Sunday December 7, 2014
Keifer Ryan plays his violin during rehearsals for Sistema’s Christmas concert. Photo: Kâté Braydon/Telegraph-Journal
Calvary to host Dec. 14 concert in support of local Sistema NB centre
MIKE MULLEN TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL -- Friday, December 5, 2014
SAINT JOHN • Avariety of headline musicians, including Stephanie Main-ville and the Saint John String Quartet, have agreed to partner with a city centre church, Calvary Temple, in helping with the ongoing work of giving the gift of music to inner-city schoolkids.
They will be presenting“An Inner-City Christmas Concert,”a benefit in support of the non-profit New Brunswick Youth Orchestra’s Sistema NB Saint John Centre, on Sunday, Dec. 14, at the church, located at 83-93 Sydney St.
Admission will be free, but the entire proceeds of a planned freewill offering will go to the local Sistema NB centre, Rev. Chad Nickerson, Calvary’s associate pastor, said on Thursday.
Centre director Aaron McFarlane said the centre currently offers free instruments and free musical instruction to 165 students from schools such as St. John Baptist-King Edward,Hazen White-St. Francis, Centennial, Prince Charles and Millidgeville North, where the centre is located.
Nickerson said the church held a fund-raiser during the Christmas season last year in support of Food Connection.
But this year, it was decided to assist the local work of Sistema after the church’s lead pastor, Rev. Russell Knowles, whose wife, Nancy, is involved in the school system, expressed his admiration for the music program that helps “build structure in the lives of schoolchildren” in at-risk neighbourhoods.
“We want to invest in our city and our kids, and we feel this is a great time of year to do it,”Nickerson said. Nickerson kept the ball rolling by asking musicians the city had worked with on other occasions to come on board.
“Yes, they told us, Sistema is a very important program. We want to get on board for that”he quoted them as saying. “Some of them have other events the same night, but they wanted to partner with this program”
In addition to Mainville and the Saint John String Quartet, the concert lineup includes well-known church musicians and singers like John Higgins, Barry Snodgrass,Clayton and Rose Misner and Barbara Day. There will also be a hand-bell choir and other children’s entertainment from Calvary and, in keeping with what the night is all about, a demonstration of what is happening as a result of the Sistema NB program locally.
“As part of the concert, our most advanced orchestra will be performing,” McFarlane confirmed.“As well, some of our very talented teaching artists will be leading a carol sing-along with their instruments.”
He said the orchestra will number some 70 children, aged 7 to 11, conducted by Caitlin Novakowski, the centre’s woodwinds conductor. “We’re really pleased Calvary Temple has chosen Sistema NB as a fundraising partner for the concert,” McFarlane said.“We have many students who come from the south end, so partnering with a church that is in the south end makes a lot of sense for the communities and the families we serve.
“I think it is really exciting to see our community rally around the cause,” he said. “We feel fortunate to have been chosen” McFarlane said funds raised will go toward the purchase of instruments and cost of musical instruction for children who otherwise“would not get the opportunity” to be involved in musical education classes.
The Sistema NB program is patterned off the Venezuelan social music program created in 1975 by Jose Abreu, the government-funded, after-school program, El Sistema (The System), which put instruments into the hands of children who otherwise would never have a chance to be transformed by music. As a result,the youth orchestra based in Caracas grew to being considered the best in the world.
Sistema NB’s Saint John Centre has operated since 2009 in parterhsip with the Anglophone South School District.
