Broadway Bound Kids to hold annual benefit concert to support performing arts education

Broadway Bound Kids, the nonprofit that provides performing arts education to New York City students K-12, will be hosting their fourth annual benefit concert, Empower State of Mind, on Feb. 2 at City Winery in Manhattan at 7:30 pm. The evening will include show-stopping performances by theater legends who have starred on the Broadway stage. The participating performers include Kate Baldwin (Chicago), Kelsee Kimmel (Hell’s Kitchen), Storm Lever (Six), Olivia Donalson (Six), Daniel Quadrino (Wicked) and Jacob Keith Watson (Ragtime), among others.

 

During the benefit, they will also be honoring The PATH Fund, Inc.  and its founders, Donnie Kehr and Cori Gardner, who will receive the Broadway Bound Legacy Award.  PATH is a NYC nonprofit that provides scholarships, mentoring and funding for aspiring and professional artists in the music and theater community.    

Broadway represents the highest achievement of musical theater, and for kids who love to sing, dance, act and aspire to perform on stage, BBK gives them the chance to pursue their dream. The students take classes, workshops, summer programs and master classes with Broadway professionals and put on full scale musical productions. They also take trips to see Broadway shows.    

 

Classes are tuition free for 86% of the students, and they offer subsidies and scholarships to most of their programs. They also have several programs that are 100% tuition free.

 

Proceeds from the event will go toward sustaining and expanding BBK’s programs and providing access to the arts for all students. Each dollar raised for the event supports BBK’s accessible performing arts programming and community efforts.

 

“Our goal is $50,000 which will ensure funding for not only our year-long free Community Theater Ensemble programs, but also our new summer program initiatives,” says Lizzie McGuire, BBK’s executive director. “That includes a tuition-free three-week musical theater camp Curtain Up! for elementary and middle school students; a tuition-free music intensive in partnership with the PATH Fund called BBK Rocks, serving middle and high school students; and our BBK Bridge to Higher Education program providing a free college audition preparation intensive.”

Established in 2004, Broadway Bound Kids was created as a transformative and inclusive community to inspire and empower young lives through the arts.

 

“The goal of BBK is to provide students who face barriers, both financial and societal, with access to high-quality, inclusive, and transformational performing arts education,” says McGuire.  

 

“What started in one classroom in one school has now grown to serve over 2000 students across all five boroughs of NYC, and the majority of them do not pay for our programs. Year by year we’ve worked to build sustainable, tuition-free programs under our in-house initiative (programs outside of school partnerships) and to work with over 45 school partners to find funding in order to provide consistent theater and dance programs that we deliver on site at each school. I feel truly humbled and honored when I think about all the lives BBK touches each year. Be it a student trying out the arts for the first time, or a student who has been dying to get into theater classes and only gained access through our programs, we meet each student where they are — and I think that is what makes BBK so special.” 

 

At the concert, students from BBK will take the stage and perform alongside Broadway professionals. In addition to the performances, there will be auctions, raffles and games, promising to be a fun night.

 

 “The Broadway Bound Benefit is the pinnacle of us celebrating and supporting that community,” says McGuire. “Yes, it helps us raise the critical funds we need to serve our kids, but it also brings together our community in such a powerful way. It’s an opportunity for us to amplify the voices of our students, our teaching artists, and connect them to the incredible Broadway community. It means the world to our kids. I truly can’t wait to feel the love and power in that room on Feb. 2.”