Alumnus, Noah Teachey is currently a member of the inaugural class of the Paul Simon Music Fellows Program launched with a $1 million donation from the singer, songwriter and graduate of Queens public schools. In an interview with Spectrum News NY1, Teachey, a third-year music teacher at the Urban Assembly School for Applied Math and Science, asserts that Paul Simon has "done a lot of really innovative stuff with music. And that's what we're doing here, is trying to innovative stuff with music in a school".
Teachey recalls a conversation with Paul Simon, "when I told him about my West African drumming group, he said, 'Well what's your harmony instrument?' To which I replied, well we don't have one right now. We've got a marimba that we might start working into the mix. And he was like, 'What about guitar? Have you thought about guitar?"
Watch Teachey's full interview with Spectrum News NY1.