Fort Smith (Nov 08/04) - Student musicians at a Fort Smith high school are playing a happy tune.

That's thanks to $10,000 from the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) under its Band-Aid program, which will allow the purchase of some brand new instruments.

Trudy Quiller, new music teacher and band instructor at Paul William Kaeser high school, applied for a CARAS grant and recently received word that her application had been approved.

"Their plan is to send a Juno award winner to present the instruments," she said.

However, she is not sure who that will be or exactly when the delivery will be made, although it might possibly be in December or January.

Quiller has to get quotes on instruments from suppliers and CARAS will pay them directly. She is still deciding what to order, but suspects it will be trombones, trumpets and saxophones, and possibly some guitars.

"It's a good start," she says, noting it could cost between $40,000-$50,000 to completely outfit a band.

Band revived

PWK was without a band for about a decade, until Quiller revived it this year.

She says many of the instruments are old and others are unusable.

This year, the 30-member band is for Grades 7 to 9, higher grades will be added in the future.

The band has not yet performed in public, Quiller says. "They're still learning how to hold their instruments."

The school also recently received a $10,000 donation from the Fort Smith Legion to buy a high-quality digital piano for the music program.