Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife ( Jun 09/00) - Sir John high school's music teacher says musical exchanges are a valuable tool because it gets students more involved in music.

Bill Gilday's school choir and band travelled to Toronto, Ont., where they participated in a musical exchange with Oakwood Collegiate last month. Oakwood students visited Yellowknife and Rae-Edzo last year.

From May 11-16 they combined musical performances and workshops with pure tourist fun.

"When I first came to Yellowknife, there was a guy over a William McDonald (school) that would take his band on a trip every year and I noticed that he had a lot of kids in that band," says Gilday.

"And then as other teachers came in and band trips stopped, the numbers fell dramatically."

Gilday says when he arrived at Sir John this year to teach high school music, he inherited this particular Toronto trip.

"I wanted to defer it for a year, because I wanted a chance to build up the program, put my own stamp on it. But because the Oakwood people had already come here and had done some fund-raising for the return trip, it was pretty much a done deal."

Gilday admits the trip is probably why so many kids became involved in the band and choir program.

"That's not to say that they weren't there to make music," he says.

Kids will be kids, and there are more fun things to do than practise playing an instrument over lunch hour or after school.

"They are kids, and kids are very social. So I tried to run fairly relaxed rehearsal and tried to keep it fun."

Gilday says the greatest value of the exchange was Oakwood's trip to the North in 1999.

"The students got to hear one of the finest music programs in the country. And I think it gave some of the more serious students something to aspire to. They probably made more progress than they would have otherwise."

The music teacher also cites the cultural aspect of the trip as being valuable for the students -- specifically, the Chief Jimmy Bruneau Drummers from Rae Edzo.

"I'm really happy with that," he says.

Finally, Gilday mentions the respect that was shown to the young musicians.

"People down there said very nice things about us."

For your own opportunity to say nice things, come out to Petitot Park June 14. A choral evening will be presented by four Yellowknife choirs, including Sir John's. Show time is 7:30 p.m.