School is in full swing and at Selkirk Secondary the musical groups are gearing up for a busy year.
Sven Heyde has been teaching music at Selkirk for ten years. Two years ago, he also took over as the drama teacher when Emilio Regina retired.
In a few weeks, for the first time, Heyde and the Selkirk Band are headed to New York on a cultural exchange.
“I think it’s good to just go and take it all in,” said Heyde. “In a place like New York you want to experience as much as you can in the one week we are there. I think it will be a ton of fun and a good experience.”
Heyde says that the band has had five rehearsals and things are starting to come together.
“The bones are there, which is good, and now things can really start to take shape. We can add in those nuances and really start to focus on each section and really make it a piece of art,” said Heyde.
Students in Grades eight to 12 can join the band or the choir as part of the curriculum. Heyde says that in most commonly, students will join in grade eight and participate in either band or choir all the way through until grade 12.
“Sometimes we have newcomers in grade 10 or 11,” said Heyde. “It’s one big group and this year we have about 68 of us. It’s a pretty good sized group.”
Heyde says that a big part of being in the band involves mentorship amongst the students.
“It’s really multi-levelled. Each section has a leader who is in charge of their group. It moves everything forward and gives the older students a chance to work on leadership skills while giving the younger students and chance to learn something and get to know the rest of their pupils,” Heyde said.
Stay tuned because after the band returns from NYC they are competing in Canmore in November at the Vic Lewis Band Festival. Both the choir and band will be performing at the Remembrance Day assembly on Nov. 9 and the winter concert on Dec. 15. The choir and drama students are also headed to Fort Steele in October for an overnight stay, and the choir is participating in a workshop with singer, Allison Girvan in February.
Not only is Heyde busy with music and drama programming but he is also directing Bring it On: The Musical which runs towards the end of the school year in April.
The play was written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who also wrote the popular musicals Hamilton and In the Heights.
“You can really taste his [Miranda’s] influence in that show,” said Heyde. “The cheerleading component is really intense, so students have started fitness and gymnastics training already.
“It’s entirely extra curricular so students from the band, drama, music and choir usually participate, but this year we have some students who joined because of their dance or gymnastics background so they are bringing that skill set to the show,” Heyde said.
When asked what his favourite part is about teaching music, Heyde replied, “I think it’s those moments when things really come together and sometimes it takes you by surprise. Other times you can see it coming; you’ve been working on the same thing or the same section for a while, but those moments when the students look at each other and they are impressed, that’s really exciting.”