Program gives students a chance to learn and perform

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"Practice makes perfect" takes on new meaning when you're handed an unfamiliar musical instrument and told that in just six weeks time you'll be playing it in front of a live audience, alongside members of a national orchestra. But for approximately 40 brave volunteers from three Prince Albert Grand Council elementary schools-Angus Mirasty, Little Red River and Sturgeon Lake Central-the musical challenge was one they gladly accepted.

During the course of the cross-cultural music project put on by the National Arts Centre Orchestra (NACO) of Ottawa and the Prince Albert Grand Council, students in grades 4 to 6 were provided with recorders courtesy of Yamaha Canada. Starting in September, they learned an excerpt from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons in preparation for a concert with seven members of NACO's brass section.

A few days before the big event, 13-year-old Percy Ballantyne of Sturgeon Lake put his recorder down long enough to talk about the program. A traditional dancer from the age of nine, Ballantyne is used to performing. However, Vivaldi's baroque music and the recorder were both brand new to him.

"I got used to it," he said with a grin. When asked if he's gotten tired of the Largo theme from Winter, the piece he and his fellow students have been mastering, Ballantyne responded with an emphatic no.

"I like it even more now that I know it. The more the better. And I get to learn with my favourite teachers."

Those teachers are Ruby Thornton and Sonya Ermine, who credit NACO's comprehensive resource packages with making the program fun and manageable.

The materials engaged students' interest by linking The Four Seasons with First Nations culture and storytelling.

Tutoring for the teachers in charge of the program proved invaluable, too.

"The National Arts Centre made available to us a lady by the name of Marta Green in Prince Albert," explained Thornton," We had three training sessions with her and she was absolutely phenomenal. We were scared the first time we went in there, because it's one thing knowing how to read music and how to play music, but to teach it is a completely different thing. Marta gave us strategies and worked with us and we came out of there pumped and ready to go."

At Angus Mirasty school, located in Prince Albert, Leanne Highway headed up the recorder program, while Gail Cassels and Leanne Johnson were the leaders at Little Red River school on the Little Red River First Nation.

All their hard work culminated in a music sharing session with NACO on Nov. 7 at the E.A. Rawlinson Centre in Prince Albert. The event began with a grand entry made up of students from the three participating schools and drum group Young Eagle Cree from Sturgeon Lake First Nation. Before his opening prayer, emcee Howard Walker described youth as "the greatest gift that we have that is on loan to us by the Creator" and spoke about music as a way to "harness the energy of our youth with the knowledge of our teachers, the courage of our community and the wisdom of our Elders."

Prince Albert Grand Council's director of education Larry Goldade called the recorder program "inspirational" and told students, "I have no doubt in my mind that there could well be a future Paul McCartney in this crowd, or even a future director of the National Arts Centre."

NACO brass warmed up the crowd with short snippets from recognizable pieces like the William Tell Overture. The Star Wars and Hockey Night in Canada themes sent a murmur of appreciation through the young audience.

The students who were about to perform sat quietly, wearing bright blue T-shirts given to them by the NACO brass. At last, they took the stage and first played then sang the words to the Largo theme. Several students provided accompaniment with drums. When the last notes faded, most of the young musicians took a bow along with the brass players, but some were more exuberant and triumphantly raised their recorders high above their heads.

A gift presetation for NACO brass followed the concert and many students went up to the microphone to thank their special guests in Cree.

Students filed out of the auditorium and onto their buses, leaving a trail of recorder music in their wake. Most said they plan to keep right on playing their new instruments.

Morningstar Ross- Ballentyne, a Grade 6 student at of Little Red River school, summed up whole experience in three short words-"It was fun."

Sonya Ermine thinks the program's legacy will continue at Sturgeon Lake central school.

"Since I've had this opportunity and we have some dedicated students, I wouldn't mind continuing the program, now that I have a little bit of an inkling on how to teach it," she said.

A student matinee on Nov. 8 was co-hosted by NACO conductor Boris Brott and Woodland Cree storyteller and singer/songwriter Joseph Naytowhow of Sturgeon Lake First Nation.

The performance, which saw the students accompanied this time by the NACO string section, also featured a solo by double bass player John Jaques, a classically trained Aboriginal musician who belongs to the Saskatoon Youth Orchestra.

The second half of NACO's November tour takes place in Alberta. The project, which was first implemented last year in British Columbia, will be held in Quebec in 2006.