We have an assembly every month here at Armstrong to share what we are doing in our classrooms, celebrate our children and events and teach students of Armstrong those important performer and audience etiquette skills.

On October 30th we will have an assembly at 1:30pm we will be celebrating all of the October holidays! And there are many!

Division 12, Ms. Caruth’s class, will be performing Turkey Trot for Thanksgiving.

Division 10, Ms. Ford’s class, will be playing a drum piece that they created in class.

Division 7, Ms. Melton’s class, will be sharing information about all of the October holidays.

Division 13, Mrs. Albert and Mrs. Clark’s class, will be doing a dance for Diwali.

Come on down and enjoy those performances!

And, of course, we will have an assembly on November 8th for Remembrance Day, hosted by Division 10.

Division 10 and 11 will sing a rendition of In Flander’s Fields poem by John McRae and music by Craig Cassils.

Divisions 8 and 9 will sing the song We Remember  by Canadian artist Allan Crossley.

On November 12th some Vancouver Warriors players will join us to  educate our students about who the Vancouver Warriors are, the history of lacrosse, its Indigenous connection, the first people’s perspective.

The grade 6/7s will enjoy some line dancing in the gym on November 20th and 27th.

And Vanya Popoff, concert pianist and composer, will join us on November 18th to perform for us and work with a handful of our students.

And our first Young People’s Concert will be on November 25th at 9:35am. The intermediate students are so lucky to be bussed to the Michael J. Fox Theatre to enjoy a performance by The Leading Ladies Little Big Band.

Vancouver based 11-woman big band ‘The Leading Ladies’ present a rare musical blend of classic and modern jazz, showcasing beloved pieces from the big band era alongside modern-day originals. Directed by trombonist Casey Thomas-Burns, this dynamic and vibrant group of young women first came together to perform a single show in 2019. They’ve stuck together ever since. At a concert with ‘The Ladies’ you can expect to hear new takes on classic favorites, music by local and Canadian composers, and maybe even a few things you’ve never hear before as the band regularly debuts new pieces by emerging composers. Recently returned from their 2023 West Coast Tour, this band has been named as one to watch on the Canadian jazz scene. The Leading Ladies Little Big Band is an ensemble with a mission, and in addition to performing in concerts and festivals, focuses on educational engagements and community outreach. The band launched their program “LADIES’ NIGHT: Jazz Jams for Women” in the Spring of 2022, where femme-identifying and non-binary musicians of all ages and skill levels are invited to come and jam with the members of the band in a safe, female-led environment.

Update – D.O. Gibson will NOT be performing at Armstrong next week. He is booked for another engagement. I will let you know next week what our new date for his performance is.

That being said, we are also excited to have Vanya Popoff come in and perform for us here at Armstrong! He will be performing for us on November 20th at 11:00am.

Find out more about Vanya here, and watch his videos!

https://vanyasmusic.com/

We will be having a performer come in to our school on October 28th! His name is D.O. Gibson and is performing his show Black Canadian 365.

Here is a preview of that show:

Visit D.O. Gibson’s website about this important show here:

https://www.blackcanadian365.com/

It is time for enrolment for students taking Grade 7 band!

Our band teacher this year is Mr. Ray Faoro. You can email him at ray.faoro@burnabyschools.ca if you have any questions or want to let him know something about your child.

If you want to get a loan for a free instrument, you can click here and fill in the application form for the Harmony For All program that is done through the city of Burnaby. Please let me know if you need a letter of recommendation for your child, and I will be happy to provide it. Sonja.karlson@burnabyschools.ca

At Armstrong, we encourage all of our grade seven students to take band. It is such a lucky opportunity the children are afforded in the Burnaby school district – to have this program, not as an add-on, but as part of the instructional time for these students. They build a connection to high school learning, get ahead in a high school elective, and can make an informed decisions when it comes to their high school choice electives. There are no down-sides to taking band in grade seven. The focus, team building and musical language acquisition is so good for these kids!

Here is the link to the band information form. You can fill it out online.

Thank you for filling this out as quickly as possible. It will help with our planning for the 2024-2025 school year.

I am sharing this letter from the BCMEA past president with the Armstrong community, because I know most of you appreciate our strong music program at Armstrong and in Burnaby. But, as budgets get cut, this may not always be our reality. Write a letter (see template below) to support adequate funding for your child’s education that allows the entire curriculum, including arts education, to be taught in schools.

As you may be aware, school districts throughout our province have been grappling with deficit budgets, leading to significant cuts in teaching positions, student programs, and essential student support services. These budget constraints have profoundly impacted the quality of education our students receive, including their access to music education.

In response to these challenges, a letter writing campaign to the provincial government has been initiated. The primary aim of this campaign is to advocate for an increase in the per student fund allocation, which is crucial for restoring the resources necessary to provide a well-rounded education for all students, including robust music programs.

I urge you to join this campaign by mobilizing your music parents and families to participate in sending letters to their Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs). By raising our voices collectively, we can emphasize the importance of adequate funding for education and highlight the value of music education in fostering creativity, discipline, and academic success among our students.

Below, I have included a template letter that you can share with your music community. Feel free to customize it to reflect your own experiences and perspectives:

Raise Per Student Funding Letter

Together, let’s work towards securing the resources our students need to thrive academically, socially, and artistically. Thank you for your dedication to music education and your commitment to advocating for the best interests of our students.

If you have any questions or need further assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out. Let’s make our voices heard and effect positive change for the future of education in our province.

Cheers,

Cindy Romphf
BCMEA Past President 
bcmea.pastpresident@gmail.com

If you are interested in listening to the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra FOR FREE, here is the link to their free music day! It’s this Saturday, June 1st.

So, some of you may be wondering why I took some time off last week (the first week of May). I was in charge of the steering committee of the 28th bi-annual conference of Carl Orff Canada. It took place from May 2-5 at Capilano University. Almost elementary music teachers came from across Canada, from the U.S. and from Germany to learn, celebrate and collaborate in North Vancouver. We called our conference Constellation 2024.

Here is a link to the instagram and Facebook pages that documented this event:

Facebook page for Constellation 2024

Instagram page for Constellation 2024

And here is the website of that event: constellation2024.ca

Students in Divisions 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 are preparing songs to share at the Intermediate Choir Festival.

This is a Burnaby District run event for Burnaby schools only.

The purpose is to share music, learn singing techniques, learn some harmony singing, proper breath control, proper posture, increase listening skills and capacity, express oneself through music, improve audience etiquette and performance etiquette. We will also get to work with, and be critiqued by, an expert choir director, Cassie Luftspring. Check out her biography below. This is a great opportunity for the children to learn some skills that Ms. Karlson may not be able to teach them or that they have not had time to work on during music class. They will also be able to watch a high school choir sing and listen to Ms. Luftspring work with that choir on more advanced techniques.

We will be sharing two songs at the festival, and then singing one song “en masse” with the other choirs that attend.

We are singing:

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

Shenandoah

Together We Are by Brian Tate

Our group will be singing on Tuesday, April 23rd at 9:15am at the New Westminster New Reformed Church. We will walk over to that venue to attend. We will meet at the school at 8:50am on April 23rd, walk to the church, sing, and then be back at the school by lunchtime.

Click on the grade 4/5 tab above for more information or videos with which to practice our songs.

As a professional choral singer, Cassie is a soprano section leader with the Vancouver Bach Choir, and has performed with various local groups including Musica Intima and the Vancouver Chamber Choir, with Bay Area Chamber Choir Convivium, and with the University of Toronto Schola Cantorum. A seven-time winner of the Amadeus Choir’s Songwriting Competition, her compositions and arrangements have been commissioned and performed by ensembles throughout North America. A recipient of numerous academic awards, including the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship (SSHRC), Ontario Graduate Scholarship, and Fellowship in Music, Cassie holds a Master of Music degree in choral conducting from the University of Toronto, and a degree in piano and composition from Queen’s University.

In March and April we have some exciting events coming up!

The grade 2s and 3s will be participating in Primary Days of Music – a District festival geared towards primary singers. They have been practicing 10 songs to enjoy and perform with/for other grade 2s and 3s in our district.

Our grade 2s and 3s are scheduled to go to Cameron school on March 12th in the afternoon and sing with children from Cameron school, Stoney Creek Elementary and University Highlands. The teachers and students are really looking forward to this event!

Students in our French immersion classes will be participating in Manie Musicale – a French immersion music competition. See the link for more details. Manie Musicale Details

And the grade 4s and 5s from Divisions 7, 8, 9 and 10 will be participating in the Intermediate Choir Festival on April 23rd in the morning. Find more details on this on the grade 4/5 page of this blog.

Come to the music room some time and take a look at the bulletin board in the hallway. There is a display of some of the most famous black musicians in North American history.

Here is a video about Ma Rainey – the Mother of the Blues.

Here is a video about Bob Marley – the Jamaican musician who brought Reggae to popularity in North America in the 1970s

Here is a video that can teach you a lot about one of those musician/composers. This is Scott Joplin – King of Ragtime.

There is a great opportunity for our upper intermediate students who love to sing! This choir will only be 5 rehearsals, but the choir director is amazing! Also, the opportunity to sing with Chor Leoni is one I highly recommend. They are a fabulous choir.

See the flyer below here:

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