City students heading to Toronto performance

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This article was published 01/02/2006 (7283 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

AFTER more than a year of creating music and movement with everything from hand drums and xylophones to recorders, a group of Winnipeg students are heading to Toronto to find out what Orff is all about.

“It’s fun to do,” says Tyler Young, a Grade 6 student at Minnetonka School. “Most of our friends are here and we get to hang out. You learn a lot.”

Young is one of 39 Grade 5 and 6 and 7 students from Minnetonka and Darwin School involved in the Orff Club — an extracurricular music club that focuses on movement, singing and creativity. The club is one of three Orff performance groups from across Canada selected to perform at the Canadian National Orff Conference in Toronto this April, and director Sean Fitzmaurice says students are already fired up for the challenge.

“It lets them feel like they’re doing more than just playing notes on a page,” he says. “They’re forced to really think about what they’re doing.”

Fitzmaurice says the Orff approach was a global movement in music education inspired by composer Carl Orff. He says students have the opportunity to create some of their own music and have input about what direction the music should take. The holistic approach combines speech, rhythm, movement, dance and song, and gives students the chance express themselves musically through the creative outlet.

The Orff club combines students from both Minnetonka and Darwin Schools who audition to be part of the group. Students rehearse during two lunch hours each week as well as one practice after school.

This will be the first time the club participates in the conference that is set to attract more than 500 delegates from across Canada, North America and various parts of the world. The club was selected for their audition that included a CD, DVD and written component for the conference that takes place from April 27 to 30, 2006.

Fitzmaurice says their Orff group, Elemental, will be taking the audience on a visual and musical journey through five elements, including earth, air, wind, fire and metal. Students are already practicing their African drumming and using things like fabrics and creative movement for their performance, and say that despite the difficulty, the rehearsals are worth it.

“You get more challenges in music,” says Grade 6 student Karen Hatch. “It gets easier.”

PHOTO GEORGE DOUKLIAS/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS