Yellowknife (Nov 24/06) - Last week, Sir John Franklin high school gave parents and art lovers a glimpse of what the future holds.

The school held its annual Fine Arts night last Wednesday, showing what the school and the students had to offer the Yellowknife artistic community.

Row upon row of paintings and drawings adorned Sir John's foyer, depicting nature scenes, abstract imaginings and fantastic figures.

Visual arts instructor Betty Wilcox said arts nights have been a staple of the school since she began in the early 90s. "It's a really nice variety of work," she said of the collection. "It reflects the students well."

The sights served as a detour from the sounds of the night, coming from the stage at the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre.

There, Sir John's choir, concert bands and jazz bands hit the stage in turn, followed by a special preview of Knights of the Rad Table, which premiered the following night.

"When I started in 1999, I wanted to make the music program bigger and better," said music instructor Bill Gilday. "It's better, but it could stand to be a bit bigger."

Gilday proved the former as each group moved through strong performances of classical and contemporary pieces. The latter, however came in a strange form. It was introduced by Gilday and played by student Hui Ying Lau.

Sir John now has a gong. The massive piece added a certain something special to the concert bands' classical pieces, something hard to define. Those readers who watch a bit too much Saturday Night Live might be familiar with the phrase "Needs more cowbell."

I would like to see the replaced with "Needs more gong." For those who don't watch SNL... gongs are great.