We will be presenting a virtual concert of our amazing students in February! Students will show their skills on their instruments, and there will be other presentations of students’ work in their ESQ classes. The students and teachers can’t wait to share this great work with all of the parents, friends, and supporters of ESQ!
Stay tuned for more details!
Wow! The ESQ online program has been running since October, and the time has flown by! Our enthusiastic students and dedicated teachers have been meeting online for weekly private instrument lessons and classes that include music theory, music creation, body and rhythm, and more!
The students and teachers have been adapting and finding new ways to make music and be creative during the pandemic. Students have also been learning how to use SmartMusic for their lessons. Students, parents, and teachers attended valuable online training sessions in order to learn how to use online tools. Congratulations to everyone! We are so grateful to our parents, partners, donors, and the ESQ Board of Directors for their continued support of our program.
Here are a few screenshots of some of our students and teachers having fun in ESQ online classes!
1. Making music on their instruments during music creation class!
2. Wow! Look at the students’ beautiful art that was inspired by music. They’re so creative!
We will be presenting a virtual concert of our amazing students in February! Students will show their skills on their instruments, and there will be other presentations of students’ work in their ESQ classes. The students and teachers can’t wait to share this great work with all of the parents, friends, and supporters of ESQ!
Stay tuned for more details!
ESQ team member Suzu Enns has been working with Sistema-inspired programs across Canada. It has been such a great opportunity to share resources and support each other during these challenging times.
See the screenshot of Suzu and other program representatives hard at work!
Encore! Sistema is opening it’s doors to all KEC students in grades 1-11
For more information and to access the registration form, please click HERE.
Encore! Sistema Quebec is thrilled to be offering a new hybrid online/in situ music program as part our COVID-19 pandemic strategy.
Our new adapted program includes: Private music Lessons (on-line), Group Lessons (including orchestra
and/or band), Note Reading/Music Theory, Musical Creation/Songwriting, and a Body and Rhythm
program.
Please click here for program details and the registration form.
Please note that spaces are limited. Priority will be given to students registered in the program last year.
Please return form to encore.sistema@gmail.com
2019 is ESQ’s 8th anniversary. As we look back we are proud of the contributions that our program has made to the communities we serve. In the last 8 years we have introduced music in the lives of almost 500 children and youth and music has transformed some of those lives through active participation in musical activities, musical events and music summer camps.
Our new year started with some personnel changes: We are very happy to welcome our new Personnel and Program Manager Pablo Seib and head teacher and Kaia’tanoron Dumoulin (Karonhianonhnha School, in Kahnawake). Kaia’tanoron was one of the founding teachers of the ESQ program at Kahnawake eight years ago and since that first year she has helped so much with teaching violin, producing posters, and being organizer and teacher at Encore Sistema Summer Camps.
At our Saint Gabriel School site, in addition to our regular grade 3-6 groups, this year we have introduced a new beginner grade one class and we are very proud of our registration numbers and record attendance of 39 students! The mid year presentation will take place on December 12th at 12:00 pm. On the program: Twinkle, Delaware Hornpipe and What a Wonderful World among other surprises.
At our newest site, at Parc Extension, the registration numbers keep increasing to about 30 students presently. They have been working very hard and have prepared a video for CBC’s 2019 Canadian Music Class Challenge. Parc Extension students will give their for their Christmas Concert on December 19th at the PEYO cafeteria at 4:30 pm.
Starting this October ESQ began a partnership with KoSA, drum and percussion experts. In addition to string instruments and singing, Kosa’s founder and Director Aldo Mazza now enriches our regular programming with African drumming circle classes at two of our sites: Centre William-Hingston in Park Extension and Karonhianonhnha School, in Kahanawake.
The Encore!Sistema students from Karonhianónhnha School, Kateri School, and Kahnawake Survival School will be featured in an upcoming presentation in Kahnawake in collaboration with Aldo Mazza of Kosa Music.The performance will take place: Monday, December 9th, 2019 from 4:45 PM- 5:30 PM at Karonhianónhnha Tsi Ionterihwaienstáhkhwa in the gym. Admission is FREE
Finally, the Orchestre Symphonique de Longueil (OSDL) and their orchestra conductor Marc David, are already starting preparations for our annual side by side concert in the spring of 2020. This year’s concert theme will be movie music and will involve the ESQ students of Kateri, Karonhianonhnha School and Survival High School in Kahnawake. As a part of our collaboration, and in addition to the combined concert, all ESQ students will attend a dress-rehearsal with the OSDL on April 30, 2020 and will receive complimentary tickets to the OSDL family concert on March 22, 2020.
April – May 2019
Concerts Galore!
Congratulations to all our students and thank you to all our tutors for the wonderful concerts throughout March and May:
March 31, 2019
The Orchestre Classique de Montréal (previously McGill Chamber Orchestra) and Maestro Boris Brott invited us to Musique Française, a beautiful evening featuring music by Berlioz, Ravel, Bizet and more. Highlights of the concert at Oscar Peterson Hall included Berlioz’s sumptuous song cycle Les Nuits d’été with soprano Sharon Azrieli and a special performance by students from all ESQ sites.
© Robin Michetti, videographer.
Newspaper articles:
Kids to get symphonic head-start with MCO
Young musicians get symphonic experience
May 4, 2019
“Spring Concert” at St. Francis Xavier Mission, a fundraiser for the Kahnawà:ke Education Center Music Schools Program, was organized by Marc David and the Orchestre Symphonique de Longueuil, and Tourism Kahnawà:ke, with the participation of Kahnawake ESQ students, and The Mohawk Choir.
Eastern Door article
Photos: © Denis Germain
May 9, 2019
Students from our SGS ESQ site hosted a concert and extended an invitation to the Kahnawake and Park Extension ESQ sites. We were pleased that students from Share the Warmth were able to join us for this concert.
©Robin Michetti, videographer.
Encore! Sistema Quebec 2019 Scholarship Program (new this year)
Selection process:
A committee composed of Moegi Egan, Brandyn Lewis and Kaia’tanoron Bush Dumoulin nominated several students and evaluated their eligibility for this award by the use of a rubric consisting 9 criteria in total (the scoring was out of 27 points with 3 points per criterion
Award:
The winners will have a choice of spending this money to advance their musical development from the following options: music lessons (we are working on having a teacher on site but they are not restricted to our teacher), summer music camp (outside/in addition to the ESQ summer camp at KEC) or buying an instrument.
And the winners are….
Katsistohwkí:io Cross (1st);
Kahentaraken Snow-Patton (2nd);
Karonhiakwas Patton, and Brynn Phillips (3rd)
Congratulations to all the winners of the award, that was presented to the recipients on May 4, 2019 by ESQ Founding Director, Theodora Stathopoulos
Photos: © Denis Germain
1st :
ESQ 2019 Summer Camp @ Kahnawake
We are excited in anticipation of the summer camp, now in its 3rd year!
See videos from previous years here:
Find out more information and do not forget to register early. Places are limited!
Poster:
Form: ESQ_KEC_Student_Application_SUMMER_2019
Save the date:
Wednesday, May 29, 2019 @ 4:15
CONCERT of the PEX ESQ site at the PEYO Cafeteria
Final notes:
Goodbye and thank you to our Program and Personnel Manager and Head Teacher at the Centre Parc-Extension Michael DePasquale.
Welcome and congratulations to Pablo Seib who will be assuming the position of Program and Personnel Manager. Pablo is a free-lance professional musician and experienced double-bass teacher.
March 2019 — Encore!Sistema Quebec is proud to announce its upcoming collaboration with Maestro Boris Brott, Soprano Sharon Azrieli, and the McGill Chamber Orchestra in their presentation of Musique Francaise.
The maestro comments on this collaboration:
“It has always been a mission of mine to offer young talent the opportunity of sharing the stage with our enthusiastic and excellent MCO musicians, The El Sistema program positively changes the lives of these young people. You will be inspired by their achievements as I am.”
The young string players, from ages 7-12, will perform on their own as well as with the McGill Chamber Orchestra, including a stirring “Habanera” from Carmen, with Sharon Azrieli.
The concert takes place at the Oscar Peterson Concert Hall on March 31, 2019 at 7:30pm. This ticketed event is open to the public. Tickets are available online at orchestre.ca or by phone at 514-487-5190.
The Parc-Ex site, under the direction of head teacher Michael Depasquale, begins work on real instruments, including violins and cellos for its new beginner students. In February, these students began their first classes on paper instruments, made and decorated by the students themselves. They used these paper instruments to learn basic positioning and technique in preparation for receiving their real violins and cellos. The students now begin work on the basic, fundamental techniques needed to begin performing music.
Save the date!
Following the successful presentation in open houses, holiday concerts and Christmas parades in December 2018, all three of our sites, (St.Gabriel’s Elementary School in Pointe-Saint-Charles, Kahnawake Education Centre Schools in Kahnawake and Parc Extension Youth Organization site in Parc Extension), are now preparing for our annual Side – by- Side Spring Concerts in collaboration with professional orchestras and singers.
Save the date: March 31, 2019 and stay tuned for details of this spectacular event at Oscar Peterson Concert Hall!
New Class!
Encore!Sistema Quebec (ESQ) is proud to announce the addition of a new beginner class of 15 students for violin and cello at our Parc-Extension site, in partnership with Parc-Extension Youth Organization (PEYO) located at the Centre William-Hingston in the Parc-Extension neighbourhood. Our strings program is for children in ages 7-12 and meets 3 days per week, for 2 hours per day.
ESQ staff updates:
ESQ is thrilled to welcome back one of our founding tutors / teachers Kaia’tanoron Dumoulin Bush: https://kaiatanoron.format.com/. Kaia’tanoron teaches students from Karonhianonhnha and Kateri Elementary Schools in Kahnawake.
The Parc-Ex site also welcomes new violin teacher and Parc-Ex native Nadia Monczak, featured in this video made for CBC Arts featuring Nadia in volunteer work in Greece in summer 2019:
https://www.cbc.ca/arts/exhibitionists/teaching-music-to-kids-in-a-refugee-camp-in-greece-nadia-monczak-reflects-on-her-own-family-history-1.4752412
Concert Opportunity:
On February, 19 2019 ESQ select students from the Parc-Extension site will perform a concert in collaboration with the FACE (Fine Arts Core Education) Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of music teacher Theodora Stathopoulos and Parc-Ex Head Teacher Michael Depasquale.
The concert will take place at 1:30 pm at Chateau Westmount: 4860 Boulevard de Maisonneuve O. Westmount, QC H3Z 3G2.
Everyone is welcome!
November/December 2018 — As the school year begins, students at each Encore!Sistema Quebec (ESQ) site begin to either learn their instrument for the first time or review what they have learned and challenge themselves to strive for further success as they prepare performances for their schools and communities.
We are proud and excited to present the following concerts in the month of December 2018:
April/May 2018 — As the school year draws to a close, students at each Encore!Sistema Quebec (ESQ) site perfected their repertoire and performed for their schools and communities.
Students at St. Gabriel School have prepared arrangements of Mozart’s 40th Symphony and the popular song “Fireflies” by Adam Young. ESQ head teacher John Dodge arranged both pieces for the Sistema students. The ESQ video page currently features footage of an in-school rehearsal and a performance at the Festi-Pointe festival in Pointe-St.-Charles. In the final number of their presentation the ESQ Sistema students were joined by string players from Share the Warmth’s music program. The ESQ students will also be performing at St. Gabriel School in June.
On May 5, the elementary and high school students at Kahnawake joined the Orchestre symphonique de Longueuil and the Mohawk choir for a Spring Concert presented by Kahnawake Tourism. This concert was a benefit event for Kahnawake Education Center’s music programs and directly supports Encore!Sistema Quebec’s programs at Kahnawake. All of the students had the opportunity to perform accompanied by the full orchestra; the elementary students performed “Allegro,” “Lightly Row,” and “Soldier’s Joy,” and the high school students performed “Tempest,” “Chameleon,” and “Lean on Me.” Both groups then played Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” with the orchestra and choir. This event offered an invaluable opportunity for the ESQ students to work with professional musicians and, in the case of the wind students, to be seated side by side with professionals on their own instruments. Several excerpts are featured on the ESQ video page.
At the new ESQ site in Parc-Extension, participating children, led by head teacher Michael Depasquale, are learning basic musical skills and violin technique through fun musical games and engaging practical exercises. Although the students have played violin for only four months, they presented a short community concert at Centre William-Hingston on May 30, 2018. The ESQ video page features interviews by participating students and gives a glimpse of typical afternoon activities.
