City Life

The Kids Are Alright

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What happens when two band geeks who grew up playing in garage bands are given the opportunity to teach elementary school music? The result would be East Providence’s Kids Rock Chorus.

Not content with singing the likes of “Kumbaya “ and “This Old Man,” Taylor Temple and Nicholas Hurd founded the Kids Rock Chorus as a creative outlet. Since bringing contemporary music into their chorus classes, Taylor and Nick have seen a sort of School of Rock-esque embrace of the music they create with their students. Their covers have been shared by the likes of CeeLo Green, The Monkees, Daniel Johnston, Blind Melon, Soul Asylum and Bebe Rexha. But, even with the hype and attention, the Kids Rock Chorus is at its core a snapshot of what’s possible when music is made relevant and children are allowed to not just sing, but fully enjoy and embrace the music they create.

Following the success of “Hey Jude” at one of Taylor’s spring concerts, he and fellow music teacher, URI alum and childhood friend Nick teamed up to take that approach full scale and have their schools sing 100% popular music. “At that time each of us taught at two schools and had each school perform their own concert,” Nick says, “That following year we decided to combine our four schools to make it a much bigger event with a much larger audience.”

In the future, Taylor hopes to take the Kids Rock Chorus concept to other classrooms, but for now, he and Nick will continue to prepare for their May 31 concert at East Providence High and put out videos on social media to welcome the world into their classroom. 

Kids Rock Chorus, CeeLo Green, The Monkees, East Providence, East Providence High School, Providence Monthly, Adam Hogue, Taylor Temple, Nicholas Hurd, Hey Jude, URI

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