Blog

Last Friday we ended the school year with our annual Country Fair event! What an absolute riot. From mystery jars to the cake walk, from live performances to line dancing, we had so much fun celebrating all the success we’ve had this year. Thank you so much to all of the volunteers, the students and our community for supporting us and cheering us on! Sounds of Country Roads and dancing with our Achy Breaky Hearts, laughter could be heard throughout the neighbourhood, especially during the potato sack races!

Congratulations to Autumn Sunderland! Last night 14 year old Autumn, violin student of Bev Martens and Libby Wyse, performed an intimate recital for her friends and family, showcasing her grade 10 RCM pieces. Accompanied by Paul Dykstra, she performed works by Kabalevsky, Bach, Grieg, and Wieniawski. Autumn’s emotion and hard work shone through all of her pieces, and at the end she received a very well deserved standing ovation.

Autumn, the Music School is so proud of your accomplishments. We have all watched you grow over the years into a wonderful musician and a leader amongst youth in our community, and we look forward to watching you continue on your journey – wherever it takes you. Bravo!

Country Fair! Our annual year-end extravaganza for the Music School and our phenomenal families! Mark your calendars for Friday, June 7th – for all those above snakes, come skedaddle across lots to this here Music School and join us for a hog-tyin’ good time! Avoid being a bad egg, bring the family and show them you’re the biggest toad in the puddle. Enjoy the cake walk, the mystery jars, the pie tent, the candy shop, the recitals and more. Get a wiggle on ya, see y’all then!

Calling ALL Mystery Jars for the Country Fair! – Whether you are new to the school or you’ve been here for years, everyone is invited to bring a mystery jar for the Country Fair. Any mason jars or recycled glass jars (ie. washed out big peanut butter jars, big salsa jars, big jam jars) make GREAT mystery jars. Then you can fill them up with whatever will fit! Try using sidewalk chalk, craft supplies, wrapped candies, stickers, temporary tattoos, felt markers, beaded jewelry, toy vehicles, or anything else that will fit in the jar that kids will love. Then close up the jar and drop it off at the Music School BEFORE June 7th. That’s it! The more jars that we have at Country Fair, the more kids will get to enjoy picking one and discovering what is inside. Thank you so much for your help!

The Performing Arts & Imaginative Play for Homeschoolers (with Rachel Wyatt) presented their magnificent year-end performance this week, which was full of imaginative and enticing characters – each one created by the students! From a Siberian Tiger to a mother/daughter squirrel duo to a sneaky serpent, the audience enjoyed an energetic and engaging morning. Well done to all of the performers, you have had an incredible year of fostering new relationships with opportunities to use your imagination and build on your creativity. Bravo!

More summer camp opportunities for young children! On July 22-26 and August 12-16 Natalie will run classes for young children in the Carriage House. Baby classes with caregivers will go from 9:00-9:30am. Toddlers aged 2-3 year olds and their caregivers will have classes from 9:45-10:30am.Preschoolers/Kindergarteners 4-5 year olds class time will be 11:00-12:00. This class does not require parent attendance. For more information contact Natalie 250-306-0421 or via email at kobernatalie@gmail.com

Information is starting to come out for summer camps at the Vernon Community Music School! Check out this awesome summer camp for 7-10 year olds, happening July 22-26, involving performing arts with Rachel Wyatt! Theatre…music…dance! To register, contact Rachel at rachelwyatt100@hotmail.com

This week the Carriage House Orchestra and Suzuki Groups led by teachers Ardeth, Bev, Libby, Morna and Natalie performed at the Shuswap Festival in Salmon Arm. It was a fantastic performance that had the audience tapping their toes and smiling the entire time. The adjudicator was blown away by the beautiful music coming from all these students who are ages 4-14. Congratulations on a job well done everyone! 

Shining the spot light on some of our Music School students! Congratulations to Hugh Weathermon, Aya Swerdelian, Autumn Sunderland, Claire Weathermon and Simone Oakden for your solo performances with the @okanagansymphony, performing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in front of students from various schools in Vernon. You absolutely knocked it out of the park, and we are all so proud of you!

Find out all of the wonderful things going on at the Music School this season! From the Winter Carnival Parade, to studio recitals, NOCCA youth openers, our upcoming Music School Piano Recital, and more – sit back, relax and enjoy reading all the magical events happening in our music school community. To download your own .pdf copy, visit our Newsletter page on our website.

On Saturday, February 3, the Music School participated in the 63rd Annual Winter Carnival Parade. The theme this year was “Games”, and we entered a float, transforming ourselves into characters of Monopoly. Complete with the Luxury Tax card and the Electric Company, Reading Railroad, Go to Jail, Water Works and Free Parking cards, we rolled the dice and took a walk down the main street as hundreds of onlookers watched and cheered from the sidelines. What a fantastic event to bring our community together! Congratulations and well done to all of the organizations who took the time to put an entry together, the hard work paid off and the result were endless rows of smiling faces and giant waves. Thank you to our faculty and their families for joining in with enthusiasm and for looking so great in their costumes! We feel so fortunate to be a part of such an encouraging and supportive community. Enthusiasm is contagious, as were those beautiful smiles! See you all next year!