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PBS airs documentary featuring local school children

A choir from Saranac Lake Middle School performs with violinist Daisy Jopling, left, in April 2015 at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts. (Photo provided — Naj Wikoff)

PLATTSBURGH — A documentary film about the power of music education, featuring local school children, will premiere at 9 p.m. Friday on Mountain Lake PBS.

The film will air again at 2 a.m. Saturday and 6 p.m. the following Saturday, April 29.

Documentary filmmaker Diana C. Frank’s film “Music Magic: The String Pulse Experience” focuses on internationally renowned violinist Daisy Jopling as she encourages local music students to excel and then to perform with her in her show “The String Pulse Experience.”

The project took two years to complete and follows three North Country students: Kiera Levitt of Lake Placid, Madison McBride of Peru and Logan Polak of Willsboro.

Winner of the 2015 and 2017 Lake Placid Theater Award, “The String Pulse Experience” was performed at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts in April 2015, featuring more than 200 students. It was the culmination of five months of Jopling working together with music teachers and students from Lake Placid, Saranac Lake, Keene Valley, Tupper Lake, AuSable Valley, Willsboro and Peru.

The film records the improvements in the children’s playing and shows how they develop personally in response to the challenges presented by performing. Over the course of their engagement with Jopling, their musical skills improve, together with their self-confidence and schoolwork.

“We want to show this film as much as possible around the U.S. to help get music education put back into the schools where it’s been cut,” Jopling said in a press release.

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