Barry Manilow honors Somerville, Providence music teachers on ‘Last Concerts' tour

Boston Globe

19-06-2025

'Music classes are so much more than teaching a kid how to play the clarinet… music can change a kid's life. It changed mine,' the 81‑year‑old pop legend told crowds on his 'Last Concerts' tour ,
which included stops in Boston and Providence last month.
'Barry often talks about how music saved his life as a poor kid growing up in Brooklyn,' said Matt Parrish, president of the Manilow Fund, which runs the project, said in a statement to the Globe.
Amid funding cuts to music programs teachers 'often have to spend out of their own pockets.... He wants to do every little bit that he can to put instruments into the hands of kids.'
Jake Gabriszeski, assistant band director and percussion specialist for Somerville Public Schools, received the prize at 'The Last Boston Concert.'
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In an interview with the Globe, Gabriszeski said he was 'never expecting to win.'
Even before the votes were tallied, Gabriszeski said he received an outpouring of support. 'I got messages from students I had 5, 6 years ago saying 'I totally voted for you,' expressing how much my class meant to them. It made the work I've put in... feel so significant.'
But then the votes piled up in his favor--and suddenly he was shaking hands with Manilow before being ushered into prime seats at TD Garden on May 28. When his headshot lit up the jumbotron, the audience cheered.
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Gabriszeski described it, rather modestly, as 'a very cool experience.'
And afterward, 'I had numerous people either congratulate me or give their own story,' he said. 'Saying, you know, 'I had a music teacher who was the reason I came to school... I never got a chance to thank him, so I'm going to thank you.''
'I mean, it had nothing to do with my own teaching—it was just about the power of music and of keeping it in schools," Gabriszeski said.
In Providence, Classical High School music teacher and band director Emerson Brown recounted a similar experience
at Manilow's May 27 stop in Rhode Island.
'When the votes ended and I found out I won, I was overwhelmed with love,' he wrote in an email to the Globe.
Though 'honestly very nervous' about meeting Manilow, Brown called the evening 'a very memorable night!'
He, too, was amazed by the fans' reaction—it was 'only a small exaggeration' to be stopped 'every 5 steps on my way out of the venue, to the parking lot, and into my car,' as people clamored for photos and shared stories.
'They were all strangers to me, but they felt connected to me through Barry,' he said.
Being the good teachers that they are, Gabriszeski and Brown each plan to spend it on instruments for their students.
'Musical instruments are expensive, and the price keeps music out of the hands of many of our students,' Brown wrote.
'For some kids, [music class] is the reason that they show up to school, ' Gabriszeski said. 'And a lot of these kids can't afford private lessons, so we're their sole access to music.'
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Emerson Brown, band director at Classical High School, recieved a Manilow Music Project Teacher Award during Barry Manilow's concert stop in Providence.
Emerson Brown
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