Michelle Obama, Carla Bruni and other world leader spouses pose at CAPACAPA, Creative And Performing Arts School, is a magnet school:
11:34 A.M. EDT
MRS. OBAMA: Good morning! (Applause.) How are you all doing today?
AUDIENCE: Good!
MRS. OBAMA: This has been a great morning for us. Don't we think, my fellow spouses? What do we think of these students? (Applause.) Bravo!
Thank you so much, Melissa, thank you for that wonderful introduction, thank you for introducing my fellow spouses. And Melissa, thank you for your tireless work, your inspired leadership, and your unflagging devotion to the students here at CAPA. You have every reason to be proud.
It is such a pleasure to be here. I mean, it is more than a pleasure to be here. I have been looking forward to this day the entire week. So have my colleagues, as well. So it is thrill -- I am thrilled, and to welcome our distinguished guests from all around the world. You can literally say that the world is watching you all today. (Laughter.) That's a good thing. And we're here as we celebrate some of America's most gifted performers and some of the hottest up-and-coming young talents in our nation. That would be you. (Applause.)
I want to start by recognizing one of the country's greatest composers -- and I know as students of the arts and music, you've heard of this gentleman, Marvin Hamlisch, who also happens to be one of the few people probably in the history of this country to have won an Emmy, a Tony, a Grammy and an Oscar. Now, that's pretty good. (Laughter.) And he's been working with the students here today to put on the fabulous show that we're going to see, so we want to thank him for his generosity. (Applause.)
And I want to honor Gregory Lehane -- a widely recognized director and a professor at Carnegie Mellon University -- for giving his time to help direct today's performances. Let us give a hand to Mr. Gregory Lehane. Thank you so much. (Applause.)
And I also want to express my gratitude to the renowned artists who have given their time to come today to be a part of this performance -- some of my very favorites. Sara Bareilles. I have to say, she is on my iPod. (Laughter.) She has gotten me through many a day with "Gravity" and "Love Song." I love her. (Laughter.) Yo-Yo Ma. You know, what more is there to say? (Applause.) And another one of my favorites, Trisha Yearwood. So I'm just excited as you all. (Laughter.)
And finally, I want to thank the marvelous young people -- oh, all of you -- who performed for us today who will be singing and dancing and playing music for us today in this performance and during this morning. You brought tears to our eyes. It means so much to see such talent on display.
As my good friend, Carla Sarkozy, said, you know, in America, you know, here you have people who can sing, and they can dance, and they can act. Now, she said in France it's not often that you get all of those wrapped in one. But she said there's something unique about America's talents where it's just so natural to see all of that talent on display. So you all should be so very proud.
Now, there are a number of reasons why I personally wanted to come and bring our international visitors here to CAPA this morning.
We're here because I wanted to introduce them to some of America's finest, most creative, most accomplished young people. I wanted to come here because I wanted to showcase the value of arts education -- and you put that on display. That fact that it gives the chance to our young people to discover their voices and to develop their talents, this should be an opportunity that is available for every single child in this nation and quite frankly around the world. Read the rest here
