December, 2012 – January, 2013

Publication title: HL Magazine, vol. -, Iss. -, pg. –
Place: Unknown
Writer: Amy Dove

Community Of Sound

Sarah McLachlan School of Music offers first-class education to young musicians

After a full day in school, students trickle into the Sarah McLachlan School of Music for a different kind of education.

They start arriving around 3:30 p.m. and classes often run until 8 p.m. As they wait for their lessons to start, students tackle homework or catch up with friends. The sound of voice and music is everywhere. It is the sound of Vancouver-based, internationally acclaimed musician Sarah McLachlan’s dream come to life.

The Sarah McLachlan School of Music (SoM) provides after-school music education, at no cost, to underserved and at-risk children who otherwise wouldn’t have access. At its core, it’s about coming together through music and building community, McLachlan says.

“We are all craving that authentic experience with real human beings,” she says. “It’s about expanding one’s understanding of the possibilities to be able to show the world your gifts and your worth.”

A community rooted
McLachlan’s dream of a music school first took shape as The Sarah McLachlan Foundation in 1999. In 2002, together with Arts Umbrella, she started a free after-school music program called The Sarah McLachlan Music Outreach – An Arts Umbrella Project. Through that program, more than 700 students experienced the opportunity to explore piano, guitar, percussion, choir, voice, songwriting, student bands and sound lab with instruction from professional musicians.

Community is connected to a sense of place, and thanks to a generous gift the outreach program grew into the Sarah McLachlan School of Music. Since 1999, the school had been operating out of borrowed space, often in churches where everything had to be put away after a session and the spaces could not be tailored to the school’s needs. That ended in 2010 when the Wolverton Foundation donated a building. The doors officially opened in September 2011.

“We have this beautiful retrofit 16,000-square-foot space to specifically fit our needs,” McLachlan says. “The kids have really grown into the space and taken ownership. There is the sense of comfort and recognizing their own value for having a space like this.”

Many of them call it a home away from home, McLachlan say. There is a sense that it is a safe place where they can speak their minds and be themselves. “Every human being deserves that, but teenagers in particular, especially if they have been marginalized due to money they can come into this place and feel their value and their worth.”

McLachlan recognizes the importance of the kind of space her vision has created because of music’s impact on her own life.

“Music gave me a sense of my own value. I wasn’t good academically. I didn’t fit in. Music gave me a sense of my place in the world and what I could offer. We all want to offer something.”
The impact of song

At SoM, Students in Grades 4 through 12 participate in weekly group lessons and one-on-one sessions biweekly. They are given the opportunity to perform publicly and their exposure to diverse sounds is deepened through guest artists that visit the school. On a given day, the sounds of Cuban-influenced vocals or 20th century piano can be heard.

Some students have gone on to further their music education, but the school has impact no matter what the individual decides to do with their life.

“You are learning music education but you are also learning how to communicate. How to share yourself, speak your truth and you are learning in a place where you are not going to be judged,” McLachlan says. “There is such value in that.”

The school also offers a place for youth to connect face-to-face and build their own communities. With music that experience can transcend language and cultural barriers, she says. Many of the students speak English as a second language, but when everyone picks up their instruments it doesn’t matter.

“Music is an universal language and it brings people together,” she says. “That’s what it does for me — that’s where I feel the most connected.”

There are also numerous studies proving the positive effects of music on the brain, McLachlan says. Such studies show that music training improves brain function, including math, language and spatial skills. It enhances the ability to reason, to concentrate, and to solve problems, she notes.

“You have to look at the holistic child and see what that child needs to become a well rounded adult,” she says. “If we do not continue to foster creatively in our children there is no hope for them. We need the arts. We need to have that emotional understanding of ourselves so we can make well rounded decisions.”

Guiding voices
As the children grow within the school, SoM ensures they have opportunities to grow that connection in the broader community as well.

Part of that comes from the teachers.

“I have such respect for good teachers because when a good teacher engages with kids they can turn their lives around,” she says. “The teachers in this school engage their kids, they are passionate and they love what they do.”

McLachlan knows through her own educational experience that such teachers can be rare and that any subject can be made interesting if the teacher is present. “It’s about engagement. It’s about getting down to the little details and finding a way to make them exciting,” she says. “If you are present and you show them that you care, that can go so far.”

The excitement in the classroom isn’t confined to the school as SOM is big on teamwork and performance, McLachlan says, and the students are given many opportunities to play together in the community through public concerts and events.

“We are very big with group performance and group involvement. They are learning to work together with different kids of different ages, ethnicity and sex. They are all working together to create something magical.”

Going further
SoM increased enrolment from 280 to 400 students this year and there is room for more as the Vancouver school has space for 700 students. McLachlan also notes potential to grow in a couple of different ways. That growth will be made cautiously; always with an eye to ensuring the quality of the experience is the same. She wants to include more schools — SoM is currently partnered with 13 schools in the Vancouver School District — and maybe take the model to another city.

“These are big dreams and that is a lot of money,” she says. “Next year we are going to be looking at a video production course in our lab. Every year is a learning experience and we find out what works the best.”

Donations are the lifeblood of the school. SoM hosted its biggest fundraiser to date in September 2012 and the funds raised will help more children enter the school next year. Voices in the Park showcased musical talents from the school’s students, as well as performances by artists such as Jann Arden, Hedley, Bryan Adams and McLachlan herself. Former US president Bill Clinton also graced the stage to speak to the importance of connecting youth to music.

There is a strong focus on fundraising as every dollar donated is another opportunity for children to find their voices and develop the confidence to raise them. The impact is undeniable when McLachlan has parents approaching her to tell her that SoM saved their children’s lives.

“My heart just bursts with pride when that happens,” she says. “I see it in the kids too. Perhaps they don’t talk about it, but you can see it in the way they carry themselves.

“Creating the Sarah McLachlan School of Music has been my way of thanking the universe… I want to give as many children as I can the chance to know how it feels to find their voice through music.”

Q&A with Sarah McLachlan
Where do you go to get inspired?

The studio in my home is my happy place — I have a Boesendorfer piano, which is my baby. It’s a beautiful wood building nestled down in a creek. Or I steal moments at the piano in the house but I have two small children so those moments are rare.
Where is your favourite place to get away to in BC?

Tofino is one of my favourite places in the world. Nature there is so vast and raw, it puts everything into perspective very quickly about how completely puny we are in the great scheme of things. I just feel like I am intimately connected to the vastness and beauty of nature when I am there.
What course do you think is missing from schools?

Communication — it comes back to understanding one’s self and one’s value and being able to speak one’s truth. I think that has great value and it is seriously lacking. A lot of people are really bad at it.