Allia LaCelle was 5 years old when she last saw her mother. It’s also the age she wrote her first song.
Putting her feelings into the words of “Survive it All” helped her through the troubling time. Singing the song more than a decade later has the same therapeutic effect.
“I want my grandma to hear this and to know that when my mom left, it shattered my heart into pieces,” the 16-year-old said. “I’m still trying to figure out which pieces go together.”
LaCelle is a member of the Esther Street Music Program, a group of singers and performers who were all at one point on juvenile probation in Clark County.
Though each member of the group has had trouble in their past, they all say the same thing about joining Esther Street: It’s a family.
“It’s meant a lot to me, because here is a place where I can let out that creative side of me,” she said. “Just to know that I can sing and that people will listen. … It’s amazing.”
Professional voice and theater coach Diana Larson started the group after she inadvertently got involved in the probation program.
Larson has trained aspiring singers and thespians for 28 years and describes herself as taking a motherly approach where she works on “the whole kid.” So when a student called her and threatened to kill himself and his father, she was put in a difficult situation. Ultimately, she called 911 and had the boy arrested.
“He will tell you now that it was a step in the right direction for his life, which is wonderful,” she said.
Larson was included in the boy’s probation meetings and eventually was asked to put on a music camp. From there, Larson began donating her time in what evolved into the program that now meets to practice once a week in a multipurpose room at the Juvenile Justice Center.
“If you had told me several years ago that I would be in here doing this, I don’t think I would have believed you,” she said.
But now, she can’t imagine doing anything else.
“I’ve never been so sure about where I’m supposed to be,” she said. “I don’t look at these kids and go, ‘oh, juvenile offenders.’ To me, they’re just kids.”
During practice students take turns singing, reciting monologues and practicing stage presence. Throughout, Larson reminds students to stand up straight, relax their arms and smile while they perform. The group takes breaks to talk about butterflies and what to say to audience members who approach them after the show.
They put on performances every few months at retirement homes and events such as the Clark County Fair and. On Sunday, they’ll be at the Washington State School for the Blind.
Larson said she can tell the kids are learning teamwork, self-confidence and self-esteem. She makes herself available for private voice lessons and has helped arrange to have a few students recorded.
Even though it’s a fairly small group, hovering around eight singers, the music program has a large amount of community support. The kids had professional photos taken for fliers by Kate Singh with Aevum Images. Instruments have been donated by some of Larson’s former students and by Portland songwriter and pianist Michael Allen Harrison. Harrison has performed with the group in the past and will do so on Sunday as well.
If You Go
• What: Esther Street Music Program in concert.
• When: 1 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 6.
• Where: Washington School for the Blind, Fries Auditorium, 2214 E. 13th St.
• Admission: $7 at the door.
Larson said she’s coached more than 1,000 students, some of whom have gone onto school at Juilliard, to perform on “The Voice” and to become Miss Washington. But the Esther Street Music Project is where she wants to put more of her time.
“All I did was the same stuff I’ve been doing for years, I just got to do it for somebody who really needed it,” she said. “I want to leave something that’s important, that’s going to change the world after I’m gone.”
