(audience applause)
- I've said it before,
I wouldn't be here without the love and guidance
of countless teachers, including my own mama.
That's why I'm excited to introduce my next guest.
She has mentored countless underserved students
right here in LA, teaching the arts, which is so important.
Some have gone on to win Grammys.
(mimics air horn blasting)
And one of her students even appeared on "The Voice."
It was actually my first season of "The Voice"
being on it, that makes her a Rad Human.
(upbeat music)
(audience applause)
Please welcome the founder of the White Hall Arts Academy,
Tanisha Hall, y'all.
(audience cheering)
So, first of all, I said this in the break
but I'm gonna have to say it on camera.
You look stunning.
You are so beautiful.
- Thank you, girl, tryna to match you.
- I'm just saying you blend right in
with our set, our colors,
but tell us about your school.
Tell everybody about it.
- So White Hall Arts Academy is a performing arts academy
that I started in 2011.
- [Kelly] Wow.
- I had been working in the music industry
for about 15 years and it was a time for a transition.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- And we teach all instruments, piano, violin,
singing, of course, I'm a singer.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- And we teach all genres.
But the one thing that we specialize in is commercial music,
'cause I want our students to be able to step in
to participating in the creative economy
that is driving our city.
- Yeah.
- I'm also foster parent so any students that are-
(audience cheering)
- Gosh, you have such a good heart.
Wow, wow.
- I know, right? (laughs)
- Oh my gosh.
- So I'm a foster parent so any students or families
that are in the foster system are able to participate
in our programs completely for free.
But beyond that, we keep our program really affordable
so that no matter who you are, where you are, what age,
because we teach all ages,
you can come here and you can study at White Hall
and I'm not gonna turn anybody away
because of price or whatever,
because to me it's all about access
'cause that's what's missing right now.
- Access, opportunities. - It's all about access.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And it's so therapeutic, music.
- [Tanisha] It is.
- You know, whether you're playing it,
whether you're singing it, whether you're just feeling it,
writing it, whatever it is, it's so therapeutic.
So regardless of the situation, the kid,
whatever family you're coming from,
it's so helpful to any kid.
- One thing we found especially during the pandemic-
- Mm, yeah. - When we pivoted to virtual,
is the safe spaces that we created
for people to just express, and the songwriting,
the songs that were coming out-
- Oh, man. - For people expressing-
- To get it out.
- The isolation that we're going,
so music is super,
super therapeutic. - Therapeutic.
I agree, I agree.
So what was your background in music,
like before starting this school?
- So both of my parents are musicians.
- Oh wow. - And believe it or not, I-
- It's in your blood, okay. - It's in my blood!
And I started playing piano when I was one years old,
and so I grew up playing the piano
and then my mom's a minister,
so you know how that is.
- [Kelly] Wow, yes.
- Being at church all of the time.
- I grew up in church choir, yeah, yeah.
- So I remember
(Kelly laughing)
one of the churches we went to when I was in high school,
I found this old Rhodes keyboard in the basement.
So I ran to the pastor, and I'm like
"Can I use this to create like a youth band?"
And he was like, "I don't care," you know.
So every Wednesday and Sunday I would drag this thing
up the stairs to the youth group room
and I rallied my friends and I'm like,
"Come on, we're gonna make a band
and you're gonna sing and do this,"
and we did that and-
- That's so good.
It's the connecting. - It's the connecting.
- It's more than just the music.
- [Tanisha] Exactly.
- I did Wednesday and Sundays as well.
- Girl, we know that, right?
- Yeah, so where did you get the idea to start a school?
I imagine it's that same kind of creativity
that when you started the band, right?
- Right before I did, I was working with Chaka Khan,
you know who Chaka Khan is-
- Oh my gosh.
- [Tanisha] I know, right?
(audience applause)
- Drop the name! - So there's that part.
- I was like "Good Lord!"
She's amazing. - I was working
at the Chaka Khan Foundation and we had adopted this class
of kids in a school in Watts.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- And we would take them every week to, you know,
be tutored at USC and to access.
And it was being involved with these children
and I'm not from Los Angeles.
So I did not really know like the disparity.
- Yeah.
- [Tanisha] And what was happening.
I mean, cause there's like million dollar homes
and then five miles away, there's extreme poverty, you know?
- Yeah.
- And so in dealing with these kids
and now having the faces and loving them,
I realized that I couldn't go back across Pico
and go back to Hollywood.
I needed to stay in this community.
And so my grandparents owned a building
in Crenshaw District, on 54th street.
And I went there one day and I was like,
"Oh, you know, can I do something?"
and my grandmother was like, "Sure.
One of my tenants is moving out and you can rent it."
And I said, "I'm gonna build a music school."
And that was in February 2011, and here we are.
- [Kelly] Wow.
- [Tanisha] 12 years later.
(audience applause)
- I mean, honestly, you're helping so many kids out,
and changing the trajectory of their lives.
It's been a long road, but you've had a lot of success,
so tell us more about that.
- It's been a long road,
and it hasn't always has been awesome.
You know, my kids and I have eaten noodles,
sometimes to get us through. - Yes!
Girl, grew up on Ramen noodles, so I know.
- Ramen noodles gets you through.
- [Kelly] Yeah. (laughs)
- But thanks to wonderful partners,
like I just got this amazing award
from an organization called the Lewis Prize for Music.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- Where I just got this awesome award.
And you know, with partnerships like that has kept us going.
One of my students, Ant Clemons, R&B singer.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- He was nominated for a Grammy
last year, for his debut single.
- Wow! - Debut album.
(audience applause)
- My gosh! - That's Ant.
And he actually won a Grammy
for his songwriting on Kanye West's album last year.
- [Kelly] Oh my gosh.
- And he comes back and he mentors
and works with our students.
Another one of my students
is on a Broadway tour for "Ain't Too Proud To Beg"
so if you go see, you'll see Harrell Harris,
he's playing Melvin Franklin. (audience applause)
And then another one of my amazing students,
Ms. Jordyn Simone-
- Yeah, she was on "The Voice."
- Jordyn was on "The Voice" in your first season.
- [Kelly] Yeah, yeah.
She's so great.
- I was there in the back,
when you turned around, I was like (screams)
- I know.
She's so good.
I tried so hard to beat Alicia on that one.
- You did.
You fought. - I did not succeed,
but I fought.
- You fought, you fought.
- Joining us now are two of her students.
This is 12 year old Che, who's learning piano.
(audience applause)
And dialing in is Jordyn Simone who appeared on "The Voice,"
give it up for Jordyn.
(audience cheering)
- Hi, how are you? - Hi Jordyn!
Okay, it's good to see you again, ma'am, I love your voice.
I do remember I turned my chair, whatever,
we don't have to talk about it.
(laughs)
I'm just kidding.
I would've picked Alicia too.
She's amazing, she's amazing.
But Tanisha, Che, Tanisha taught you piano, right?
- Yeah, that is correct.
She is a great teacher and you know, I've been with her
about two years now and- - Oh wow.
- Yeah, and I've always had a love for music.
I was surrounded by music and I've always had a desire
to play the piano,
and Miss Tanisha formally taught me how to play.
She introduced me to classical music
(light classical music)
and, you know, yeah.
- Thing about classical, if you can play classical,
you can pretty much play anything.
- Yeah.
- That's why I grew up singing classical,
'cause they always told me if you can sing this
you can pretty much go through any genre.
So I think that's really important.
And also you sound like a grown man, when you talk.
(all laughing)
You sound like a grown man.
I was like, "You have a desire?"
I was like, "Wait, what?"
I was like, "I don't even know if I used the word
'desire' when I was 12."
That was nice, I like it.
So wait, Jordyn,
tell us about your experiences with Tanisha.
- Yeah, my experiences with Tanisha
have been absolutely amazing.
We have had a very long journey together,
and we, from the ground up,
really worked on vocal health, worked on training,
worked on, just creating a artist persona for myself
that has always ran really deep within me.
So I am so grateful
for my experience with Tanisha and,
in the same ways in which she's helped me,
really, on my journey with "The Voice"
and moving forward into my current artist brand,
releasing music, and really kind of cultivating
what I want my music to represent
and what I want myself to represent.
- Yeah.
- That's all been through the assistance of Tanisha
really just helping guide me and saying,
"You know what, maybe let's pivot here.
Let's choose this instead."
You know, she's been very, very instrumental
and I'm so grateful for her.
(audience cheering)
- You know what?
You said something interesting though.
That's actually, I think that's what's really cool though,
that you are surrounded by people like Tanisha
that you can have,
you don't have to know exactly what you wanna do.
Even on "The Voice,"
I remember I was on "Idol."
I didn't know exactly what lane,
I like a lot of different style of music.
Like the journey is the fun part, you know?
It's not always about the destination,
it's about finding out who you are as a vocalist,
and a pianist, young man.
(Che laughs)
So Tanisha, you have even bigger goals with the school.
So what are they?
- Oh my God.
Even though it's been 10 years,
I feel like we are just getting started.
- Yeah. - It feels like
this is year one again,
but with the pandemic we've pivoted to virtual.
So we're working to expand and make sure
that we can reach children and families all over.
- Yeah.
- And we also just partnered with a company
called Lincoln Park Capital, which is building communities
across the United States.
And they are partnering with us to bring what we're doing
into their communities in Washington DC,
and Oakland, and LA.
And as they branch out, we're creating those safe spaces
in those neighborhoods.
And that's so exciting to know that we are going to,
I'm gonna be able to offer what I've been able to offer
to my students here in south LA on a national level,
- and touch- - That's the cool thing about,
not that, there's nothing cool about Covid,
but the thing about us all having to pivot
in everything we do, it has allowed,
like I have people from all over the world
now come to my show 'cause we have a virtual audience
as well as one in person.
And now you can even help kids that maybe aren't right here
but maybe want the help, they want the opportunity,
they want... that's kind of cool,
that you have that online presence.
- It's so cool, it's so cool, I mean-
(audience applause)
- That you maybe wouldn't have done before.
- It would not have happened. - Yeah.
- I mean, a really cool connective story,
one of my students in Memphis, Tennessee.
- Yeah.
- When Ant did his inauguration concert
with Justin Timberlake- - Yeah.
- They filmed it at the Stax Museum in Memphis, Tennessee,
and my student, Nia, goes to the program
at the Stax Museum.
So I had Ant as the star, and Nia in there,
and they didn't even know that they both study with me,
and they're in Memphis. - Oh, that's so cool.
- So it's like what we're able to do,
and just having that reach.
And to me, it's all about community and access,
creating access.
If I charged more,
then I wouldn't be able to work with Jordyn,
I wouldn't be able to work with Che, you know,
and that's what's important to me
because I was blessed to have so much opportunity
and I just wanna give back.
- Oh, I love that.
(audience applause)
Well, we've reached out to our friends
at Pandora, the popular music streaming app,
and they love what you're doing, as we do,
and they wanna help.
So they're gonna donate $5,000
to the White Hall Arch Academy.
(audience cheering)
So that should help a little bit.
Thank you so much, Tanisha, thank you, Che,
and thank you, Jordyn.
Nice to see you again, ma'am.