Teen Musicians Take the Stage at The Church Studio

Students from Tulsa’s Street School stepped into one of the city’s most iconic music spaces this spring, recording original songs at The Church Studio through a program designed to give young musicians a creative outlet and professional mentorship.

The experience was part of Tangled Up in Tunes, an education initiative through the Bob Dylan Center that brings local musicians into Tulsa schools to teach students guitar, piano, harmonica, percussion and songwriting.

Over the course of this last school year, students from Street School worked alongside Tulsa musicians including Jesse Aycock, Chris Combs and Amber Watson, eventually forming a band called Hallow and writing two original songs.

When students arrived at The Church Studio to record, organizers said the moment immediately felt significant.

“We’d been building it up for two months,” said Rebecca Roseberry, who helps lead the program for the Bob Dylan Center. “But they’re high school kids, so I don’t think they fully realized it until they walked in. Their eyes were just wide open.”

Rebecca Roseberry at The Church Studio

Rebecca said the program began three years ago with only a few elementary schools before expanding to high schools, including Street School. One motivation behind the initiative, she said, was the decline of music education opportunities in schools.

“Music has been cut from so many schools,” she said. “Tulsa has such an incredible music community, so it made sense to bring those two worlds together.”

Students meet weekly after school, practice together and are given instruments to take home so they can continue learning outside the classroom. Beyond learning songs, students collaborate to write original music and perform publicly.

Miguel Salazar, left

For Street School student Miguel Salazar, the program helped build both musical and personal confidence. Salazar, a self-taught guitarist who learned through YouTube videos and by listening to songs, said the experience taught him how to collaborate with others.

“Being in the program helped me learn how to play with more than just yourself,” he said. “It gives you more people skills, too.”

Musicians working with the students said the experience has been meaningful for them as well.

Amber Watson said she grew up without access to opportunities like these and became emotional watching students enter the studio for the first time.

“They get to record in one of the biggest recording studios around. And their music is going to be out there forever,” Watson said. “They just want to be seen. This is them being seen.”

Tangled Up in Tunes is part of the Bob Dylan Center’s broader educational outreach efforts and is supported by donors, local foundations and community arts grants.