Famous actor and composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, one of the great figures of Broadway and Hollywood musicals of the past decade, surprised a group of students who performed two of his songs at an event in George Washington Educational Campus on Friday. where they paid tribute to him.

The event was organized in gratitude on some musical instruments the school received as a donation from the first educational program conducted by the Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation since 2020, when a health crisis was set due to the coronavirus pandemic. It is a philanthropic entity of the Latin Recording Academy that promotes music and its new talents.

Musical instruments, mainly guitars and other stringed instruments, were donated to the George Washington Educational Campus, the Grammy Foundation said in a statement released today.

The gesture and the surprise

Approximately 800 students from this school in Upper Manhattan and along with a large number of Latinos, attended the event where their classmates interpreted. We’re not talking Brunoas well as the Oscar -nominated theme two wormsboth written by Miranda for the successful Disney film Attractivewho won the coveted statuette for best animated film on March 28th.

Lin-Manuel Miranda surprised the youth upon coming to school to see the homage to his work as a composer.

“It’s fun to see for yourself how the incredibly talented students at George Washington Educational Campus have interpreted my work and brought their peers to their feet!” Miranda said later.

“I am so grateful to be here with the Latin Grammy program in Schools to support their dreams,” he said.

A conversation about Miranda

Prior to the presentation, students participated in a conversation about Lin-Manuel Miranda directed by talented actress and singer Bianca Marroquín, famous for being the first Mexican figure to star in a play in Broadway.

“We live in a world with little space for creativity, and art allows our students to explore their creativity and unlimited possibilities,” said Zulaika Velázquez, the school’s artistic director, in her introduction .

The performing arts program at the George Washington Educational Campus was launched by Velázquez in 2015, with former director Juan Villar.

For the past seven years, Velázquez and his students have worked hard on their productions, and as a result of that effort, the program will expand in September to include a teacher, Willi Mena, who will focus on dance and choreography. . of the Latin Grammy. The program has been rotating since 2015 but there is no full-time teacher.

The record though

Lin-Manuel Miranda was the man who rejuvenated the genre of music in theater and cinema. And incidentally, that demolished Latino stereotypes for the general public.

He was 19 years old when he wrote his first play In the Heights, and became a hit on Broadway. Sure, not comparable to hamiltonholding the record for Tony’s nominations (16) and taking home 11 (a record shortfall for The producers). In 2021 it premiered Attractivefrom Disney, along with his songs.

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