SPRING 2014 • ST. MICHAELS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL School The Music Issue Emily Reid ’09, Brian Christensen ’11, Ian Chen ’07 and Jayne Hammond ’08 on studying music at university Never Had a Day Job John Reid It’s a Hard Rock Life Three career musicians talk Our band director on Bryce Soderberg ’98 on about the challenges and 25 years of music touring, his 15-year reunion triumphs of life as a pro memories at SMUS and mainstream success Join us for the 2014 Alumni & Friends Golf Invitational September 8, 2014 Victoria Golf Course Register Online: www.smus.ca/golf Thanks to our 2013 golfers! 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1. Justin Stephenson ’80, Cathy Stephenson, Heidi Edgar and Blair Nelson ’97 2. Catherine Dorazio and Mickael Schmitt 3. John White, Nick Grant ‘84, Beau Beauchamp and Gisèle Di Iorio 4. Jill Knudsen ‘04 5. Blair Hagkull, Tracey Hagkull, Vanessa Keeler Young ‘84 and Steve Keeler 6. Danielle Topliss ‘91, Michelle Driscoll, Joan Snowden and Barbara Duncan 7. Susanna Crofton ’80 8. Mat Geddes ‘93 9. Tyler Barkely, Faiz Ahmad, Michael Murgatroyd and Ted Balderson ‘82 10. Peter Johnston 11. Niko Mavrikos ‘07, Yianni Mavrikos ‘07, Jesse Kliman ‘07 and Craig Bryden 12. Lindsay Brooke School Ties is distributed to more than 5,000 members of the St. Michaels University School community, including current families, friends, and current and past staff and students. The goal of the publication is to communicate Contents activities and initiatives and provide articles and reports on the alumni 2 The Nature of Music community. If you have any comments or Bob Snowden on music seen and heard. suggestions regarding this publication, please email [email protected]. 3 Highlights from Published by the Advancement Office the SMUS Review St. Michaels University School News stories from all three campuses 3400 Richmond Road Victoria, British Columbia published on the SMUS Review. Canada V8P 4P5 Telephone: 250-592-2411 5 Athletics Highlights On the cover: Emily Reid ’09 Admissions: 1-800-661-5199 Sports highlights from April to Email: [email protected] December 2013. 19 It’s a Hard Rock Life School Ties magazine and archive Rock star Bryce Soderberg ’98 on copies can be found in the publications 7 Arts Highlights section of the school website: Arts highlights from April to touring internationally and the evolution www.smus.ca/pubs December 2013. of the music industry. If you are interested in attending alumni 9 A Lasting Legacy 21 The Amazing events, visit the online Calendar of Events Ann Makosinski at alumni.smus.ca. The life of Christine Duke ’86. Our Google Science Fair winner Editors: Erin Anderson, Laura Authier, met up with Andrew Lampard ’02 Gillian Donald ’85, Peter Gardiner, 10 John Reid: A Finale Darin Steinkey The band director looks back after her Tonight Show appearance. on 25 years of music at SMUS. Contributors: Erin Anderson, 22 The Class of 2013 Laura Authier, Gary Barber, Gillian Donald ’85, Nicole Edgar ’07, 12 An Education in Music Find out where our newest group of alumni Peter Gardiner, Dorothy Hawes, Four music majors describe their post- are spending their first year after SMUS. Ian Hyde-Lay, Bob Snowden, secondary experiences and future plans. Darin Steinkey, Brenda Waksel, 24 Distinguished Alumnus Rob Wilson and SMUS community 16 Never Had a Day Job Douglas Freeman ’88 is recognized. members. We apologize for any omissions. A jazz musician, classical violist and 25 Alumni Receptions trombonist on the realities of a career Photos: Erin Anderson, Stephanie in music. Connecting with alumni from Tokyo Anter, Mark Catto, Gordon Chan, to London. Gillian Donald ‘85, Mat Geddes ‘93, Peter Gardiner, Alex Gillett, Harumi 26 Alumni Updates Hart, Kent Leahy-Trill, Richard Primrose, Josh Semrok, Darin Steinkey, Mark News from our alumni around the world. Sudul, Dan Thompson, Mandy Wiltshire Design and Layout: Reber Creative Printed in Canada W by Hillside Printing Ltd., Victoria, BC Cover photo: Erin Anderson School Ties - Spring 2014 • - Spring Ties School This issue of School Ties was printed on Opus Dull recycled paper made with 30% post-consumer waste and bleached without the use of chlorine. By selecting this paper, St. Michaels University School has saved 4 trees, 436 gal of water, 569 kilowatt hours of electricity, 720 lbs of greenhouse gases, 3 lbs of HAPs, VOCs and AOX combined, one 1 cubic yard of landfill space, and 583 miles travelled in the average North American car. The Nature of Music by Bob Snowden ore than once I have stood alone in the Junior School opera will deepen the notion that hard work and repetition can SCHOOL M music room. Along one wall, the cellos and basses are lined up. transform telling a story. of A piano sits off centre, ready for students to gather around it on I have also stood, alone, in the quiet of the Middle School the floor. Violins, black cases and bows lean at less than careful strings room and band room. In Grade 6, Mr. Farish will bring angles in their slots. The room is silent but it is far from empty: brass and woodwinds into the students’ musical world. Jazz HEAD HEAD the atmosphere strains like a swollen balloon. happens, and contemporary musical theatre will once again Soon, students will pick these instruments up. If it is take centre stage. The Middle School strings ensemble will be September, and these students are in Grade 4, many of them will quite polished and Mrs. Smith will have to do much less tuning pick up a violin for the first time. They will learn how to hold it of violins. By Grade 9, some will have settled into a preference, under their chins, how to curl their fingers over the neck. Every perhaps for concert band or choir, while others will continue to single one of them will run his or her fingers over the smooth play multiple instruments. wood whose physics they may one day I don’t haunt empty music halls but discover, when they are twice the size they a few years ago I did stand in the band, are now. However, understanding the “We want them to strings and choral rooms in Schaffter physics won’t explain their experience of love their music, but Hall before it opened. The rooms the violin. have lofty, beamed ceilings and grainy We want them to love their music, some of their learning panelled walls. This building voices the but some of their learning will be hard. scale and quality of our music program. Their first concert will be a clinic in the will be hard.” While Ms. Williams, Mr. Butterfield fundamentals. Although their teacher and Mr. Clements (and, before him, Mrs. Smith might wish for better attention at this concert, Mr. Reid) conduct much of the music here, Schaffter Hall is these nine-year-olds have probably never focused more intently very much a building that the students own, and where they on anything in their lives. I have listened to more of their first feel at home. concerts than I can count. Some of their parents will have tears Orchestras, choirs, concert bands – more musicians than in their eyes; they can hardly believe the sound their children you would think a school could muster – fill the place, but are making. It is music. it is also full of acoustic and electric sounds, many of the They have been singing for some time. The bell choir has student’s own making and composition. They perform all produced sounds with something other than their voices. Mrs. over the place: in Chapel, at the McPherson Playhouse, in the Goodman and Mr. Frater have done their part to introduce Copeland Lecture Theatre, in the quad – everywhere. They them to the beginnings of rigour – singing or playing notes make music as readily as they breathe, they enjoy it and they together, in time, even in harmony. The miracle of the Grade 5 love to share it. It takes so much effort to make it so natural. • School Ties - Spring 2014 - Spring Ties • School 2 Visit http://blogs.smus.ca/head/ Highlights from the SMUS Review NEWS SCHOOL The SMUS Review covers news from all three schools and publishes weekly on our website. The following highlights are taken from stories published from April to December 2013. You can read more about these stories at blogs.smus.ca/review. April Theresa Cho ’13 and Jacky Han emcee a trivia competition as part of Brain Awareness Week, a school-wide initiative to spread knowledge about how human Kindergarten student Christopher Hoydal- minds work. Payne practices using an iPad with his Grade 5 buddy Sebastian Huxley. May Lindon Carter ’13 drops by the Junior School to talk poetry with Grade 4 students, including Tori Farkas, Nadia Fracy and Amalia Mairet. June Valedictorian Ethel Kiggundu Boarders Ted Ye and Diego Olivares race to fill their section of speaks at the Closing pipe with water to win points at the annual House Olympics. Ceremonies for the Class of 2013. Alumni Susie Wall ’91, Monica Rossa ’09 and Chris Noel ’97 share their wisdom as part of the communications and new media session of Career Week. School Ties - Spring 2014 • - Spring Ties School Mr. Duncan Frater and Emma Coetze improvise a scene in a drama-focused Exploratory class. 3 September Mrs. Nancy Mollenhauer and the Grade 8 leaders kick off the school year with Where SCHOOL NEWS SCHOOL Everyone Belongs, a program to help new students settle in to life at the Middle School. November Jamie Boyle and Matty McColl listen to To accommodate our growing keynote speaker Shane Junior School, a new Grade 1 Koyczan at the Youth classroom was created Addressing Local with many features to help Poverty conference, students learn and play.