John Lennon’s peace-and-love message 
resonates with local kids

by Kathy Daley / June 18, 2021

“He had a vision and he was able to accomplish it while he was alive,” said another student.

The sixth graders are engaged in interactive songwriting workshops in which they collaborate virtually with professional musicians to compose their own verses to Lennon's song “Real Love.” They then record their version of the tune along with Lennon's accompanying vocals.

“Real Love” was recorded in 1977 as part of a play Lennon was developing. After his death in 1980, the tune languished until 1996 when the surviving Beatles released it in Britain, the U.S. and elsewhere.

“Just like little girls and boys

Playing with their little toys

Seems like all they really were doing

Was waiting for love,” wrote Lennon.

“Don't need to be alone

No need to be alone

It's real love, it's real

Yes it's real love, it's real...”

The John Lennon Real Love Project is run by Theatre Within, the Manhattan-based nonprofit that has organized the Annual John Lennon Tribute charity concert since 1981. The organization also provides free workshops and programs in creative expression and mindfulness to communities in need. With the support of Yoko Ono, the Real Love project began in 2014 at Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx. Children who have lost a parent to cancer have also participated in the program as have adult cancer patients.

Livingston Manor is the first school district to benefit from Theatre Within's outreach to public elementary schools, all due to a link with former music teacher Gary Siegel of Liberty.

“Music makes a person whole,” notes Siegel, who grew up in Manor and taught music for 29 years in the Liberty school district. In 2016, along with wife Judy and son Max, Siegel founded the Siegel Family Music and Arts Endowment Fund that offers music and artistic opportunities for local students. Gary and Judy Siegel routinely attended the John Lennon memorial concerts at Symphony Space in Manhattan and a connection was made.

Now, the Siegel fund is underwriting the Real Love workshops in Manor, which take place virtually – children at their home computers taught by Theatre Within professionals working from their studio.

Theatre Within's Beth and Scott Bierko, who are writers and perfomers for children, teach new concepts to students, such as rhyming couplets. Those are two lines that rhyme but also have the same meter, for example, “Jack be nimble, Jack be quick; Jack jumped over the candlestick.”

In this case, students are coming up with new Real Love lines such as “I will help you when you grieve, if you're willing to receive...”

“The kids work with their own music teachers (Livingston Manor's Jordana Maraj and Dan Smith) to learn the song and record it individually and they send it back to Scott and Beth,” explained Siegel. “The final renditon will have the kids accompanying John Lennon's voice.”

The student work will then be posted on Theatre Within's website.

“It's one of the greatest things we've brought to students this year,” said teacher Dan Smith.

The Siegel fund keeps alive the memory of the music-loving Lee Siegel, Gary's father, who served as a business pillar in the Manor community, Rockland County town supervisor; and unswerving advocate, along with wife Marjorie, of local music and art programs. Lee Siegel played saxophone, and three generations of Siegels – Lee, Gary and Max – routinely played in the summertime Callicoon Center Band Concerts.