Before taking the stage at Verizon Center last night, Alicia Keys met with some local fans — a half-dozen teen girls, all singers in the Washington Performing Arts Society’s Children of the Gospel Choir. At-large D.C. Council member Kwame Brown’s office set up the meeting (an echo of last year, when more than 100 area girls got to meet and pose for pics with Beyoncé). The choir singers were invited after two of them testified at a May 10 D.C. Council hearing about how music boosted their self-confidence and academic achievement.

The girls sang a quick song; Keys, in black skinny jeans and cropped leather jacket, clapped and told them they have beautiful voices. Brown Chief of Staff Irma Esparza says it’s all about “being able to instill kids living in D.C. with some hope, letting them know there are opportunities out here and you can do whatever it is you want to do.”