School Visits: Educators Tap Into Musical Magic

Pictured: Principal Jennifer Hart and Music Teacher Breton Bonner with students at Emily Follensbee School

Enhanced cognitive development. Increased academic success. Improved motor skills. Greater working memory. These are just a few of the proven, tangible benefits of music education for children.

Jennifer Hart, principal of the Emily Follensbee School in southwest Calgary, has another item she’d like to add to the list — one that affects educators and young learners in equal measure.

“For me, it’s the joy,” says Hart. “It’s joyful for staff and students to see [kids] make connections to artists and to music. Those moments are just really special.”

The Emily Follensbee School serves K–9 students with complex needs. Most are non-verbal and in wheelchairs. According to Hart, many students also have multiple diagnosis in the severe range — seizure disorders, respiratory issues, and so on. From both a therapeutic and an educational perspective, music plays an invaluable role in the lives of the children at the school.

“I think music transcends,” says Hart. “Our students have significant deficits, and most can’t express themselves in traditional ways. So, seeing them connect to music and how they’re learning through that… it just provides quality learning experiences and helps our kids make connections in other ways that they can’t.”

Helping foster those connections is music teacher Breton Bonner. She explains that not only do the children have access to a music therapist through JB Music Therapy, but that music education at Emily Follensbee has expanded beyond her classroom through the introduction of a new schoolwide program called Learning Through Music.

“I’m teaching music all around the school,” says Bonner. “It’s been so, so interesting to see how much content we can embed through music and the way students are able to engage through rhythm and melody. It’s been great to see.”

Last year, Hart and Bonner took their commitment to music education one step further when they signed up for Calgary Phil’s School Visits. Educators for grades K–12 have a choice of several educational experiences provided by Orchestra members and offered through the Phil’s education programs. In January 2024, Emily Follensbee School hosted one such performance: The Curmudgeon + the Lark, featuring Principal Flute Sara Hahn-Scinocco and Assistant Principal Bassoon Michael Hope. Then, in May, Cellist David Morrissey paid a solo visit.

“Just watching the students through the performance was fascinating,” says Bonner of Morrissey’s turn in the spotlight. “He performed a couple of songs back-to-back, and he prepped the kids by talking about ‘this is going to be an upbeat song.’ One of our kids cried from laughter from that song! Then, the next one was going to be a little bit lower, maybe a little bit sad sounding… To see how much our students understood that — they really, really enjoyed it and really got it.”

Decades after American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow famously declared that “music is the universal language,” George Bernard Shaw qualified that “it is spoken through all sorts of accents.” The connections made by Calgary Phil musicians through visits to a variety of schools serving children from diverse backgrounds seems to bear this out.

The Marlborough School in northeast Calgary provides one such instance. While it doesn’t serve a specific population like Emily Follensbee School, because of its geographic location it has developed a distinct profile.

“The Newcomer Centre is right across the road from us,” explains Marlborough School music teacher Lindsay Tingley. “We have a lot of new Canadians, refugees, asylum seekers… If they go through the Newcomer Centre and they live in the area, then [the kids] are sent to Marlborough. So, we have a lot of new Canadians for whom English is an additional language. The families are incredible, and they’re so grateful for anything you can do for their kids. The kids try so hard, and we try our best to give them experiences that they wouldn’t necessarily have.”

For Tingley, that included applying for — and receiving — a grant that enabled her to bring the entire school to a Calgary Phil performance at Jack Singer Concert Hall in 2023.

“A lot of the kids had never been downtown before,” says Tingley. “So even just the excitement of going downtown was huge. By the end [of the concert] they’re all just loving it. Some kids got a little bit weepy because it’s a huge feeling, you know — the first time you see live music, it doesn’t even really compute in your brain. And then you think, ‘we’re all experiencing this together and all these people on stage are like giving us this gift.’ So, a few of them got a little bit emotional, which was beautiful.”