The students at Jack MacKenzie Elementary School are hitting all the right notes, thanks to the Regina Symphony Orchestra’s (RSO) Link Up program.
“(It) gives them an opportunity to see a professional player for the symphony and have a little more of an idea of what it means to be a professional musician,” said arts education teacher Marlene Hinz.
On Thursday morning, the school hosted the RSO’s principal flautist, Marie-Noelle Berthelet.
“As a musician in the RSO, we come in the school and we coach the students,” she said. “We prepare them for the final concert.”
The musicians travel to schools throughout Regina and the surrounding area, teaching the students how to play the recorder and sing. It’s part of their mission to spread music education.
“It’s really cool to have something that they can do before on the recorder, when they can play music with a real orchestra,” Berthelet said. “It makes the experience so much more fun.”
More than 3,000 elementary school students will join the RSO on stage at the Conexus Arts Centre on March 10 to showcase their new skills.
“It’s been a real blast to work with the students, to see how they’re learning music,” Berthelet said.
Hinz says the visits help create a balance between musical education and other subjects.
“It’s the one strand of their education that allows them the creativity that they sometimes don’t have exposure to in other disciplines we have in the school system,” she said.
The musical training also gives students the skills they need to work towards a common goal.
“(It’s) the carrot at the end of the stick thing – something to work towards,” Hinz said. “They love having things like that.”
