Creating with the Sisters of Mary Schools
A student music and creative-industry collaboration, centered on an original Christmas song recorded on campus with professional producers.
Philippines - 2024
Recorded entirely on campus - the studio came to the students Three professional producers working alongside students Grammy-winning credits in the room: Black Eyed Peas, Beyoncé, Rihanna An original Filipino Christmas song, written by the students who sing it
It started with a school presentation. Apl.de.Ap and his team went to hear the students perform, and left convinced the talent in that room deserved more than applause.
So APLFI brought the studio to them. Rather than sending a few standouts somewhere else, the foundation brought professional producers onto campus to write and record an original Christmas song with the students.
A Christmas song was a deliberate choice. The Philippines keeps one of the longest Christmas seasons in the world, and for a school where tradition, community and giving carry real weight, the season offered the right frame for something students could return to for years.
The mentor team brought decades of studio experience with them. Keith Harris is a Grammy-winning producer, drummer and songwriter whose work with the Black Eyed Peas includes "Imma Be" and "Meet Me Halfway." David Quinones is a songwriter and producer behind hits such as Beyoncé's "Halo" and Rihanna's "SOS." Edgar "Artek" Sinio is a Filipino-American producer, DJ and sound engineer with deep roots in Chicago's house music scene and a long history of collaboration with Apl.
Students were involved from first idea to finished song - writing, tracking vocals, sitting in on production decisions, and seeing what surrounds a release: cover art, credits, distribution, and the many roles that make a record possible. Bands like the Black Eyed Peas are backed by producers, writers, designers, engineers and marketers, and most of those jobs are invisible from the outside. Showing students that whole map is part of the point.
The Sisters of Mary Schools serve children from very low-income households. Talent like this already exists in those classrooms. What is usually missing is proximity - the chance to stand beside someone who does this for a living and find out you could too. If a handful of these students leave believing there is a real path for them, in front of a microphone or behind a console, the project has done its work.