 BEAUTIFUL MUSIC: Members of Earl Haig’s string orchestra will be accompanying a 300 strong choir at the We Are One concert.
For the past three months, the students from schools across the city have been studying jazz choir with several internationally renowned musicians through a project called We Are One.
The performance is the culmination of a collaboration with New York-based jazz master Barry Harris, who has been flying in every two weeks to work with the student choir at West Humber CI and Earl Haig Secondary School’s jazz band and string orchestra, which will accompany the singers.
The initiative was launched by DAREarts, a non-profit organization that empowers at-risk youth through artistic endeavours.
The group recruited project organizer Howard Rees, an internationally renowned jazz teacher. He, along with choir conductor Brian Katz, had the students rehearse on a weekly basis.
Like many great ideas, this one formed over lunch with a board member, says Marilyn Field, executive director of DAREarts.
“I know how important choirs are to really engage children and inspire them,” said Field, a former Toronto District School Board teacher. “So we came up with the idea right then to have a choir.”
She noted the students are working on complex pieces of music during the two-hour concert.
The opportunity to perform in the North York venue helps expand the kids’ vision of their own community and, hopefully, also helps them expand their dreams for their own futures, she added.
“It’s too easy with transportation issues to just become used to your own area and not see other opportunities within your own large community of Toronto,” she said.
The project organizers chose jazz because of its adaptability to different styles.
“Jazz has its own traditions but it also has an opportunity for creativity within it,” Field said.
We Are One is also affording many students their first opportunity to be part of such a cultural event.
“For many of these kids, it will be the first time within a concert hall, let alone performing on a concert hall stage,” Field said. “Hopefully they’ll be bitten for life.”
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