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August Music Student of the Month

Kwaku Darko was nominated by Jess Hogan, general music teacher at E.B. Kennelly School; part of the Hartford Performs program.

A Few Words From Jess Hogan

It is my distinct pleasure to nominate Kwaku Darko for the SpreadMusicNow Student of the Month. Serving as his music teacher over the last eight years, I can emphatically say that Kwaku is an amazing person; he is humble, kind, respectful, thoughtful, extremely talented musically and very bright! He comes from an amazingly supportive family who bravely emigrated to the United States from Ghana when Kwaku was just 4 years old. While in Ghana, at the age of just six months old, Kwaku underwent many surgeries for his eyesight. To this day he is visually impaired unable to see but a tiny tunnel of light, yet he has never let this hold him back from doing anything and everything that he sets out to do. I have watched him blossom from a quiet, timid first grader with a paraprofessional at his side to a confident, self-sufficient and musically talented young man.

Over the eight years in which I taught Kwaku, he shined as the quad soloist in the school's drumline while also mastering with precision, the parts on snare and bass. On his own time at home, he has learned to play the bass guitar, acoustic guitar and electric guitar and can play the piano by ear; he can sit and play a song after just hearing it on the radio! Kwaku also plays saxophone in a brass band at the Charter Oak Cultural Center located in Hartford, CT. This past summer he gained a full scholarship to attend the renowned West Hartford Summer Jazz Program where he shined on drums. For fun, Kwaku searches YouTube to sharpen his ear training skills as well as creates and layers tracks of music on the computer and then plays his guitars or piano along with the tracks; he eats, sleeps and breathes music!

A teacher really couldn't ask for more from a student; he's the total package! l am certain that Kwaku's future lies in the music industry where given his amazing talent, intellect and drive, he will be very successful!

Kwaku is pictured here with Rob the Drummer, a professional musician and educational motivator for the Connecticut Commission on the Arts and a nationally recognized children's "Edu-tainment" personality.