Sweet melodies and quirky tunes were the highlights of An Evening of Music presented by music students at Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School on June 13.
The PSO Senior Band, Concert Choir, Guitar Ensemble, Jazz Band and Tour Band performed, while individual students also showcased their skills.
The music program at the school has been steadily growing during the past few years. Next year, the band program will be welcoming 40 Grade 8 students, a total almost double of what other years have seen.
“The music program is like a family within the school and it’s very inviting. The more kids that join it, seems like the more [others] want to,” join it as well says music teacher Jasmine Kreschuk.
“I’m very careful with the music I select, I try to pick things that are fun and that they can relate to and that catches them a little bit too, so I think music selection is huge,” she adds.
The concert featured pop hits like Titanium, sung by students Kayleigh Jacobson and Alex Seiler, to soundtracks from hit movies such as The Hunger Games, in addition to more traditional concert pieces like Handel’s Sonata in G Major.
Also featured were new additions to PSO’s “instrument family,” such as a gong the school recently purchased, as well as a French horn and a bassoon newly learned by students at the school.
Grade 12 student, and tuba player, Allan Faulkner says he’ll miss the music program when he leaves PSO this year.
“I like everywhere we go, the people we meet, the music we play,” he says. “Mrs. Kreschuk especially has just been a great inspiration to do better and everyone else around me is just amazing.”
Faulkner has been playing for eight years, since Grade 5, when during a visit to his classroom Kreschuk had put a tuba on display, adding that she didn’t think any of the students were big enough to play it just yet.
“My hand shot up and challenged that and I’ve been playing ever since,” says Faulkner.
“For anyone who is interested in the music program, just go for it, give it a shot. Try an instrument. Try two or three. It’s worth it.”
Already in the works for next year’s program is a band retreat with Williams Lake’s program, a tour band trip to Whistler and a senior band trip to Prince George’s music festival.
“I think that music is a way that they get to express themselves and within the school setting it is a way to feel like they are part of a community within the school,” says Kreschuk. “We know that there are so many benefits on the brain in general with music, but there are so many benefits within the school to be a part of the community and build lifelong friendships.”