Top; Dontae James with members of the Wilbur Cross High School Class of 2026. Bottom: Teichman in action. Lucy Gellman Photos.
A quintet of voices, each of them bright and steady, filled the field house, drifting out toward Sherman Avenue on one side, and Crescent on the other. Lift every voice and sing / Till earth and heaven ring! They wrapped around clusters of red and white balloons, coasted over a sea of gem-colored caps and gowns, swooped over the stage and then rose again, transcendent. Ring with the har-mo-nies of Liberty / Let our rejoicing rise / High as the listening skies —
At the end of row, senior Dontae James lifted his saxophone to his mouth, ready for his last performance of high school. Let it resound / loud as the rolling sea! A ribbon of sound, deep and sweet, flew from the instrument, as if it had wings. James, stealing a glance at a band that has become family, leaned forward, and swayed with the notes.
James, a Juilliard-bound musician who grew up in Fair Haven, brought that sound to the Floyd Little Athletic Center Tuesday afternoon, as he and 365 fellow seniors graduated from Wilbur Cross High School in a ceremony just off Sherman Avenue. For him, and for many of his peers, the day became a testament to the expansive learning that happens within the school’s walls—and the teachers who push students to sharpen their creative edges, while also showing up for their peers.
It marks the first time in recent history that students have performed the poem-turned-hymn, written at the turn of the 20th century and often heralded as the Black National Anthem, at graduation (senior Aniya DeBerry also performed the “Star-Spangled Banner”). Without James, who worked with Principal Matt Brown, band director Eric Teichman and a mixed-grade vocal ensemble to make it happen, it would never have made it to the stage.
“I feel like the lyrics are very important at this point in our history,” said James, who started playing the alto sax in fifth grade, and recently received a new tenor saxophone in an end-of-year awards ceremony. “I felt that this [selection] really represented the community, especially this community. The words themselves carry so much power. It’s about really holding true to yourself and really holding true to the community you want to lift up.”
The story of the piece starts at the end of James’ junior year, when he approached Teichman about performing at graduation in 2026. Teichman, who arrived at Cross in 2019 and has taught James since 2022, knew firsthand what a dedicated student he had in his midst: James was by then a member of the school’s jazz and concert bands, and one of two drum majors for the Marching Governors. Teichman suggested that James bring it to Brown, and got the ball rolling from there.
“He was like, ‘I don’t know how this works,’” but he wanted to make it happen, Brown remembered in a phone call Wednesday morning. And he did. After an initial meeting last fall, James returned with a proposal for “Lift Every Voice,” in part because he felt that the song met the moment, and spoke directly to the lived experiences of so many of the students at Cross. The committee, composed of teachers and administrators at the school, gave it the green light.
Scenes from graduation: Principal Matt Brown addresses the graduates.
That, both James and Teichman remembered Tuesday, is where their work began. The two found an arrangement by Craig Courtney that showcased some of Cross’ vocalists, who don’t always get the recognition that James thinks they deserve. He put together an ensemble, pulling in peers including DeBerry, Iris Baden Eversman, June Lanpher, Hailey Macholl and Daniela McTiernan Huge. Instead of piano accompaniment, which was written into the score, he planned to weave sax into their wispy, layered harmonies.
“I love that we could sing it with such a group of people,” Baden Eversman said as she stood with the band, listening as names rang out across the auditorium and students marched across the stage, some lifting their arms triumphantly as they cheered. While she’s performed it several times before, “I’ve never found someone as passionate about singing it as Dontae.”
And then, he and students practiced, until they had the piece down from start to finish. Courtney’s arrangement is rigorous and surprising in a way that disarms a listener: the piece starts with five voices rising as one, then splits into multi-part harmony as instrumentation comes in. By the end of the first verse, voices are coming in layered lushly on top of each other, so strong that a listener can close their eyes, and see the sound traveling in glittering, braided ribbons across a room.
On the second verse, meanwhile, voices echo each other, sax floating in and out with a sound that is both brassy and jazz-kissed, and completely holy, appropriate for worship even. It sets singers up for a third verse, followed by a call-and-response of “lift every voice and sing” and the sacred utterance “glory hallelujah.” Tuesday, James came in with sax that climbed with the words, adding a sixth cascading voice to the mix.
James (at right) and his mom, Syreeta Thorpe. Thorpe is a teacher at John S. Martinez Sea & Sky STEM Magnet School.
But the story of the performance also weaves back to James’ winding, sometimes uncertain road to The Juilliard School, which begins in the Branford Public Schools, makes stops at ACES Educational Center for the Arts (ECA), the Neighborhood Music School (NMS) and the Episcopal Church of St. Paul & St. James (St. PJ’s), and opens to the future on Cross’ stage and in its classrooms.
As a kid, James picked up the alto saxophone in the fifth grade, drawn to the instrument for its bright, wide range. From the moment he started playing, it was a love story: James could sit down to play, and hear himself reflected in the music. He still can. “It can sound like a vocalist. It can sound like a brass instrument. There are so many options,” he said. “I feel like that represents me as a musician.”
He remained in the Branford schools until he was entering high school, and switched over to Cross and ECA (at ECA and NMS, he has received extensive mentorship from musician and composer Will Cleary). But when he entered Teichman’s band room for the first time, he was still nervous, he said. Teichman, who was still rebuilding after the Covid-19 pandemic, saw how much raw talent James had—and what a genuine, kind soul he was—and pushed him to excel. James, in return, met every challenge with a rigor and precision that was often unmatched.
“Dontae is exceptional,” Teichman said. In the classroom, on the stage and during halftime performances, he could see how James had a gift for lifting everyone around him up. “He has been an outstanding performer since he entered as a ninth grader. He is so dedicated and devoted to his craft … and he’s been an integral member and leader of this ensemble.”
James, meanwhile, was at a crossroads that almost none of his teachers knew about: he felt exhausted and “burnt out” by the end of his sophomore year, stretched between Cross and ECA. When he realized that marching band meant giving up his Friday afternoons—the only free day left “where I had a second to breathe”—he waffled. Then Teichman convinced him to stay. Two years later, both of them remember how emotionally weighted those conversations were—and both are glad that James remained in the band.
“He’s just exceptionally talented, and such a role model,” echoed Brown, who presented James with a “Principal’s Award” for academic and professional achievement earlier this spring, in a phone call Wednesday morning. “What’s most thrilling is that he was able to rally other people to do it [‘Lift Every Voice’].”
That love and respect—for craft, but also for education and educators—goes both ways. During his time at Cross, which has included juggling AP classes and music with auditions, work at Saint PJ’s, and performances in the community, James said he’s learned “leadership, commitment and camaraderie,” including the importance of showing up and being responsible for his peers.
As drum major and section leader in concert band, “it’s about being aware that people are watching what you do” and leading by example, he said. Four years ago, “I walked into band a bit shaky and learned really quickly that my presence matters.” During that time, he’s also fallen in love with jazz music, for which he credits Cleary entirely. Before the two started working together, James didn’t see his Jamaican or Black identity very often in the music he played, he said. Cleary showed him where to look.
Those lessons, and Tuesday’s, are coming with him to New York City in the fall, he added. Before they did, an audience could hear them moving through the field house, as voices unfolded into rich harmonies and the sax came in beneath them, not quite bellowing, but not a quiet or timid thing, either.
“‘Lift Every Voice,’ it’s more about being true to the life that you built,” he said. “I gotta keep that in my head [at Julliard], to think of where I come from. Whatever I do after this, I just want to be proud of the fact that I’m there.”
Top: Aniya DeBerry. Bottom: Julian Theodore.
DeBerry, a third generation Cross grad who performed both the National Anthem and “Lift Every Voice,” agreed with that sense of bringing her education with her. Before coming to the mic Tuesday, she’d been honored and excited—and a little nervous—to perform. Then she gathered her thoughts, and knocked the audience’s collective socks off.
When she sings, “it’s kind of an indescribable feeling. I feel great,” she said. As a little girl, DeBerry started singing before she could talk, raising her voice at her grandparents’ church, Prayer Dome, long before she was ever formally in a school choir. So she was thrilled to take on both solo and ensemble pieces in her final performance at Cross.
“I feel honored, honestly,” she said. “I loved the idea of singing ‘Lift Every Voice.’” Maybe next year, she added, the school can add a song in a different language, in recognition of students who are learning English as a second language, but speak Spanish, Pashto, Arabic or another language at home.
During Tuesday’s graduation ceremony, those performances were part of a wider focus on collaboration and connection that multiple students, as well as guest speaker (and Cross graduate) Alix Guerrier, the founder and CEO of DonorsChoose, brought to the mic. As he spoke, salutatorian Julian Theodore wound the clock back to his sophomore year, when he took a carpentry class at Cross.
At the beginning of the class, he remembered, he was paired with a peer with whom he struggled to communicate, in part because Cross is just about as polyphonic as New Haven. But during each class period, the two developed a friendship with each other, navigating conversations that went beyond the task at hand. Two years later, he’s bringing that with him into the world.
“The most important lessons I learned in that class had nothing to do with woodworking,” he said, adding that the class’ impact feels particularly relevant at a time of increasing political and partisan divisiveness. “Making our country a better place requires forming bonds with people who are different than us.”
Han (at right) with her mom, Sali Xhao, and younger brother, Meng Xhou Han. Meng Xhou, a flutist, plans to begin playing in the band at Wilbur Cross in the fall, when he enters its freshman class. Bottom is guest speaker Alix Guerrier, who emphasized the value of community as he spoke.
Valedictorian Maxni Han, who plans to study philosophy at Yale University, pointed to that same spirit of team building, nowhere embodied more in the Athenian-like “forum” that is the school’s vast cafeteria. It’s there, for instance, that seniors and freshmen congregate, sometimes unsure where one cohort ends and another begins. It’s where Han and her peers have been able to plug into local activism, including groups like the New Haven Immigrants Coalition and the New Haven Climate Movement.
“Once you leave the halls of Cross, continue to embrace your voice,” she said. To the band, where she has played clarinet for all four years of high school, she added that “you have become family to me.” As he listened from the front row, James cheered her on accordingly.
Brown, as well as educators, administrators and students also took a moment of silence to remember two members of the Cross community, Evyana Vidro and Janese Mabel Espinoza, who passed away unexpectedly in 2024 and 2025. Two empty chairs, representing the students, sat unoccupied during the ceremony. Their absence, even amidst red-and-white streaked jubilation, was always there, a reminder of the need to be fully in the moment.