APV SCHOOL
In Jan/Feb of 2008, Chad Robertson (on a William J. Clinton Fellowship for Service in India) brought me to Ashram Paryavaran Vidyalaya, a village school in the foothills of Indian Himalayas. APV School aims to change society through a pedagogy rooted in meditation, child centered learning, and music.
The initial goal of my visit was to deliver professional recording equipment to the school and train the teachers on the basics of digital multi-track recording. In this training, I oversaw the recording of an album performed by the K-8 aged students in their native Hindi and Garhwali. Additionally, I taught English through the introduction of western style music into the school's music program, and helped to concept the documentary that Chad directed soon after.
In short, I got to hang out with a bunch of rad kids for a month, recording their songs and trying to explain to them just how exactly a guitar works.