The Monticello High School guitar and classroom music program visited the Newark High School for the Arts to hear Berta Rojas perform classical guitar repertoire and teach a masterclass. Ms. Rojas is a world-renowned performing musician, a Grammy-winning recording artist, and is a faculty member of the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Students were given an assignment to align with their curriculum by Mr. Chidsey and did their own research on Professor Rojas and the music of Agustin Barrios Mangore, the “Chopin of the guitar”. In addition to Ms. Rojas, students met Ana Maria Rosado, retired professor of the New Jersey City University music department and Jayson Martinez who teaches at Kean Conservatory of Music and was the first guitar major to graduate from Newark Arts High School.