It’s 7:30 in the morning, and the grounds of Spring Creek
school are empty, save for the faint sound of trumpets and trombones drifting
from the confines of the building.
If you follow the music, you’ll soon come to a door marked “Ms.
Hunter.” This is Alison Hunter’s classroom. She splits her time between
teaching music at Spring Creek and helping to organize the annual musical at
Whistler Secondary School.
“I was the librarian, too, but last June I said, ‘you know, I
can’t do two full-time jobs anymore,” she recalls with a laugh.
Instead, she decided to take on a whole new project — a
band program for local elementary school children.
Every Tuesday and Thursday morning this year, almost 30
students have trundled out of their beds and made their way to rehearsal. They
may be bleary-eyed when they arrive, but after a few minutes of Hunter’s
enthusiastic instruction, these kids are bright-eyed and ready to play.
Grasping French horns, trumpets, trombones, flutes, and
clarinets, the young musicians perch at their music stands, tapping their feet
to keep the beat, playing along with Hunter on the piano.
They haven’t been at it for long — the program was
launched at the beginning of the school year — but they’re already
running like a well-oiled machine, rehearsing each song once then playing it
again so Hunter can record it.
Hunter started the program, simply entitled the Whistler
Concert Band, to try and encourage kids to explore music a little further than
they’re able to in a regular music class.
“It gives them an outlet, and I think that’s so important, and
also to give our children all the opportunities and say, ‘here’s what there is,
you can pick and choose,’” she explained.
A harpist, Hunter also played in an orchestra before heading
off to university, and believes being involved in a band is a fundamental
team-building experience.
“When you play in a band, you’re working together and you’re
working in a co-operative way,” she said. “It’s not competitive — you’re
supporting each other.”
At the elementary school level, Hunter believes it’s important
to limit the amount of instrument selection to help ensure the kids get a
strong basic understanding of one instrument.
“It’s harder for them to all play in tune and to play together
and to master instruments if there’s a huge variety,” she explained. “This way,
you may have noticed, they help each other and they’ve become a tight little
group.”
Students in Grades 5, 6 and 7 at Spring Creek and Myrtle Philip
have been welcomed into the band.
While there have been band programs at elementary and secondary
levels of school — the elementary school had a band almost 10 years ago,
before Whistler Secondary School existed — they invariably fizzled out.
But the response for Hunter’s first-year band has been very
strong — over 26 students participate in the biweekly rehearsals, and
there’s at least one parent who regularly comes out to flex their musical
muscles alongside the students.
Evan Ford is a Grade 6 student and plays trumpet in the new
band. He decided he wanted to join after attending the annual Whistler Music
Festival.
“Ms. Hunter said that I would be really great at clarinet, but
I saw the trumpet and got really inspired by the sound… so I decided to do the
trumpet,” Ford explained with a grin.
Caitlyn Goss, a Grade 5 student, opted for the flute for its
“soft, delicate” sound.
“These are the kids that really want to be there to begin
with,” Hunter points out, adding that they’re a dedicated bunch, with some
students even tromping into rehearsal each day after their hockey practices at
the crack of dawn.
“What I’ve actually really seen is them come together as a
group. They’ve become more and more supportive of each other,” said Hunter.
They’re planning to continue on with the program next year,
entering into the second level of the band and making room for a whole new
group of recruits for the first-year program, and expanding their reach to
another school district.
“Because we didn’t know what was going to happen, we wanted to
keep it relatively simple. But now we know what works, so this year, we’re
going to offer it as well to the students in District 93, which is the
Francophone school, Ecole La Passerelle. So we really, really do hope that they
will come, too,” Hunter said, adding that they don’t have a full-time music
specialist on staff.
She has also tried to keep costs low so all students can
participate. There is a monthly instructional fee of $30, instrument rental
costs about $15, and they have a one-time purchase of a student book for $10.
The band held its first public performances during the Spring
Creek Christmas Concert and two performances at the local elementary schools,
which were nerve-wracking experiences.
“In the performing arts, every time you get up and perform, you
take that risk of looking foolish — it takes a lot of courage!” Hunter
said.
But the students are a determined, enthusiastic group — they’re improving quickly and are eager to learn more. So listen up for their next public performance.