Serena Ryder, Stompa – Hillcrest High School cover

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• published: 28 Nov 2015
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Serena Ryder, Stompa – Hillcrest High School cover for Canada's Greatest Music Class School: Hillcrest High School, Ottawa, ON Teachers: Jeannie Hunter & Melanie Reeks About the class: "Hillcrest High School is located in the South-East Ottawa community of Alta Vista. We have a strong sense of community and embrace the diversity of our student body which boasts students from many cultures and ethnicities including many new Canadians and International students. Almost half of our school population is involved in music, whether formally through classes and ensembles, or informally through our clubs and lunch program. Our music program has an open door policy – everyone is welcome regardless of their past musical experiences. We encourage students to participate based on their own interests and commitment level. The program is very student driven in that our young musicians have a big voice in everything we do and our entire program is run collaboratively. Mentoring is a huge part of our program. Our philosophy follows that of El Sistema; “The student who knows five notes can teach the student who knows three.” We believe in empowering students to become life-long musicians. On Wednesday mornings, everyone in our program comes together to rehearse. Many of our grade 9 students only began their instruments in September and are a proud part of our ensembles and our contest entry. Vocals for our performance were provided by members of our choir, but we run a program where everyone sings, so you’ll hear an acapella section featuring many of our instrumentalists as well. About our Stompa Cover: "Our arrangement begins with the slow opening. We start with Ocean Drum – we felt that it represented the calm serenity that Serena Ryder’s lyrics talk about us missing out on when we work too hard or focus only on the things that cause stress. This message resonated with our students. Our opening soloist is accompanied by arpeggiated chords in the grand piano with support from violin and cello. Our fast section begins with the throat singing sung as a round by members of our choir. As residents of Ottawa, we are very aware that the largest population of Inuit people outside of Inuit homelands reside here in our city. Because of this, we thought it would be appropriate to incorporate throat singing in our arrangement. We were fortunate to work with the Ottawa Inuit Children’s Centre to learn the history and techniques around throat singing. They helped us select a specific style of throat singing – in this case we have chosen the “Love Song” which is part of the Baker Lake, Nunavut style of throat singing, to include in our arrangement. Under the verses and choruses you can hear our horn section, and in the choruses you can hear our full choir. In our choruses, but most obviously in our acapella section, you’ll hear a stepping routine underneath. This routine was co-created in our vocals class after a suggestion from members of our school’s Black History Club. We hope you enjoy this glance into the community of Hillcrest High School. Thanks so much for offering this contest!" Subscribe for new videos: http://bit.ly/cbcmusicYT Check out CBC Music: http://www.cbcmusic.ca Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CBCMusic Twitter: https://twitter.com/cbcmusic