School of Fish is an interactive community engagement program dedicated to providing quality music education to students of all ages and backgrounds in Louisiana. School of Fish is unique in that it uses only new compositions to provide entry points for classical music education. Yiseul LeMieux, the creator and composer of this program, built each piece with a specific musical concept while introducing an imaginary fish. Through games, sing-alongs, and even creating their own works of art, students exercise their imaginations, learn about classical music, and have fun! Our program can be adapted for groups of any age, size, or setting, and can be used to integrate any curriculum or subject matter.
Many schools throughout Louisiana have little or no arts programming. We will provide monthly, interactive performances of new music throughout the state for students and audiences of all backgrounds. Yiseul LeMieux has created an entire ocean of vibrant fish, with charming cartoons and musical compositions to introduce each of them. Rhaea D’Aliesio has written lyrics telling the story of each fish, but the names and experiences in select sections of each piece are adaptable. This way, after consultation with the students’ classroom teacher, the students’ names and experiences can be integrated into the pieces themselves!
How it works: Yiseul LeMieux and Rhaea D’Aliesio have written songs about imaginary fish, each demonstrating a specific musical concept. The lyrics of these songs include placeholder spots with generic student names, adaptable to feature the names of students in participating classes.
Collaborate--School of Fish consults with classroom teacher to determine the appropriate musical concepts to explore in our performance.
Imagine--Before the scheduled performance, the teacher leads students in our Imagine Fishlesson plan. They are introduced to our imaginary fish and create their own fish, including its name, background, and an illustration. When completed, the classroom teacher sends scans of the students’ work to School of Fish.
Integrate--School of Fish integrates the students' names and fish into our composed materials, selected according to the musical concepts discussed with the classroom teacher.
Explore!--Students explore classical music, delighted to have their own names, creations, and artwork featured in our interactive performance!
Our goal is to unleash students’ imaginations and bring fun, creativity, and vibrancy to their lives by using new compositions as a springboard for a new perception of classical music. We want to introduce students of all ages to classical music in unexpected ways, giving them unforgettable experiences, and we believe we can do that anywhere and with anyone. While it is our goal to collaborate before our performances, School of Fish is proud to offer interactive classical music experiences to schools and community programs of all backgrounds and resources. Many of these do not have an opportunity to collaborate or participate in the Imagine Fishlesson plan prior to the performance. This is no problem at all! We bring the art supplies and create works of art together in our performance. In 2018, School of Fish performed two interactive sessions at St. Aloysius Parish Elementary School and sessions for three different locations of the East Baton Rouge Parish Housing Authority. These performances were invaluable for us in seeing our program at work. Students, teachers, and administrators all dove into our imaginary world, sang along, and played our games. Students laughed and cheered when their names appeared within our pieces, and Beth Bordelon, music teacher at St. Aloysius Parish School, told us, “I'm thrilled you all were able to come share the program with the students. What a WONDERFUL opportunity! Great exposure to new music, composition as well as a terrific review of the elements of music: beat, rhythm, etc., but I loved the introduction to more complicated meter in such a simple way. BRAVO!”