A Jamesville-DeWitt High School sophomore was recently featured as one of five songwriters selected to participate in The Acoustic Guitar Project, which takes place in cities across the globe, including Syracuse.
Ella Drotar, 15, is featured on the project’s website talking about her experience and performing an original song that she wrote for the project.
“It was such an honor to be asked to be a part of this project along with so many other great local musicians who I look up to,” Drotar said in a video on The Acoustic Guitar Project website.
The Acoustic Guitar Project originated in New York City and is currently active in more than 50 cities around the world. In each project city, five local musicians are provided with an acoustic guitar and a recorder and given one week to write an original song and record it live.
Once done, they pass the guitar on to the next participating musician in their city.
Each musician shoots a video describing their experience and/or song, signs the guitar and takes their picture with it.
Their song, picture and video are then uploaded to the project website.
The Syracuse Acoustic Guitar Project began in 2014, and 40 songs have been written using the same guitar, according to the project website.
This year, the Syracuse project showcased next-generation songwriters who are all in their teens to early 20s.
The mission of the project is to inspire creativity by simplifying its process to the bare essentials, to encourage a deeper connection between the artist and their art and to tell truthful, meaningful stories, according to the website.
Ella wrote and recorded an original song, “The Divide.”
“If we want to overcome challenges in the world, we need to fight with love, as I say in the lyrics. It’s just easier to be kind to each other when we’re trying to solve problems,” she said.