Graduating during a pandemic…
OK MAMAS (& Pops too!) I need your help! This kiddo is like family to my boys. The very first time I met him I felt like I was meeting my 5th son. He has been singing with my sons Colescott Rubin and A.J. Rubin for years now and they are all close friends.
His mother passed away when he was young and so he does not have a mama bear in his corner to obnoxiously share about how proud she is of what he is doing in the world, who he is for others and the body of work he has already created as he heads towards graduating from Berklee College of Music this spring – so I am stepping in to those shoes – if just for a moment.
Josh has recently started volunteering to give my 16 year old son Avi (who has a brain injury from being Lead poisoned as a baby) singing lessons via zoom – and that’s just one example of how amazing this young man is.
Another strange and wonderful “fun fact”: While my family lives in Portland (and we have lived here for nearly 19 years) my eldest son (Colescott) went to preschool at the Marin Jewish Community Center in San Rafael. After meeting Josh we figured out that Josh and Colescott were likely in preschool together – and possibly in the same class of just 10 or 12 kids! – back in 2000/2001!] Only to meet again as young adults in Boston when they were at Berklee together.
The video that is featured for Josh’s GoFundMe is a practice session for his recital filmed on the roof of my son A.J.’s apartment in Boston. My A.J. (18, a Freshman at Berklee this year) is on the far left (note the jew-fro)! My son Colescott is (today) driving home to Boston after being in New Orleans so he can sing bass for many of the numbers in Josh’s senior recital.
Josh wants to “go big” (in spite of CoViD-19 times restrictions on performances and not being able to perform before an audience for his senior recital) and is raising funds to do a professional video and audio recording of his recital both for his graduation performance and also for him to have (to show folks interested in hiring him for future gigs) but also for his “brothers and sisters” performing with him. Not being able to do a “real” “in-person” senior recital last year (for my son when he graduated from Berklee) was heartbreaking and these kids have all adapted to CoViD-times in the most creative ways.
Please watch the video, read his full GoFundMe statement (by clicking the “Learn More” button when you click over there) and contribute if you can. If you cannot contributed, please watch the video (with your kids!) and share it with others too. At the time of posting this this afternoon he has raised $1,100 towards his $3,000 goal… let’s see if we can help him reach his goal by the end of the weekend!
From Josh’s “GoFundMe”
“With this GoFundMe, I am hoping to cover Professional Video and Audio Recording, a Choreographer, possibly even matching suits (a young man sure can dream), and if provided enough, to be able to pay those working with me (mostly fellow students) like the professionals they absolutely are. If I receive more than enough to cover all that, I will be donating the entirety of the remaining money to an organization that’s working within the community of Boston to provide service(s) for those in need or at-risk. At the end of the day, what I want is to see music uplift the community, and what better way to do it than by celebrating music that started with humble beginnings on the street corner?” Please also follow Josh on Facebook and Instagram to see more fun snippets from his performances and put his recital date and time on your calendar (to watch with your kids!)
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