Top musicians give free music lessons

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This article was published 07/07/2011 (5406 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A groundbreaking pilot project in a North End grade school will provide violins and free lessons to underprivileged students this fall.

It’s hoped the joint effort between the Seven Oaks School Division and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (WSO) will improve the lives and academic prospects of low-income students in the city through rigorous classical musical training.

“We’re using the arts as a vehicle to get kids interested in school,” said Seven Oaks Supt. Brian O’Leary. “I think it’s life-changing.”

The pilot is modelled after Venezuelan-based program El Sistema, which has revolutionized musical education in the South American country. More than 250,000 El Sistema students commit to training four hours a day, six days a week to master an instrument.

Proponents of the unorthodox program believe music is literally an instrument of social change and, for the students who are willing to commit to a rigorous schedule of practice and study, there is growing evidence that the potential rewards are huge.

“The same kind of potential that you find in healthy affluent neighbourhoods exists in all neighbourhoods,” said O’Leary. “We just have to work harder to support that potential and to bring it out.”

The program is new to Canada and will begin in four places: Ottawa, Toronto, New Brunswick and Winnipeg.

The first students in Winnipeg will come from Elwick Community School, which is in a neighbourhood that includes low-income areas. The school’s free breakfast program is popular.

Many of the students reside in a nearby public housing project and few are able to afford music lessons.

“It’s an area with a lot of families with challenges and kids with challenges,” said O’Leary.

This September, 30 to 40 of them will each receive their own violin, viola or cello and hours of musical training each week — much of it under the tutelage of the very best music professionals in the city.

“The idea is really to give people the chance who never would have had a chance before to learn an instrument,” said WSO musical director Alexander Mickelthwate.

Mickelthwate said Elwick students will learn more than just the standard classical fare. There will also be an emphasis on cultural music.

“Music is a wonderful universal language. Rhythm and melody are completely universal,” Michelthwate said.

He hopes students will learn how to play the Métis standard Red River Jig.

“Our community has a huge urban indigenous population,” he said.

Details of the program are still being worked out but funding is in place to begin creating a curriculum, which should be ready for September.

Students from grades one, two and three will be introduced to their instruments before learning rudimentary musical concepts.

“(Musical talent) doesn’t know a class, it doesn’t have any sense of what is North End or underprivileged,” said WSO board chair Dorothy Dobbie. “(For participants) it doesn’t matter what their social status is, they will thrill to it.”

Trudy Schroeder of the WSO said donations of string instruments in good condition are welcome.

meghan.potkins@freepress.mb.ca