Perfomer of the Month- Pete Seeger

You may have heard the other day that a man named Pete Seeger died on January 27. You probably never heard about him before that, but a lot of the music you have learned in my class, and a lot of the music you listen to on the radio was influenced by him.

Seeger was a folk singer. He liked to learn music of other cultures, as well as the folk songs of our country. He performed a lot of folk music that many people had never heard before, such as "Kumbaya," "We Shall Overcome," and "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena," and people started singing those songs, too.

Pete Seeger was very active in the music of the 1950s and 60s. Fifth graders will learn more about that in Social Studies, and we will talk about how the music reflected what was happening in the world at that time.  He wrote a lot of songs about peace and getting along. Fifth grade will hear "Turn! Turn! Turn!" and "If I had a Hammer."

Another thing Seeger would do is record people singing music that their parents had sung to them. This allowed more people to hear music that maybe only a few people knew. He recorded prisoners singing in work camps as well. There are no longer work camps today like there were 50 years ago, so without those recordings, no one today would know those songs. 

Another reason I like Pete Seeger is this quote, which I completely agree with:
"Singing with children in the schools has been the most rewarding experience of my life." – Seeger, October 17, 2009, at community concert in Beacon, New York