Singing the praises of music education
Corner Brook student organizing show to support MusiCounts charity
Lucas Upward knows the benefit of having a good musical education.
The Grade 12 Corner Brook student started taking piano lessons when he was six years old. When he was in Grade 7, he started playing saxophone, before eventually switching to clarinet. He hopes his clarinet playing will get him into music school next year. His eventual goal is to pay forward what he’s learned as a music teacher.
How much he cares about music education is evident in an effort he is taking on this week.
Lucas has organized a MusiCounts Fundraiser show at 8 p.m. on Nov. 3 at the Rotary Arts Centre in Corner Brook. The evening of music, featuring six of his fellow high school students, as well as himself, is to support MusiCounts, a music education charity that provides instruments, other equipment and resources to music schools in Canada.
“I think the message here is really how important music education is,” he told West Coast Wire. “Because a lot of these people wouldn’t be in this place without elementary school music, junior high music, high school music. I know, myself, I would not be looking at going to music school if I didn’t have that experience in school.”
The idea came about after a school show he helped organize as a member of student council last year. Lucas started thinking about ways to showcase performers from his age
group who may not be as well known to audiences in Corner Brook.
“I was really looking for an opportunity to give youth who are very talented and who dedicate a lot of time to music and their instrument an opportunity to performed,” he stated.
He knew he also wanted to give back somehow, and he determined MusiCounts was the right charity for what he wanted to do.
“I was really interested in helping them out and making a positive impact towards music education,” he said.
Lucas has performed a lot on stage and he hopes the show will be a valuable experience for his peers. He performs in the Rotary Music Festival every year and won the senior Rose Bowl in 2022 for his clarinet performance. He has also performed several times on piano and saxophone.
“As a performer myself, I really know that sometimes getting up on stage can be terrifying,” he explained. “I really want to give this opportunity for people to kind of push their comfort zone a little bit, do something that maybe they haven’t done before and show off what they’re truly capable of when they have an audience that’s appreciative.”
Lucas feels the Rotary Arts Centre is the perfect environment, with a supportive crowd and an intimate space for performance.
“It gives opportunity for audience-performer interaction with how small a space it is,” he stated.
Organizing the show has also been a valuable learning experience for Lucas. One important thing he has learned is providing performers space to do what they want.
“I feel like giving the performers the liberty to express themselves in the way that they want to is really important, rather than trying to do it all myself,” he said.
For more information and tickets, visit rotaryartscentre.ca.