TEMPO is a musical dramedy podcast series that follows the ups, the downs, and the frenemy status of a group of middle-school Arts Academy students who hail from all different walks of life and artistic passions.
About the Show
Everyone wants to attend the famous TEMPO Arts Academy, but only a few can make the cut. Kids from all backgrounds and areas of the city come together at TEMPO, bringing their unique perspectives, artistic talents, and bagged lunches with them. Special to TEMPO, the school mixes students from different majors to see what creative magic they can make together. Singers with dancers, actors with chefs with video game designers, it’s all an artistic melting pot. Collaboration is key at TEMPO, but along with that comes the drama!
Meet SIDNEY, a first-year music student. It’s not easy to fit in or stand out when you walk the same halls as wiz kid hip-hop dancers, guitar virtuosos, locally renowned graffiti artists and fashion designers. SIDNEY tries to navigate her place at her new school, find her voice, and not get too lost along the way, figuratively and literally.
Her new best friends are MAKSIM, a tap shoe-loving, J-Lo-idolizing, dance major; RAJ, a multi-faceted visual artist whose mind sometimes goes faster than his mouth; and on-again/off-again frenemy drama student JING, who has already starred in 14 commercials! And will never stop mentioning it to you.
Our quartet embarks on their artistic journeys - under the ever-watchful eye of the slightly frenetic but super upbeat teacher, former Mega Pop Star, MISS MARLOWE.
Each semester, Sidney and company sing, dance, and stumble their way through the fast-paced daily rhythm at TEMPO, while discovering their own identity, confidence and creative sparks.
Tempo takes listeners on different daily adventures inside a middle school of the arts, built around a song by award-winning kids pop songwriter, Marlowe Stone (Miss Marlowe). Each musical number propels TEMPO’s stories along while also laying down a killer soundtrack.
TEMPO is what happens when you blend "School of Rock", "Saved by the Bell", and "High School Musical" into a giant smoothie and then slurp it through an infectious pop music straw! And this is just the first semester!
Meet the Cast
Sidney Carter
played by Sadie C. Grace
Sidney has been writing songs even before she could write and singing before she could speak. As soon as she could hold a guitar, or sit upright at a piano, she was knocking out hits. Born with a hearing impairment, Sidney never lets it, nor the hearing aids she wears, get in the way of anything. When people first find out, they assume it must be a challenge for her, but Sidney quickly shows them it is in fact a strength. *Sadie Conrad is a hearing-impaired actor/singer.
Season Overview
The four middle-school students are going to learn a lot about their arts, as well as themselves. Some examples include everyone finding out about Sidney’s hearing aids, and her wanting to show them that it never holds her back from anything. Maksim working on adding some more excitement to his performances. Raj coming to school after a night of playing video games and trying to hide the fact that he's sleepwalking from Miss Marlowe. The semester culminating in everyone having to work together for the end-of-semester mural project. Blending all their different disciplines to work together on one harmonious piece, which initially creates chaos, but eventually comes together. Hopefully.
Meet the Crew
About the Music
Singer-songwriter Marlowe Stone signed her first music publishing deal at 16, was a Producer for radio/TV ads and interviewed rock stars for Canada’s CTV network. When Marlowe noticed a major gap in the kids’ music market (after The Wiggles but way before Cardi B) she shook up the category with her award-winning Marlowe & The MiX "family pop". Her upbeat, hit-radio-sounding originals, full of positive messages for kids have been nominated for The JUNO Awards - Best Children’s Album and have won numerous, international songwriting awards in the Children’s Category (John Lennon Songwriting, International Songwriting, Independent Music Awards – People’s Choice). Lately, Marlowe has been mentoring young artists making their own marks in the music biz (Johnny Orlando, AJA, Emilie) and she was recently awarded a FACTOR grant by the Canadian government to create more groundbreaking, musical content for kids, like Tempo.