Student Conductor in Wawa

Visit the TSO blog to find out more about their visit to Sault Ste. Marie!

One of my favourite moments on this Residency has to be when TSO Music Director Peter Oundjian invites a student from the 1,000 student hall to come up and conduct the Toronto Symphony Orchestra during a Student Concert.
TSO Student concerts are hour long orchestral performances, designed for young listeners. The audience in this morning’s concert at White Pines Secondary in Sault Ste Marie included students from as far away as Wawa and Elliot Lake. I heard from some teachers that students had been travelling since 6am to experience a TSO concert.
One Wawa student’s trip was made especially memorable when TSO Music Director Peter Oundjian invited Tamara to conduct the TSO in Offenbach’s “Can Can”. Peter gave the audience and Tamara a quick lesson in conducting and then she was off!
The orchestra followed her baton closely and changed tempo along with Tamara’s direction – here’s a clip of her grand finale (and TSO debut!)

Check out her performance on the Toronto Symphony Orchestra Blog

http://tsoontheroad.wordpress.com/.

Have a peek at their facebook photostream:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/torontosymphonyorchestra/

Fun Fall Festival

Toronto Symphony Orchestra Northern Tour

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra had an amazing stay in Sault Ste. Marie recently as part of Sault Ste. Marie's Algoma Fall Festival program. Here is an excerpt from the TSO blog:

Right after the concerts in Sudbury, we jumped on the bus to Sault Ste Marie. We stopped at a rest stop along the way with a GREAT ice cream and fudge store – I think the most popular ice cream flavour was triple chocolate brownie, and it was yummy!
Upon our arrival in the Soo, we had an orchestra dinner where most of us ate until we couldn’t eat anymore! The Waterfront Inn even had a welcome sign for us:

Thursday morning was our first student concert in SSM, at the Kiwanis Community Theatre Centre. The kids loved the show – and were especially enthused about having Jim Gardiner as the soloist – born and raised in the Soo!
Thursday afternoon was hectic as Roberta had planned for many in-school performances and masterclasses. Lucky for us, we had some wonderful volunteers from SSM helping the staff to drive musicians to their schools. I went to Rosedale Public School with the brass trio – and the kids loved them! Here’s a picture of Andrew, Gabe, and Megan performing for the grade 7/8 classes:

Thursday night we were ready for our SOLD OUT show in SSM!. Christian Sharpe, Orchestra Personnel Administrator, and I were so excited about selling out the hall:

The show was fabulous and the audience was amazing! Jim Gardiner sounded awesome playing the Hummel Trumpet Concerto and the audience gave him a well deserved standing ovation. After two encores and a whole lot of clapping, we made our way to the Civic Centre for a nice reception put on by the Mayor.
All in all it’s been a great tour. As the last student concert wraps up, and we jump on our plane home, we’re all getting excited for an amazing season opener in Toronto! Special thanks to everyone on tour – the musicians, Peter, the staff, our presenters & supporters, all of the wonderful people we met in the communities we visited, and our super bus drivers Tony and Stan.

Getting on the plane!

A big thank you to Roberta Smith and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra members, as well as the Algoma Fall Festival , Festival Of Learning committee for organizing and providing this amazing opportunity for our students.

Agents of Change!

Sand DalCin has some great news to share about the Grade 3 agents of change at William Merrifield V.C. Public School. The Grade 3 class has been reading books about children who are agents of change: Beatrice's Goat, One Hen, and Boxes for Katje - all books available in every ADSB elementary school book room.

The students have been inspired by these stories to make a difference in the world. A few weeks ago, the Grade 3 students raised $50 at a popcorn sale and then used the money to purchase two mosquito nets from World Vision to help stop the spread of malaria to children in Africa. We have made a list of other items that we would like to purchase to help our world, such as: educate a girl in need; purchase classroom supplies; provide lunches for children for a month at school; purchase a goat or a hen, etc.

After reading One Hen, the students became interested in assisting poor African entrepreneurs to acquire micro finance loans to start up their own businesses and break the cycle of poverty. When students visit the web site http://www.onehen.org/they play online games and earn virtual beads as rewards. The students invest their virtual beads into a community jar and when the jar is full, real financial institutions convert the virtual beads to micro finance loans. Every full jar equals $20 in real loans, and the financial institutions involved have committed up to $100 000 to this very worthwhile cause. Our students have become so empowered by these acts, their enthusiasm has spread to the rest of the school. Every class at William Merrifield is now committed to making a difference in the world. From pop-tabs to shoeboxes to writing letters to soldiers, we are inspired to look beyond the borders of our school to make the world a better place.

Our theme song is, "Together We Can Change the World" - and we already are.

View the video at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFy54NmYPyc

Thanks for sharing Sandi !