that you can…mirror what they’re doing a little bit and learn how to play music that you’d actually listen to that reflects the landscape of what’s going on in modern music,” Ceglie said.
The curriculum extends beyond musical instruction to include business aspects of being a musician. Students learn about booking gigs, working with sound engineers, and other professional skills often overlooked in traditional music education.
“Even after the performance, I had to go up to them and say, make sure you thank your sound guy,” Ceglie said, describing the practical lessons embedded in the program.
Ceglie and Vaillancourt additionally invite guest speakers to classes to enhance the educational experience, including visits from music journalists and local working bands, such as Newport’s own Laden Valley. The program aims to provide students with a comprehensive view of musical careers.
For the upcoming third year, Ceglie plans to incorporate studio recording after being impressed by students’ songwriting abilities. Several students who performed at the festival wrote their own material, demonstrating skills that exceeded initial expectations.
“When they showed me one song specifically that they wrote…where I was like, oh, I know what next year looks like now, which is really perfecting these songs, making more, but focusing on studio time,” Ceglie said.
The program’s success connects to the foundation’s broader mission of expanding music education access. The free music lessons program now serves students in Newport, Providence, East Providence, and Westerly, with Warwick expected to join soon.
Any Rhode Island resident between ages 9 and 18 can receive 10 free music lessons through the program.
“People don’t believe us when we say that we have free music lessons. They think there’s some catch to it and there really isn’t,” Swain said.
The Newport Festivals Foundation covers all costs for the 10 free music lessons, through donations. This year, the Foundation additionally raised funding through its inaugural softball game on Thursday with teams comprised of Folk Fest members. Organizers plan to make an annual event.
Separate from the music education courses, the Foundation also operates two commnity programs. First, Music in Prisons is a program that brings music educators weekly to a women’s correctional facility in Cranston to teach songwriting and music theory. Secondly, the Foundation hosts weekly jam sessions at the District in Providence on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month.
The Music Lab performances featured collaborations that challenged both students and professional artists. Langhorne Slim performed “Subterranean Homesick Blues” by Bob Dylan with Friday’s student group, while Nathaniel Rateliff joined Saturday’s students for “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by the Rolling Stones.
“It actually is a pretty big ask” for artists to perform with students they’ve never rehearsed with extensively, Swain noted. “Most artists that play with our kids at the end of the performance say, this is the highlight of my festival.”
The collaborations provide students with validation and real-world performance experience. During Friday’s performance, Langhorne Slim spontaneously asked students to perform solos, creating unplanned learning moments.
“When you’re playing live music, someone’s just gonna look at you and say, you gotta go see what happens,” Ceglie said, describing the lesson students learned from the impromptu solos.
Ceglie measures the program’s success not by whether students pursue music careers, but by expanding their musical appreciation and understanding of professional musicianship.
“Success is them walking out with just a larger peripheral of music appreciation. How to listen to it a little deeper, how to see what the life of a musician really is so that it’s not as superficial,” he said.
The Music Lab program receives funding support from the 11th Hour Racing Grant Program, enabling what Ceglie describes as limitless possibilities for educational exploration and equipment needs.
For more information on these programs and to support them, visit https://newportfestivals.org/.
