Uptown Music Camp celebrates 25 years of arts education

By Izzy Wollfarth
Contributing Writer

All youths search for their place in the world. For some it’s found on fields or on courts in classrooms or labs. For some others, however, it’s found while sitting on a scuffed dance floor or a music-filled hallway. Such has been the case for the youths of Uptown Music Theatre (UMT).

Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, UMT’s students gush over the tight-knit community they have created.

Delfeayo Marsalis, UMT’s founder and artistic director and an accomplished New Orleans jazz musician, said the organization was founded to give local youth an outlet for self-expression.

“We’re talking about [the] 2000s; before Instagram and before Facebook and before the Internet was really popular. So, it was really a community-based idea where kids could come and have a chance to express themselves,” Marsalis said.

Today, the organization operates primarily through summer programs. The current summer program is housed in the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans and is over a month-long process in preparation for their final production.

The production this year is the revival of Marsalis’ first musical, “Luther.” The musical follows a troubled teen, whose potential is soon realized, leading them to choose between a path that’s easy and a path that is better.

Each year, kids ages 6 to 18 can sign up for these programs regardless of their skillset or background in the arts.

“Sometimes kids just show up because their mother is making them,” said Marsalis. “It’s affordable and you’re just going to have to do it. I believe that it’s our responsibility to not only reach these kids, but it’s something that my mother stressed, which is that in the course of growing up, we have to learn patience and we have to learn to be sympathetic, and we have to learn understanding.”

The varying skill set leads UMT instructors to meet students where they are. Marsalis and fellow mentors urge students to dictate what their own success looks like. Marsalis tells his students, “Always strive for greatness and try to exude greatness. And that’s the greatness of thought. It’s not just, okay, we want to be like Michael Jordan or LeBron James. It’s just what type of greatness does this situation need?”

Mentorship is an integral part of UMT’s summer programs. Various aficionados and experts in their respective art fields use their success to jumpstart students’ careers.

Matthew Carroll, director of the summer program and acting teacher, observed that while residents are constantly exposed to art across the city, that doesn’t necessarily equate to formal learning.

“As far as the New Orleans art scene, there’s art everywhere. There’s theater you can go to at all kinds of different times. You have Frenchman Street, which has painters and performers and musicians. You have all the different stuff downtown, like all the artists that are in the quarter,” said Carroll.

He continues, “They’re [students] constantly seeing art, art, art, art, but they’re not really being taught art. They’re only seeing it. So, we are able to show them the embodiment of art, and then they grow into these performers.”

Shellond Chester, UMT’s board president and parent of a previous camp attendee, reflected on her daughter’s experience under various mentors. According to Chester, her daughter’s mentorship extends beyond the close of the camp season and has helped her plan for her future.

“Polanco Jones was a choreographer. He was a director. And he has remained a mentor, as well as Delfeayo, to Aubrey, my daughter,” Chester said. “My daughter’s actually going to major in musical theater in college and she reaches out to them from time to time just for advice and what the next steps should be. I’m very thankful for that.”

Kids partaking in the summer programs are often driven in their affinity for the arts. However, the program promotes values that extend beyond the realms of artistic expression. One of those values is resilience.

“Aubrey just went through the process of auditioning for schools for college and that audition process is very rigorous, but because of the training she got through UMT and the resilience that she built up, knowing how to take direction and how to accept criticism, she had an easier time going through the audition process than I saw in other students,” Chester said.

Marsalis also finds that UMT builds good people, active citizens and individuals who aren’t afraid to stand up for their beliefs. “We are primarily African-American or negro students. That’s our primary base. And it’s becoming increasingly more important for us to be able to tell not only our history, but to create new stories that really showcase what you would consider African-American greatness,” Marsalis said.

Thus far, UMT has contributed to nationwide success stories. Some of their esteemed alumni include, Nala Hamilton, who appeared in Disney’s “The Lion King” on Broadway as Nala; Donald Jones, who was part of the “Aladdin” cast on Broadway; and Lloyd Dillion Jr., who was accepted to the Juilliard School of Drama, along with another UMT alumni.

UMT has also attended the Junior Theater Festival, a nationwide festival celebrating youth in the arts, for the past nine years and won several awards. The future of the organization is to continue to promote self-expression and urge students to partake in the arts and greater UMT community.

As Marsalis says, “My philosophy is always that somebody has to get the job, it might as well be you.”

The Uptown Music Theatre’s 2025 summer program began on June 2 and culminates with a performance on July 18. More information about the organization and its summer program, including enrollment and tuition, can be found online at https://umtno.org.

This article originally published in the June 16, 2025 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.