Artist Statement
Taking time to reflect on my past three years has given me a lot to think about. Time can be many things, from a blessing to a curse. For me I have found everything in between. Time has given me a chance to grow, step outside my box, and learn in more ways than I thought possible. Entering into the PVA program was a bit of a shock for me. I came from a smaller junior high where most kids took band, not because they wanted to but because they had little other option choices. On the first day seeing how many people were there because they wanted to be, gave me reassurance that I had made the right choice coming to a school where I knew no one. The day we actually pulled out our instruments and started to play I was incredibly intimidated by the sheer level of everyone. That day I made a goal for myself to keep an open mind and never stop trying to improve. I believe this is something I have achieved and something I will continue to achieve throughout my life. Music has always been a big part of me; I have been intrigued by it since such a young age. I remember as a kid playing my grandma’s electric organ, then convincing my mom to get me my own mini battery operated toy keyboard. Around the same time my mom bought me a toy plastic clarinet, and through coloured buttons and corresponding notes on the staff I taught myself how to read music. Throughout my younger years I experimented with different instruments all the way from your basic tambourine and maracas, to the accordion and the bongos.
Grade ten brought a lot of insight to me musically, I had never really learned any theory before other than just how to read the treble clef, but through the musicianship program I was able to extend that knowledge. Throughout the year the concepts that were being taught on minor and major scales came relatively easy to me, I enjoyed learning them because they helped me understand the music I was playing a bit better. Grade 10 brought a lot of things to me. I realized that people did put a lot of work, effort, and emotion into their music. Being enrolled in several music classes helped me to begin to learn how to express myself musically as well. Having band inside and outside the time table was something new to me, it was a bigger time commitment than I had imagined, especially with jazz and choir as well. At one point about midway through the year, I found balancing all of my musical activates with my core classes and extracurricular activates very challenging, and eventually had to stop my extracurricular activities. While trying to balance my schedule I did manage to have a lot of fun throughout the year, I made more friends than I could have imagined, partly due to the accepting community I was entering into; but also because of the camps and trips we took. Choir camp gave me an opportunity to talk to people that I would have never associated with otherwise and showed me that everyone was there because they loved singing. It didn’t matter to them how good or bad you were only that you were interested in improving, not just yourself but the choir as a whole. Band camp was also an experience that I will never forget, it offered me the opportunity to become closer to the people I had already established as my friends, and learn about everyone else. I think that like choir camp, the band benefited from the experience, and the connections we gained with each other helped us musically.
Entering into grade 11 I felt more confident, I found myself looking for ways to help out, so joined the choir leadership team. I helped plan and organize the student lead activities for the annual choir camp. Later in the year I found my new found leadership a great help, I worked with a small group of choir members from the leadership team to organize something called treble for trouble. Treble for trouble was our way of using our voices to raise money for the earth quake that hit Haiti. We came up with the idea of using our voices and busking for donation from the great experiences we had on the choir trip to Germany and the Czech Republic. While on tour we were given the opportunity to sight see and experience the culture, after a chilly evening, all we wanted to do was sing so we stood outside of local Starbucks and began to sing. We didn’t expect anyone to give us any money but when people started to give us some coins it was a feeling of excitement and joy that would never leave. Being given the opportunity to travel is just one of the many wonderful things music has to offer. As the year passed PVA gave me the opportunity to explore composing with our creative composition project. It was the first time I had ever had any opportunity to put what I had been learning in my harmony book to use. Having finished my work, and hearing it be performed by one of my fellow classmates Janelle and our accompanist Mrs. Klassen, it was truly eye opening to the possibilities of where notes on a page could take you. This however was not my first experience with composing, but it was my first good one. In 8th grade my band teacher made us, as a final project, compose a song. At the time I had little to no idea what I was doing, and in turn it sounded awful. But this time round, since I had had a better idea of what I was doing, the result was something I was quite happy with. On the band trip to Whistler, a few other kids and myself who had really enjoyed the project decided that we would all compose a song about weather. As it happened, Marina wrote about a hurricane, I wrote about sunshine, Matt and Mackenzie wrote about some other form of weather. Our plan was to compile all of our short works into one big one, but as these were just rough drafts that were written on a bus that never happened. Grade 11 opened my eyes more to the world of possibilities that music has to offer. I found myself as the year was ending sad to see the grade 12's that had been my mentors and friends leave. Knowing that next year was my time to stand up, give it my all and really be the best I could be gave me hope for the leaving grade 12s.
Grade 12 to me was really about finding yourself musically and deciding where you stand. The beginning of the year was hard, being the oldest and having so many young players. It was really hard to find hope in the band because of the inexperience. But as we worked our butts off we got to a point where we had really improved and enjoyed playing together. This year brought a lot of challenges to me, some have forced me to work my hardest and others have made me dig deeper and spend hours on projects. Being on the choir leadership team for my second year there was only one other person who had done it in the past as well. I found that there were more people this year interested in helping out than last year, while in theory this is great and it turned out to be a whole lot of people with ideas with no clue on how to make them a possibility. In the end it was a very small group of individuals who did the majority of the work. This was a great accomplishment for me because I learned that when you work hard enough the results are very rewarding. This was my first year I was given the opportunity to play solo’s in symphonic band. The past two years I have really been looking forward to this, it required a lot more than I had thought. In the past I had never really had enough confidence to be able to play a solo, I would always start freaking out before hand, but this year I took it as an opportunity to learn from that and try to get over my nervousness. I really tried my hardest to be more comfortable soloing, and this paid off for me. While we were in England the first time we played in the Ripon Cathedral was an experience and a feeling I won’t ever forget. I was able to forget about how nervous I was and just let go and actually listen to what the acoustics sounded like. A similar experience happened for our final concert that we gave. I felt so proud that night, not just of myself but of every one, thinking back to the beginning of the year and hearing what we have come to was inspiring. Another challenge I faced this year was narrowing down to one topic in music I was interested in. Eventually I decided to research my favourite composer Percy Grainger. I first became interested in Grainger’s music when the UofC wind ensemble came and played a concert of Percy Grainger music. I was captivated the entire time and from the moment forward he was my favourite composer. My grade 12 research project gave me motivation to learn more about someone I admired. This year I ended up learning a lot, I learned how to gain more control of my tone on my instrument, I learned to take responsibility for my own actions, and I learned where I stood musically.
This whole process has been something remarkable; the musical journey has given me more confidence on my instrument and in myself. As I entered the PVA program I was sure that I wanted a career as a musician, but like most things that you give time to, that changed. I no longer want a career as a musician, but I do want to keep playing and singing. Music is many things to me, to give up music all together would be like giving up part of who I am. I hope for the future to be an active member of the arts community whether it being going to see concerts, participating in a communal band or even singing in my church choir. I believe that music has given me an outlet to express myself in a way that I never thought I could, and for this I am truly grateful.
Grade ten brought a lot of insight to me musically, I had never really learned any theory before other than just how to read the treble clef, but through the musicianship program I was able to extend that knowledge. Throughout the year the concepts that were being taught on minor and major scales came relatively easy to me, I enjoyed learning them because they helped me understand the music I was playing a bit better. Grade 10 brought a lot of things to me. I realized that people did put a lot of work, effort, and emotion into their music. Being enrolled in several music classes helped me to begin to learn how to express myself musically as well. Having band inside and outside the time table was something new to me, it was a bigger time commitment than I had imagined, especially with jazz and choir as well. At one point about midway through the year, I found balancing all of my musical activates with my core classes and extracurricular activates very challenging, and eventually had to stop my extracurricular activities. While trying to balance my schedule I did manage to have a lot of fun throughout the year, I made more friends than I could have imagined, partly due to the accepting community I was entering into; but also because of the camps and trips we took. Choir camp gave me an opportunity to talk to people that I would have never associated with otherwise and showed me that everyone was there because they loved singing. It didn’t matter to them how good or bad you were only that you were interested in improving, not just yourself but the choir as a whole. Band camp was also an experience that I will never forget, it offered me the opportunity to become closer to the people I had already established as my friends, and learn about everyone else. I think that like choir camp, the band benefited from the experience, and the connections we gained with each other helped us musically.
Entering into grade 11 I felt more confident, I found myself looking for ways to help out, so joined the choir leadership team. I helped plan and organize the student lead activities for the annual choir camp. Later in the year I found my new found leadership a great help, I worked with a small group of choir members from the leadership team to organize something called treble for trouble. Treble for trouble was our way of using our voices to raise money for the earth quake that hit Haiti. We came up with the idea of using our voices and busking for donation from the great experiences we had on the choir trip to Germany and the Czech Republic. While on tour we were given the opportunity to sight see and experience the culture, after a chilly evening, all we wanted to do was sing so we stood outside of local Starbucks and began to sing. We didn’t expect anyone to give us any money but when people started to give us some coins it was a feeling of excitement and joy that would never leave. Being given the opportunity to travel is just one of the many wonderful things music has to offer. As the year passed PVA gave me the opportunity to explore composing with our creative composition project. It was the first time I had ever had any opportunity to put what I had been learning in my harmony book to use. Having finished my work, and hearing it be performed by one of my fellow classmates Janelle and our accompanist Mrs. Klassen, it was truly eye opening to the possibilities of where notes on a page could take you. This however was not my first experience with composing, but it was my first good one. In 8th grade my band teacher made us, as a final project, compose a song. At the time I had little to no idea what I was doing, and in turn it sounded awful. But this time round, since I had had a better idea of what I was doing, the result was something I was quite happy with. On the band trip to Whistler, a few other kids and myself who had really enjoyed the project decided that we would all compose a song about weather. As it happened, Marina wrote about a hurricane, I wrote about sunshine, Matt and Mackenzie wrote about some other form of weather. Our plan was to compile all of our short works into one big one, but as these were just rough drafts that were written on a bus that never happened. Grade 11 opened my eyes more to the world of possibilities that music has to offer. I found myself as the year was ending sad to see the grade 12's that had been my mentors and friends leave. Knowing that next year was my time to stand up, give it my all and really be the best I could be gave me hope for the leaving grade 12s.
Grade 12 to me was really about finding yourself musically and deciding where you stand. The beginning of the year was hard, being the oldest and having so many young players. It was really hard to find hope in the band because of the inexperience. But as we worked our butts off we got to a point where we had really improved and enjoyed playing together. This year brought a lot of challenges to me, some have forced me to work my hardest and others have made me dig deeper and spend hours on projects. Being on the choir leadership team for my second year there was only one other person who had done it in the past as well. I found that there were more people this year interested in helping out than last year, while in theory this is great and it turned out to be a whole lot of people with ideas with no clue on how to make them a possibility. In the end it was a very small group of individuals who did the majority of the work. This was a great accomplishment for me because I learned that when you work hard enough the results are very rewarding. This was my first year I was given the opportunity to play solo’s in symphonic band. The past two years I have really been looking forward to this, it required a lot more than I had thought. In the past I had never really had enough confidence to be able to play a solo, I would always start freaking out before hand, but this year I took it as an opportunity to learn from that and try to get over my nervousness. I really tried my hardest to be more comfortable soloing, and this paid off for me. While we were in England the first time we played in the Ripon Cathedral was an experience and a feeling I won’t ever forget. I was able to forget about how nervous I was and just let go and actually listen to what the acoustics sounded like. A similar experience happened for our final concert that we gave. I felt so proud that night, not just of myself but of every one, thinking back to the beginning of the year and hearing what we have come to was inspiring. Another challenge I faced this year was narrowing down to one topic in music I was interested in. Eventually I decided to research my favourite composer Percy Grainger. I first became interested in Grainger’s music when the UofC wind ensemble came and played a concert of Percy Grainger music. I was captivated the entire time and from the moment forward he was my favourite composer. My grade 12 research project gave me motivation to learn more about someone I admired. This year I ended up learning a lot, I learned how to gain more control of my tone on my instrument, I learned to take responsibility for my own actions, and I learned where I stood musically.
This whole process has been something remarkable; the musical journey has given me more confidence on my instrument and in myself. As I entered the PVA program I was sure that I wanted a career as a musician, but like most things that you give time to, that changed. I no longer want a career as a musician, but I do want to keep playing and singing. Music is many things to me, to give up music all together would be like giving up part of who I am. I hope for the future to be an active member of the arts community whether it being going to see concerts, participating in a communal band or even singing in my church choir. I believe that music has given me an outlet to express myself in a way that I never thought I could, and for this I am truly grateful.
