Overview: The Uptown Music Collective’s Performance Program has been in operation since the founding of the school in 2000. It has grown from a series of yearly recitals, to its current calendar of over thirty public and private events each year. With the exception of the teacher’s yearly fundraising concerts, every performance on the Collective’s calendar is organized and run by the students themselves, with instructors and staff acting as coaches and mentors.

 The performers, mostly third or fourth year students, perform solo or together in duos, trios, and larger groups. Each group specializes in a style of music such as Rock, Classic Rock, Blues, Jazz and Acoustic music. The performers are supported by the Collective’s Music Technology students, as well as a group of first and second year students called Tech Monkeys.

 These two groups help transport, set up and run the sound system and other gear needed for each performance. The program is divided into three sections; recitals, major performances and general performances. 

Recitals: Recitals are held three times a year, two at Site: B during the fall and spring, and a third at the Collective’s annual Summer Music Festival. Recitals are geared toward first and second year students and are considered the training ground for future performances.

Major Performances: These occur twice a year, once in the fall and once in the spring. Held in larger venues, they are usually theatrical in nature and involve a large group of performers and crew. The Collective’s major performances have become popular community events.

General Performances:  General Performances are public and private events where Collective students are hired or invited to perform. These performances give older students valuable “real world” performance experience, playing in a wide variety of situations and styles.

The Performance Program is the focal point against which all of the other school programs are measured. The staff and instructors of the Uptown Music Collective believe that performance is the best test of a student’s skill, mental focus and their ability to express themselves musically. Regular performances give focus and meaning to the hours of daily study and practice that students of music must endure. Knowing they will soon face a day of reckoning gives Collective students that extra bit of motivation to pick up their bass guitar instead of their Playstation 3 controller. The staff of the Uptown Music Collective also credits their high success and retention rate to the inspiration and dedication created by regular performance experiences.

 Program History: The Uptown Music Collective’s Performance Program originally consisted of student recitals and the occasional community performance. Recitals were unadvertised events intended for students to perform for their friends and families. Community performances included private parties and regular appearances at the River City Jazz Festival, First Friday Arts Exhibitions, local Mardi Gras and July 4th celebrations.

 In 2004, the Uptown Music Collective put on its first major performance, a live theatrical interpretation of Pink Floyd’s immortal classic The Dark Side of the Moon. The show took place in a local hotel ballroom over the course of two nights and created such a buzz in the community that it actually sold out the second night, surprising both teachers and students.
For the next two years, the Collective’s Performance Program continued to evolve and grow. A balance was achieved between the three elements of the program, with recitals geared toward first and second year students, and the Major Performance and Community Performances aimed at the older, more experienced students. The Music Technology and Tech Monkey classes were developed to train stage, sound and light techs to help produce and run the shows as well as to involve all of the students in the school.

 In 2005, a video presentation was added to the Prog Rock Karnevil, a tribute to progressive rock. The videos included a series of original clips detailing a science fiction storyline, explaining and fleshing out the shows theme. The clips were written, shot and edited by Collective students, starting a new tradition that exists in the program to this day.

 In 2006, the Uptown Music Collective was invited to perform its spring show, Pink Floyd’s The Wall, at the Pennsylvania College of Technology’s Community Arts Center, a 3,300 seat, turn of the century theatre in downtown Williamsport. With more stage room to work with, the students built a 9 ft. tall, 30ft long wall out of painted card board boxes, building it and knocking it down each night as the onstage story developed. The show was the most successful show yet. A local paper, the Williamsport Sun Gazette, described the students as  “Astonishingly Talented” and the show as “an awesome live performance, worthy of anyone, Pink Floyd fan or not, having seen”.

 Today, the Uptown Music Collective’s major performances, community performances and recitals continue to set new records in attendance and number of students involved. According to long time fans they also continue to improve with each show. With a philosophy based on performance as one of the key measures of a student’s success, the way in which performance is taught and how the program develops, is at the forefront of the school’s growth strategy.