Kwaya Marimba

3/10/20
Liza Ewen
Acting Head of School

Two weeks ago, Tr. Ed stopped by my office at the end of the school day to let me know where exactly to find Kwaya Marimba performing at the NAIS Annual Conference. The Philadelphia Convention Center is enormous, after all, and the Annual Conference is such a huge event that it comes with its own app. I assumed that wherever the group played, the audience would consist of curious passers-by, and our 7/8 class would provide background music for the networking of school administrators, or they’d be competing with educational consultants and company representatives hocking innovation, fool-proof branding, and state-of-the-art learning management systems in the Exhibition Hall. I imagined I’d find myself standing amidst a small crowd and taking delight in watching them recognize just how impressive our middle school marimba players really are, much as I have done at venues like the Please Touch Museum and Haverford College. Only this time, I’d be that much prouder to say, “yep, I’m with them.”

When I saw the familiar collection of marimbas assembled on the expansive stage at the front of the ballroom, which, as it turns out, holds 4700 people, I began to understand that our small Kwaya Marimba group was about to do something very, very big. So big that two 15-foot tall screens on either side of the platform would project the action on stage since when viewed to scale in any row but the first would require binoculars. We were one of just five school groups that earned a spot to open for an audience of thousands; of that select group, we were the only one that came from a small through-8 school without an Upper School. Our kids would take the stage for the independent-school equivalent of singing the National Anthem at the Superbowl. I was simultaneously grateful and terrified that none of us realized the magnitude beforehand.

All of us who know and love this small Quaker school with a big heart know that we’re often in the position of the underdog. Whether we’re being compared to the enormous (and enormously funded) public schools on the Main Line or to K-12 independent schools, there are ways in which Friends School Haverford does not compete. But when it comes to nurturing children’s talents, igniting their passions, and helping them find their voice, I know that we can more than hold our own. Like Kwaya Marimba, we can steal the show.