“When every heart joins every heart and together yearns for liberty,
That's when we'll be free.
When every hand joins every hand and together molds our destiny,
That's when we'll be free.”
With those words, the New Westminster school district is reaching out to bring everyone together in a time of self-isolation.
Hymn to Freedom, a song composed by legendary Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson with lyrics by Harriet Hamilton, is this year’s offering for Music Monday.
Music Monday is a national day of celebration and advocacy for music education in Canada, and it’s celebrated each year on the first Monday of May in communities across Canada.
This year, New Westminster school choirs had planned to come together to share music during a May 5 district choral festival at Massey Theatre, but that was cancelled – along with other public events – because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since students couldn’t unite at Massey Theatre, the district decided to go with a virtual video project instead.
Students and families were invited to learn Hymn to Freedom at home and sing along in either English or French. Students were asked to think about the words of the song and create an art piece reflecting on their experiences of the themes of unity, kindness and community.
Their art pieces were put together to music, recorded (individually, at home) by graduates from the NWSS music program who are completing music degrees or who are in the early stages of their professional music careers: Will Chernoff on bass, Madeleine Elkins on guitar, Tony Wang on piano, Clayton Poon on trumpet and Daniel Green on alto sax. The video features vocals by William Cournoyer-Clements (NWSS Class of 2016), who also coordinated and produced the recording.
In total, 127 students contributed work to the project, which was pulled together by Kelly Proznick, the department head for visual and performing arts at New Westminster Secondary School.
“Each piece of artwork submitted for this project tells a unique and special story, one specific to the thoughts, ideas and experiences of the student artist,” Proznick said. “Many students expressed appreciation for their music teachers and their music classes. Many of the art pieces express hope and thanks, interpreting the lyrics of the song through the scenes and stories of our communities. Receiving each art piece was such an honour! Thank you to the students for sharing their art for this project.”
Proznick also reiterated the value of music education for students at all levels.
“Learning music is a full-sensory, participatory experience that incorporates many learning areas including creativity, literacy, numeracy and physicality,” she said. “Success in music requires self-confidence and cooperation, and authentic expressivity is essential. In music education, learning, growth and skill unfold in community from a place of curiosity, fun and responsiveness.”
To see the Music Monday video, check it out on Youtube.
For more on Music Monday, see https://coalitioncanada.ca/musicmonday/en/
