Greg Pattillo and PROJECT Trio

I discovered Greg Pattillo a few years ago, and quickly became addicted to his sheer musical brilliance. Greg is well-known for his beat-boxing and flute playing, and recently paired up with two fantastical Misters, Peter and Eric, to form PROJECT Trio. Peter is renown for creating bass bliss, and Eric champions the cello. I initially contacted Greg to have him perform at TEDxKids @TheHill in the fall, he had heard of TED, and said it was something “they” were talking about. The “they” being PROJECT Trio, who rapidly blew my mind.

Their extraordinary musical style alone warrants a glaring spotlight in the TED sphere, compounded by the fact PROJECT Trio focuses on sharing their art with kids who otherwise would not have access to such things is precisely what our event aims to do and why we figured out a way to make working with PROJECT Trio happen.

After I unleashed a flurry of TEDxKids @TheHill details in a phone conversation with Peter Seymour, we began brainstorming the best next steps for a PROJECT Trio and TEDxKids @TheHill partnership. The problem being, PROJECT Trio is in such high demand globally (booking their performances some year in advance), September 16th was already snagged. I threw out the idea of simulcasting PROJECT Trio into our event from wherever they were. However, there were timing risks involved with this. Will they have access to reliable technology where they are? Will we/TEDxKids @TheHill have access to a reliable connection? Etc.

Then I suggested we do something similar to our preemptive Noam Chomsky interview. Peter fancied the idea, and suggested we videotape one of their workshops with kids. Enthralled with the idea, we have since confirmed three workshops in the Toronto vicinity at the end of the month. A little birdie tipped me off that Milton high school, who is said to be the “MIT of high schools” would be a solid ally for this event. As it turns out, we will be running three workshops on May 31st, the first will be at Milton High School, where Milton students will videotape two workshops. Following this, the camera savvy students will join PROJECT Trio and TEDxKids @TheHill for the remainder of the day to videotape workshops at Emily Carr and Fossil Hill school, and create a post-production PROJECT Trio TEDxTalk to be shown at TEDxKids @TheHill in the fall.

We will also be launching a PROJECT Trio competition, challenging young people to emulate PROJECT Trio’s musical style, and submit their video entries to our team for a chance to attend and perform at TEDxKids @TheHill in the fall. To find out more details, please subscribe to information[@]tedxkids.ca.

You can follow PROJECT Trio on Twitter here and express your likeness for them through Facebook.