FALL RIVER: The Lockview High School band returned from a recent trip to Canada’s capital and Montreal, Que. with opportunities that will help them grow as musicians.
After a couple years of no traveling due to the restrictions imposed because of the pandemic, the band recently returned from a trip to Ottawa and Montreal where they learned a lot and got to play as well.
Dina Burtt, the music teacher at LHS, said the band has always travelled in the past 10 years, but because of the pandemic they haven’t been able to travel.
“It’s a wonderful experience to take a musical team, play somewhere, experience a new city and be able to be exposed to musicians and opportunities that maybe we don’t have here,” said Burtt.
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The band was able to hear the Montreal Symphony, one of the best in North America, in person.
“To be able to hear them, and go to McGill University and work with one of their professors there was incredible,” she said. “It was really memorable and a highlight for the students.”
The group also got to do some fun things while away, Burt said.
She said among those was going to the Bio Dome and see live Penguins; visit the giant Ferris wheel in old Montreal, which all the students went on but she did not; and much more.
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Burtt thought the 47 students (with four chaperones) might have had some hesitation because they hadn’t travelled together before.
“They were a little nervous, going to a new place and not having travelled as a group before,” said Burtt. “It couldn’t have been better. They were phenomenal, polite, cleaned up after themselves, always on time.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better group of students to take.”
She said the teenagers were appreciative of the things that was being done for them, despite sometimes hearing lots of negativity around teenagers.
Some of the students took it upon themselves to hold fundraisers for the trip, including a couple students that treat sales at the LWF Hall on wing night. Others took their part time job money and put it towards the trip.
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Burtt said the students performed twice, including a school concert alongside a beginner band.
“It took our students back six years to when they were in that position,’ she said. ‘I told the students look what you are doing for them, and those kids we told them to keep playing and you’ll get to where our LHS band was at.
“Their band was really raving about our group of students saying they were incredible.”
The hope is that will be a memory by both sets of students.
“One of the things I think the students will remember to is the social aspect in being on the bus for 11 hours,” said Burtt. “They had so much fun together. They had a lot of social interaction which has been kind of lost over the past couple years.
“Now they do know each other better. I hope this will be a memory they hold onto for the rest of their lives.”
