Music Lives at Sir Winston Churchill
Band News
Summer Band Programs are being offered through Chinook Learning Services. Check it out!
Updated: December 17, 2012
Performing in an instrumental ensemble (band) requires an intricate combination of visual (reading), intellectual (thinking), physical (doing), and auditory (hearing) control. This must then be coupled with a perceptive decision making process. A well organized, sustained education in music gives you intellectual and creative advantages that last a lifetime. Each year, Rutherford Scholarships are awarded to a very high percentage of the senior band class. These students also make the Sir Winston Churchill High School Honour Roll and go on to post-secondary studies at various institutions across Canada and the United States. As an example, in 2004, of the Sir Winston Churchill High School band students who applied for admittance into Engineering programs, 100% were accepted at their chosen university.
At Sir Winston Churchill High School our music program is two-fold in nature. First, we give students a great deal of individual attention in our brass, percussion and woodwind classes. It is in these classes that we are able to help students truly become musicians by studying performance fundamentals, music history, music theory, and solo and chamber ensemble performance. We employ specialist clinicians to help students build strong, sequential music skills over three years. Second, we have six bands and large ensembles to provide outstanding musical team experiences for our musicians. Our bands have received local, provincial, national, and international accolades. MUSIC LIVES AT CHURCHILL.
"MUSIC MATTERS"
“Whether by voice or by instrument, musical performance requires physical control and precision of a high order. A child working at mathematics or languages can sit back and mentally contemplate for minutes before facing difficulty. The same child singing or playing a musical part must both obey exactly and artistically the present behests of the music and at the same time think ahead to prepare herself or himself to deal equally faithfully with what is coming in the music. In no other subject is a child called upon to make four or five decisions a second and act on them continuously for such stretches of time. This combination of constant vigilance and forethought with ever changing physical responses constitutes an educational experience of unique value. Moreover by its nature and traditions the art of music lends itself more than most activities to the pursuit of excellence to which there is no nobler aim in education”.
A quotation of an English music instructor found in a speech by Dr. Frances Rauscher