De La Salle College

‘Oaklands’

 delasalle.ca

The Music program at De La Salle is a performancebased, concert-band (brass, woodwind and percussion) program. We have an active and vibrant music programme at De La Salle College. Students play instruments from grade 5 through to grade 12. Everyone uses their own instrument, and instruction is offered from beginners to more experienced players. Classes and rehearsals are held in a State of the Art, acoustically balanced rehearsal space. De La Salle runs 7 Concerts Bands, 2 Jazz Bands, 2 Choirs, a Marching Band, and a Pep Squad, providing students with many different performance opportunities.

Along with our annual Christmas and Spring concerts, the bands compete in the Kiwanis Music Festival and the Ontario Band Association Festival. The Senior students also travel to participate in the Worldstrides Heritage Festival held in the United States as well as numerous charitable and fundraising initiatives. In the last few years, student musicians have been awarded 9 gold and 5 silver medals at the Heritage Festival. Graduating Music students also perform in a Recital Night held in the Heritage House. Students can audition for the CISMF and honour Band made up of students from all the CIS Ontario schools. This ensemble performs at Roy Thomson Hall in the spring annually. The Marching Band, 100 music students and a colour guard provided by our Cadet Corps, have participated in the Toronto Santa Claus Parade for the past ten years and our Pep Squad performs at Homecomings, Megan’s Walk kick-off ceremonies and the Scotia Bank breakfast fundraiser for Scouts Canada, Haliburton Scout Reserve. If band instruments are not your thing, the music department hosts several coffee houses throughout the year. These are more intimate events open to all students and staff who wish to sing, dance, or tell jokes. It is a fundraising event where all proceeds are donated to a school-sanctioned charity. Along with Coffee House, as part of our Share Life Day to raise funds for our sister school in Naka Nigeria, the dept hosts Lasallian Idol, complete with judges and audience voting. Students explore, perform, and respond to music from various cultural influences, styles, composers, and historical periods. They develop a lifelong community engagement with music as a performer, listener, audience member, supporter, advocate, and consumer. Students examine the relationships of music to other fine arts and fields of knowledge and explore connections between music skills and those required beyond the classroom and the workplace. There is plenty to do in music at DEL, from arranging private lessons to creating small chamber ensembles that perform at different functions. There is something for everyone.