. >> ♪ and i wouldn't want to be another girl ♪ >> danika's song "wonderful" is one of many musical actsn the mind of a teen. >> [ groans ] >> "qeianu's blues" is basically about how when i wake up in the morning, it's actually true about what i wrote. >> ♪ family woke up ♪ started to yell ♪ family woke up ♪ started to yell >> this performance is the grand finale of a challenging class. it's part of a unique program taught by new york's lincoln center theater. >> ♪ shiny, shiny >> ♪ hop on a plane to rio >> the songwriting in the schools program sends professional lyricists and composers into classrooms to create characters with students and write songs from the character's perspective, and then the composers collaborate with the students to create music to set their songs to. >> some of those characters are drawn from real experiences. >> ♪ you make me feel this way ♪ i tried so hard to make this right ♪ ♪ why can't you just see what i'm feeling? ♪ >> others come to life in the students' imaginations. >> we got a picture of -- a photo of an elderly lady, and we just had to free-write, s