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South Valley Riverton Journal

Teaching children life skills through singing

Oct 05, 2018 02:35PM ● By Jana Klopsch

Students practicing (Archuleta Performing Arts/Dave Bartholomew)

By Brett Jay Apgood | [email protected]

Singing has always been a big part of Lupe Archuleta Bartholomew’s life. 

“When I was a child, we met the (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) missionaries in Honduras,” Bartholomew said. “I went to choir with my sisters all the time and that is where my love for singing started.” 

After that experience, Bartholomew and her sisters continued to attend church choir and even competed in some singing competitions. 

After they moved to the United States, she and her sisters soon got married. One of her sisters, Marianne, sent her a video of her 6-year-old singing a Michael Jackson song. 

“I was in tears, and I said I want to do that with my kids,” Bartholomew said. 

She then formed a group with her five children and began teaching them how to sing. 

“I was teaching them to sing because singing can touch lives,” she said. 

She stressed that the idea behind teaching her kids to sing was to bless others and not to get famous. 

She recounted on Christmas nights that she would take her children and go sing to the neighbors. 

After her children had grown up, she married Dave Bartholomew, whom she had been dating for about a year and a half. About four years later into their marriage, she began realizing that she missed teaching singing. 

“She kept saying I want to teach kids how to sing; I miss it. I miss teaching my kids,” said Dave Bartholomew. “Then I said, ‘OK, let’s do it.’” 

They spent about a year planning, and then the following year, they started teaching students in Kaysville and Layton. Currently, the teach in Riverton, Murray and Layton. 

Archuleta Performing Arts has now been open for about two years. The Bartholomews have seen how singing has impacted the children’s lives. One example they gave was about two students, who on the first day would not look anyone in the eyes. 

“Now when they sing on stage, they look at the audience, they have straight posture, they have a twinkle in their eyes and they just go for it,” Dave Bartholomew said. “You can tell they learned self-confidence.” 

The class is for children ages 3–18, who are beginner and intermediate singers. There is no audition required because they believe that every child has the potential to become better and work on their self-esteem. 

“We make it an environment where there is no finger pointing or laughing,” Dave Bartholomew said. “It is a team or cooperative effort. They all support each other.” 

The reason why the children improve their singing abilities and their self-esteem is due to a lot of dedicated practice. 

The children will learn to sing Christmas songs as well as famous pop songs. They have also catered to specific students’ interest, such as learning how to sing opera. 

They hold a few performances a year, where the students are able to perform on stage. 

The classes range from about nine to 20 students per class, and they have about 100 students total in the program.