The Dranoff Foundation's PIANO SLAM celebrates 10 years in Miami honoring historic Cuban American educator and musician Elvira Dopico

MIAMI - Nov. 7, 2017 - PRLog -- The Dranoff Foundation's PIANO SLAM celebrates 10 years in Miami honoring historic Cuban American educator and musician Elvira Dopic

November 6^th through November 22^nd the Dranoff 2 Piano Foundation will bring world-renowned winning pianists from Italy and Hong Kong, Daniele and Davide Trivella, and Chau Lok Ping and Chau Lok Ting, to Miami to perform in the Dranoff's performance and education program PIANO SLAM.  These artists will bring Live Classical 2 piano performances to 20 Miami-Dade Public Title 1 middle and high schools throughout the County.  Students, musicians and poets discuss the music and how to describe what they heard, exploring language of music and its various meanings to create their own Spoken Word experience

This 10^th year of PIANO SLAM is particularly meaningful to Miami's schools and culture as the family of Elvira Dopico's, (former MDPS District assistant supervisor) has created a memorial in her honor funding the Live Classical in-school classical performances for many years to come.

Elvira Dopico (B. 1923, D. 2016) was a lifelong educator and musician and the very first Cuban American principal, then assistant superintendent in MDPS where she supported over 500 newly exiled Cuban teachers in successful careers in Miami's public-school system.  Elvira Dopico was a member of the Dranoff 2 Piano Foundation Board for over 25 years. Her lifelong love of teaching piano and music education for children lives on through her many nieces, nephews, godchildren and the over 75,000 Miami teens that have heard live Classical professional 2 piano concerts through Dranoff's PIANO SLAM. Her family believes their gift to keep Classical performance alive and enhance education through the Arts in Miami is perfectly honored with their gift to PIANO SLAM.

For 10 years PIANO SLAM has featured Live Classical piano performance, poets, and writers at MDPS combining young people's love of music with innovative learning models for over 75,000 students.  Classroom programs in Core subjects such as English Science and Math for students culminate a Countywide poetry and music writing competition for Miami's teenagers.  This year PIANO SLAM artists will work with students from Homestead to Miami Gardens and from Hialeah to Miami Beach through December 21^st.

From thousands of poems 15 students will be chosen to perform their winning poetry about music in PIANO SLAM 10 with professional musicians, poets, and dancers in the Knight Concert Hall at the Arsht on February 28^th, 2018, where final winners will be announced. The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts co-presents both the in-school and concert performances.

About PIANO SLAM

PIANO SLAM started more than 11 years ago in the Miami-area middle schools that centered around the Arsht Performing Arts Center to bring professional artists' performance into Overtown, Liberty City, and Little Haiti involving students in a creative process of a poetry contest around music which they love and feel a connection to every day.  This model has perfected using live music both for artistic experience and learning for students to communicate more effectively both verbally and in writing. Today Dranoff has brought PIANO SLAM into almost Miami-Dade Public Schools 100 schools engaging over 75,000 student

About Dranoff

For 30 years, the Dranoff International 2 Piano Foundation has been the world's leading champion of exclusively two piano repertoire and artistry. It is the only international foundation, accredited by the World Federation of International Music Competitions, to discover, promote, and award honors to top professional duo piano artists through its competition, commissions, and presentations of duo piano concerts. The Dranoff promotes awareness in a new generation of students of the transformational power of music and the arts through its multi-disciplinary, educational, and inspirational concert program, Piano Slam.

www.PianoSlam.org