Beginning Band Symposium
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Agincourt Collegiate Institute - Toronto, ON
9:00AM - 3:30PM
Featured Clinician:
Dennis Beck
Dennis Beck holds degrees in music and education from the University of Western Ontario, as well as a graduate diploma in conducting from the University of Calgary. In addition to teaching experience at the junior and senior high school levels, he is a sessional lecturer in the Faculty of Education of the University of Toronto, was a wind ensemble conductor at Alberta College Conservatory in Edmonton for several years, and was formerly a clarinettist with the Edmonton Wind Sinfonia and the CBC's Edmonton Wind Ensemble. Mr. Beck is active as an adjudicator, guest conductor, and clinician, both in Canada and the United States, and is a member of the Canadian Festivals of Music Adjudicators' Association. He founded the Ontario chapter of Phi Beta Mu, the international band director's fraternal organization, and is a member of the College Band Directors National Association. He served as a vice-president of the Alberta Band Association, was a founding director of the Ontario Band Association and is a past-president of the OBA.
Recognized as an advocate for excellence in conducting, Dennis, with colleague John Phillips, founded the Unionville Wind Conductors' Symposium in 1994. It was the first ongoing, annual conductors' workshop in eastern Canada, and has been the catalyst for other conducting workshops in Ontario. In 2002, his Unionville High School Wind Ensemble was honoured by the Canadian Music Educators' Association with the Rosevear Award. In the fall of 2008, he was one of ten alumni of the Don Wright Faculty of Music, University of Western Ontario, named as the inaugural recipients of the university's Wall of Fame honour. In 2011, the OBA recognized him with an Honourary Lifetime Membership.
Featured Clinician: Dennis Beck
Masterclass Ensemble: John Alonso & Mississauga Private School Etobicoke
Download the 2011 Beginning Band Symposium Brochure
Symposium Highlights
- The opportunity to work with one of influential and experienced Canadian music educators of Beginning Band techniques and repertoire.
- Two sponsored delegate reading sessions
- Performance by and masterclass with John Alonso and the Mississauga Private School Grade 7/8 Concert Band
- Booths from both St. John's Music and Harknett Music with materials available for sale
Masterclass Ensemble:
John Alonso & Mississauga Private School Etobicoke
John Alonso is the Music Director at MPS Etobicoke; a small private school in Etobicoke. He is a graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music and the University of Toronto in Piano Performance. Having taught humanities at the school for years, he began teaching music 6 years ago; chorale music from grade 1 - 6 and instrumental from grade 6 - 12. The music program has grown tremendously over the years and as a result now has a co-op program and an Advanced Musicianship program for those students wishing to continue their post secondary studies in music.
The students performing for the Beginning Band Symposium are in grade 7 and 8 and meet two to three times per week for classes.
Contact sarahwylie@hotmail.com for more information.
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2010 Beginning Band Symposium
Clinician: Marguerite Wilder
On Saturday, October 2nd, 2010, a group of music teachers met at Agincourt Collegiate in Scarborough to spend the day honing their craft. The day was led by clinician Marguerite Wilder, an expert music teacher, clinician, conductor, and author from Atlanta, Georgia. She shared her ideas with great energy and a wonderful sense of humour. The morning started with Mrs. Wilder giving a presentation on all different aspects of a complete instrumental music program. We heard suggestions on how to set up a band room, create routines, and provide resources that maximized the amount of time for actually playing instruments while still offering a comprehensive music program. Several packages of handouts were provided so that we could take these ideas back to our classrooms. Mrs. Wilder put us all through our paces as she demonstrated her methods of introducing new band music through singing, solfege, and playing, as well as fun and challenging ways to develop a sense of rhythm in our students.
Next, the Grade 8 Band from Fallingbrook Public School in Whitby, joined us with their teacher and conductor, Leise Warner. Mrs. Wilder worked with the band, all second year instrumentalists, while we watched from the stage immediately behind the students. It was an opportunity for all attending music teachers to gain some new and different approaches to take back to our own classes and bands at school. One of Mrs. Wilder's particular areas of emphasis was the importance of not allowing student musicians to become too dependent on paper. She made the distinction between notation and music - notation is what is written on the paper, but music is what is created with notation as a guide. "Sound before sight" was a frequently repeated phrase.
After a delicious catered lunch it was time for the teachers to be the students. We spent the afternoon playing through a variety of beginning band pieces provided for the occasion, by St. John's Music and Harknett Music. Mrs. Wilder conducted us throughout the afternoon, offering her insight on how to approach teaching certain pieces, and her feedback on pieces she had used with her bands in the past. Representatives from both St. John's and Harknett were present, so there was an opportunity to purchase professional resources as well as the scores for the music we were playing.
It was a tremendously successful day. Both new and experienced teachers left the symposium with new ideas and feeling inspired to add new depth to their programs. David Lum, Agincourt's Music Department Head, and his Music Council did a wonderful job at setting up the facility, technical expertise, and filling in instrumental parts where needed. Many thanks go to Sarah Arcand for organizing the day and Heather Aitken for sharing the information with OBA members. Mrs. Wilder ended the day with the following thought: As music teachers we have a 30-year goal. In 30 years we want our students to be "tunable, beatable, and artful". That is, we want them to be able to sing their children a lullaby, enjoy dancing at their children's weddings, and seek opportunities to have beauty in their lives. As teachers, we could hardly hope to offer more than that to our students, as this is what will truly bring joy and meaning to their lives.
OBA Member Janice Franklin is a Grade 7/8 music teacher at Wilclay P.S. in Markham.
Symposium clinician Marguerite Wilder in the morning lecture session. |
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Ms. Wilder, keeping up with Leise Warner's Grade 8 Concert Band from Fallingbrook Public School, Whitby, ON |
St. John's Music Staff at the symposium "store". |
Rex Harknett and the Harknett Music symposium store. |
Photos courtesy and copyright of Dennis Beck | |
2009 Beginning Band Symposium
Clinician: John O'Reilly
What a great way to spend a Saturday! Upon arrival we were greeted with a smile and a light breakfast of juice, fruit, bagels, cream cheese, jam, and croissants provided by Sarah Arcand, who organized the event, and David Lum who teaches the band at Agincourt C.I. We were then given a package of goodies including a free clarinet Accent on Achievement method book.
The auditorium was set up with a music display by Harknett and St. John's Music. Special prices were given for the teachers and all the music we sight-read during the Reading Session was available for purchase. Agincourt's auditorium is immense and we used the upper half for a more intimate lecture given by John O'Reilly. John was very personable and a natural orator. He was accompanied by his lovely wife, Judy, who has also spent many years teaching young musicians. John is an accomplished pianist and believes that using the piano to accompany the students while they are learning the first five notes helps to make these whole notes sound like a composition. He also stressed the importance of having the students sing before they play. He used us as his students and demonstrated the technique. He has been involved with developing the best method of teaching beginners and (of course) had us take a look at the new Accent on Achievement method book. He explained that his publisher has a library of free excerpts of their available music scores recorded by expert musicians.
After a question and answer session on Mr. O'Reilly's lecture, we had a short snack break and then returned to the auditorium where we sat on the stage to watch Willowbrook Elementary School Band go through a clinic with John O'Reilly as the conductor. This school band is made up of grade 5 through 8 students. There are no auditions and the more experienced players help the younger members. We sat behind the students on the stage so that we could watch their reactions and witness how they naturally assisted each other and feel part of the lesson. These students were extremely well-behaved and definitely a credit to their teacher. Every year there is a chance to offer your school band as the master class ensemble. There is no cost to the school providing the band.
After witnessing the beginner band lesson we had a delicious authentic Italian lasagne and salad, cookies, and fruit for lunch. This was a good opportunity to meet with other band teachers and discuss personal experiences, repertoire choices, share e-mail addresses, and ideas. There was also a draw and I was lucky enough to win free admission to the first OBA Jazz Symposium at U. of T.!
The afternoon session was a chance for the teachers to get out their instruments for a band, and to sight-read the list of new band publications levels, 0.5-2.5. I enjoy sight-reading, so this was my favourite part. We learned that Eighth Note Publications specialize in Canadian compositions. We were also lucky enough to meet the Toronto composer Rob Grice who came up to conduct his composition Dance of the Jabberwocky. It's a wonderful piece for beginner band and O'Reilly had much praise for him.
Cheers to Sarah Arcand and her team of helpers who presented a relevant and worthwhile symposium, and the chance to meet John O'Reilly. My only regret is that I forgot to get him to autograph my score of the Shaker Hymn. Don't miss next year!
Marilyn Browning
Music Teacher, Mackenzie Glen P.S., Maple
BBS Symposium clinician, ASCAP Award-winner, John O'Reilly |
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Photos courtesy and copyright of Dennis Beck |
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2008 Beginning Band Symposium
Clinician: Ardith Haley
On Saturday, September 27th I had the pleasure of participating in the Beginning Band Symposium at Agincourt C.I. in Toronto. The symposium opened with a keynote address by the animated and inspiring Ardith Haley, the Arts Education Consultant for the Department of Education of Nova Scotia. Ardith welcomed all the delegates - new teachers, experienced teachers, and students alike - with warmth, as she shared stories of her personal experiences as a lifelong Music Educator.
Ardith's philosophies reminded us educators to always give our students a "quality learning experience". The students need to connect, hear, feel... experience the music, to make it significant to them. In order for our students to connect with the music, Ardith encouraged us to step outside our comfort zone to explore and integrate the Arts to foster a meaningful learning experience. By having the students live and breathe the music through research, visual arts, drama, and other mediums of learning, a true sense of community will emerge and our role as a teacher-director will eventually evolve to the role of teacher-facilitator.
Following the keynote address the delegates were invited to observe a concert band Master Class directed by Ms. Haley. We witnessed various methods to improve the overall sound quality and technique of the beginner band. Ardith also encouraged us to give more responsibility and ownership to our students about making thoughtful and expressive decisions when interpreting music. With her words of wisdom in mind all the delegates participated in a Band Music Reading Session presented by Harknett Music and St. John's Music. The reading session gave us educators an opportunity to play in a concert band setting and to provide feedback about the featured music.
Overall, I feel that the Beginning Band Symposium was an insightful and positive learning experience for all. Ardith's teachings motivated us to strive to give our music students a meaningful learning experience, rather than focusing only on drills and exercises. Ardith's passion and commitment to Arts Education was clearly evident in her remarkable stories of nurturing "emotionally honest" music students - a goal all music educators should strive for.
Jessalyn Parina
OBA Member & YRDSB Music Teacher
Ardith Haley, Symposium Clinician |
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A group exercise |
Sarah Arcand, Symposium Co-ordinator & OBA President-Elect |
Photos courtesy and copyright of Jim Rueckert, OBA member & Symposium participant |
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