This week we had the privilege to work once again with our Juilliard Curriculum Specialist, Ms. Erin Wight, a world-renowned violist from New York. She left us with lots of positive feedback as she mentioned how impressed she is with our students. She witnessed how each of our Léman students manifests the Performing Arts Learner Ambitions and the hard work they have accomplished in a short period of time.
Ms. Erin was able to work with our Grade 9-10 music students and performed their original compositions. The said music pieces are very unique as the students were given restrictions to follow during the process of making their original piece. Ms. Erin was gracious enough to perform their creation and it was an amazing experience for everyone. I saw how each of the students faces lit up as they heard their composition being performed by a professional musician. I am positive that they were inspired by that experience.
Ms. Erin was also able to spend time with our Early Years and Primary students. She did some Juilliard Creative Classroom activities with them and it was such a joy seeing the student responds to the music of Beethoven and Thelonius Monk. Other than our Juilliard Specialist lessons, all the music teachers at Léman were observed by our curriculum specialist. We were also given a time to work with Ms. Erin to learn new approaches in delivering the Juilliard curriculum.
In addition to the classroom visits, we hosted our first Juilliard Creative Classroom Parent Workshop, which was a way for the parents to experience what is it like to be in our music classroom. The parents got a chance to do movement activities, played some percussion instruments and watch a mini performance from our music department and our Juilliard specialists. We saw lots of smiling faces and we received a generous amount of good feedback. After all the said activities, our Juilliard Curriculum Specialists met with our Superintendent Mr. David Mindorff, High School Principal Mr. Steven Pass and Primary Principal Mrs. April Wuest and yours truly. We talked about the positive things that are going on in our school and of course it was a humbling experience to hear beautiful words from our specialist.
With that being said, I can say that it was a very successful visit and we will look forward to work with her again in March. Let me take this moment to thank the Léman administration, staff and parents for your unending support to our music program.
