Proud moment for teacher who carries out promise to students

Gift for Bocelli A local teacher attended the Andrea Bocelli concert and brought a gift for the famous tenor. CTV Windsor’s Bob Bellacicco shows us.

Although he wasn't there, Houston Tanevski and his classmates from Brennan high school made an appearance on stage at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

Singer Andrea Bocelli's daughter Virginia held up a poster with the students’ picture on it.

“We thought it was amazing, that we were showed up in front of all these people,” said Tanevski.

Students in Maddelena Liburdi's therapeutic music class started the school year learning music one note at a time. They have since learned over 60 full length songs and performed three concerts.

For Valentine's Day a student suggested recording a cd and sending the music to celebrities.

“I'm thinking how am I going to do this,” Liburdi said. “You can easily Instagram and slide into people's DM’s but they get hundreds and thousands a day.”

Liburdi promised to do her best.

“Sure enough I found out that Andrea Bocelli was coming to town. I've been a big fan for many years,” she said.

She bought tickets and her class recorded a small compilation of Bocelli songs, “so we could show him how brave we are and how awesome we are,” Tanevski said.

The music and a letter were taped to the back of a poster that said ‘You inspire us Andrea Bocelli’.

“We also did it in braille. They signed it. This is a gift. You got to make it to the stage,” Liburdi said.

Security took the poster which eventually made it backstage. Liburdi saw Bocelli's 12-year daughter Virginia showing off the poster to others.

“Somehow it ended up working and it was great to see the kids reaction to this,” said Jacob Renaud, a Brennan grad who volunteers with the group once a week.

Liburdi describes the moment her pride beamed.

“Final song they went up to take the bow and we saw her go on stage proudly with the poster and of course everyone's taking pictures of this so of course I'm just a proud teacher at this moment.”

A great moment that now has the students looking to send their music to another music star.

“Ed Sheeran,” said Tanevski. A perfect choice.