We share in the sadness and shock over the recent shooting at Sandy Hook. We had just returned from singing with 500 kindergarten and first grade students when we heard the news, and we were devastated. We hope for a meaningful national conversation about how to prevent future tragedies and we will continue to try to bring communities together through song.
What’s New with Two of a Kind:
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As always, our favorite thing about our job is singing with kids. We had many opportunities to do that this past year in all kinds of places from schools, pre-schools and libraries, to outdoor concerts, arts centers, museums and festivals.
Sing Me Your Story CD
2012 saw the release of our new CD “Sing Me Your Story”. We received some great reviews and won several awards including Parents’ Choice and Creative Child CD of the Year. We submitted for the Grammy awards, and although we were not nominated, it was an interesting process and got our CD into many new hands. Recently, our song “The World is Not Your Garbage Can” won 2nd place in the Children’s Category of the USA Songwriting Contest! Click here to order.
New DVD!
We made our first full-length DVD this year! Rodney Whittenberg of MelodyVision filmed our CD release concert in February at The Colonial Theatre, and we worked with him to create a DVD featuring both live concert footage and music videos. We loved working with the students at the Friends School Haverford for some of the videos, and of course we included our sons as well. The DVD is now available for purchase. We had a successful Kickstarter Campaign to help fund the DVD and also received a grant from Pennsylvania Performing Artists on Tour. Thanks to all of our wonderful fans, friends & family for supporting us. Click here to order the new DVD.
You can watch two of the music videos from our new DVD here:
We did many songwriting residencies this past year including at Agnes Irwin Lower School, the Friends School Haverford and Interparish Lutheran School. We returned to Eisenhower Elementary in Camp Hill, PA for their Honor the Elders Project where we helped students turn oral histories into songs. The students had interviewed elders in their community and we worked with them to create original songs from those stories. The project culminated in a moving concert paying tribute to the people who had shared their lives with the students. Besides singing their original songs, all the students sang “Tell Me Your Story,” a song we had written for this district.
Jenny has been so inspired by this work that she wants to begin some new projects including a photo collage video to go with the song “Tell Me Your Story”. We would love you to contribute, so if you have any photos you’d like to share of intergenerational family members together, and old photos of elders in your family, we’d be thrilled.Digital photos can be sent to david2kind@gmail.com. To get an idea of the type of format we are envisioning, check out our video for “Love Makes a Family”:
We look forward to continuing to perform and make music for children. As always, we can’t do it without your help so please let us know if you have places for us to perform: schools, libraries, concert venues, zoos, aquariums, museums, performing arts centers, parks, camps, religious institutions and special events. We wish you a rewarding and relaxing holiday and a fun-filled and safe new year.
What’s New with the Heitler-Klevans Family:
This is a momentous year for us, as Ari & Jason finish their high school career and prepare for college. They have done extremely well in high school including getting National Merit Commendations, and we are immensely proud of them. We are even more proud that they are nice young men – kind, caring and possessing strong social consciousness. We do not yet know where they will go to college or whether they will go to the same school. Check back with us in April. Both are interested in studying science and continuing to participate in music.
Here are a few of their music highlights from this past year:
Performing with the Festival of Choirs (5 HS choirs) at Lincoln Center
Jazz Band was given Superior with Distinction rating in the regional jazz band cavalcade putting them among the top 5 jazz bands in the region.
Excellent performances in “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”, Touring Ensemble (show choir) and Sons of Pitch (student-run male a cappella group).
Ari went to PMEA District band, orchestra and choir last year and has qualified for all three this year.
Jason went to PMEA District choir and band as well as Regional band last year and has qualified for District band, orchestra and choir this year.
Great performances with Two of a Kind!
Jenny continues to teach one elementary school and several pre-school music classes in addition to performing with Two of a Kind. She also did some conference planning with NERFA (Northeast Regional Folk Alliance) and is beginning work on the Children’s Music Network International Conference that will take place in the fall of 2014.
Jenny is President of the Cheltenham Vocal Performing Arts Boosters this year as Cheltenham Music Theatre celebrates 50 years. So far, the fundraising and activities have been very successful due to a great group of parents. Up next – preparing for the musical “Grease”! Jenny is looking forward to shopping at our new neighborhood food co-op, enjoying friends and family, yoga & walking, reading good books and seeing lots of movies. She is not looking forward to filling out all the financial aid forms, and becoming an empty-nester all at once. David continues to enjoy performing with Two of a Kind as well as our grown-up group, Acoustic Blender. He plans to branch out musically a bit this year – he got a new electric guitar recently, and he promised our sons that he would get back in shape on the trumpet so they could play some brass trios together. He is on the board of The Children’s Music Network (a role Jenny has played in the past as well), a wonderful organization of which we have been members for many years. He spends way too much time on Facebook, particularly posting political stuff and playing online Scrabble. He should spend more time going to the gym. He is also not looking forward to being an empty-nester, but he is trying to look on the bright side of this exciting new chapter for our family.
