Singers making most of unprecedented times
KEC students pursuing creative careers in music
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This article was published 16/10/2020 (1863 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Despite the limitations of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, three Grade 12 students at Kildonan-East Collegiate are making waves in the local music scene.
Allanah Jeffreys, Suliat Balogun, and Alyza Zaragoza have certainly been making the most of their time at home during school’s closure in the spring. Each of the three girls have recorded and released original material at a prolific pace, sharing the recordings via YouTube and Soundcloud.
Balogun, Zaragoza, and Jeffreys were all students of Tyler Del Pino’s at Valley Gardens Middle School before moving over to KEC, where Isaac-Martens began teaching them. With choir and music productions classes in River East Transcona School Division online only this year, owing to COVID-19, Isaac-Martens noticed that her students have really begun to make the most of their lessons and the opportunity that working online can provide for emerging artists.
“In the last six months, their creativity has been thriving,” said Janet Isaac-Martens, a choir and music teacher at KEC. “I think that’s allowing them to shrive and shine.”
A musician since she was six, Jeffreys has been pursuing music as a career for the past year.
“I love music and that’s what I want to do with my life,” Jeffreys said.
In 2019, she travelled to New York, where she recorded three tracks, which were all released as singles. The video for I’ll Be Me had over 11,000 views on YouTube at press time. A seasoned performer, Jeffreys said she is “making the most” of the lack of live gigs owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I love performing, it’s my favourite part about music,” she said. “(Lately) my main focus has been writing music and focusing on social media.”
Balogun also started playing music early, learning piano, guitar, and drums at a young age. She started writing music in Grade 7.
“It helps me escape,” she said. “In a way I could pour out my emotions in what I’m writing.”
Currently, Balogun has a pair of tracks out on Spotify and Souncloud, with more to come.
“I’ve been using some studio time, trying to work with what I’ve got,” she said. “I’m more focused on putting new music out.”
For Zaragoza, an early love of music made her somewhat of an outsider in her family.
“I started singing when I was able to talk, but it was a bit of a bumpy road,” she said. “Nobody was there to support me or back me up, because I was so different compared to my family.”
But Zaragoza is proving that adversity can make an artist stronger.
“But that helped me write the songs I’m writing now,” she said.
While she doesn’t have any songs on Spotify to date, Zaragoza maintains an active YouTube channel, where she posts a mix of covers and originals.
“Lately I’ve been getting lots of requests through social media, so I’ve been pumping out stuff like Green Day, some punk rock stuff,” she said. “I have been doing some studio stuff on the side, just waiting for the right moment to put it out.”
Like Jeffreys, both Balogun and Zaragoza hope to make a career of music, though both would like to pursue other skills as well.
“I’d like to have something to fall back on,” Balogun said.
The work these young artists are creating is not going unnoticed around Kildonan-East, either.
“Their positivity, it’s feeding their classroom work and daily lives,” Isaac-Martens said. “I can see their character shining through. Their positivity also influences other classes is so special. I can see others looking to them for inspiration, which is really great.”
All three are involved in a “massive” multi-media project Isaac-Martens and other teachers are producing in lieu of a traditional Remembrance Day assembly.
“Allanah’s doing O Canada, and the other girls are working with the guitar class,” Isaac-Martens said. “So far, we’ve got guitar, bass, vocals for The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkle.”
Sheldon Birnie
Community Journalist
Sheldon Birnie is a reporter/photographer for the Free Press Community Review. The author of Missing Like Teeth: An Oral History of Winnipeg Underground Rock (1990-2001), his writing has appeared in journals and online platforms across Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. A husband and father of two young children, Sheldon enjoys playing guitar and rec hockey when he can find the time. Email him at sheldon.birnie@freepress.mb.ca Call him at 204-697-7112
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Sheldon Birnie
Community Journalist
Sheldon Birnie is a reporter/photographer for the Free Press Community Review. The author of Missing Like Teeth: An Oral History of Winnipeg Underground Rock (1990-2001), his writing has appeared in journals and online platforms across Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. A husband and father of two young children, Sheldon enjoys playing guitar and rec hockey when he can find the time. Email him at sheldon.birnie@freepress.mb.ca Call him at 204-697-7112
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
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