Music
Confederation is the home of the Evolutionary Rock Band. It was started and run by teacher Norm McIntosh since 1979 (when it was still known as the Confed Rock Band). McIntosh was the inaugural recipient of the Canadian Music Teacher of the Year Juno award. He was also presented $25000 for the band's many costs on behalf of the musicians' band-aid program.
The band consists of four vocalists, an 8-piece rhythm section, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, two alto saxes, four tenor saxes and a 15-member stage crew. The crew can be farther divided into various jobs including sound technicians, guitar effects technicians, light and effects technicians, a fog technician, two spotlight operators and a crew manager. Evolutionary band and crew member students are between the ages of 14 and 18. The band was featured on Canada AM in April 2007 for its success in breaking the Guinness world record for 'deepest concert below the Earth's surface'. The record was broken at 742 metres (2,434 ft) below sea level at 3400 level of CVRD Inco's Copper Cliff North Mine, Copper Cliff, Ontario.
In 2008, Evolutionary was recognized as Junior Citizens of the Year at the Community Builders Awards of Excellence for the City of Greater Sudbury.
Evolutionary has been visited by such artists as The Tragically Hip, Hedley, Keisha Chante, Sloan, Suzie McNeil, The Trews, Three Days Grace, music publishing executives Mike McCarty, and Deane Cameron and record producer Bob Ezrin.
Despite the fact that most of the bands activities take place outside regular school hours, the students involved in the evolutionary band receive a full credit towards high school graduation.
Confederation is also the only school in Canada with a professional recording studio. This recording studio is used for a full-credit recording course which is the only one of its type in Ontario at the high school level. Students are taught how to use the most up-to-date recording software. They gain experience working on short CDs for local artists and they learn how to make radio commercials.
Read more about this topic: Confederation Secondary School
Famous quotes containing the word music:
“Who that has heard a strain of music feared then lest he should speak extravagantly any more forever?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The dignity of art probably appears most eminently with music since it does not have any material that needs to be discounted. Music is all form and content and elevates and ennobles everything that it expresses.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“The basic difference between classical music and jazz is that in the former the music is always greater than its performance—Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, for instance, is always greater than its performance—whereas the way jazz is performed is always more important than what is being performed.”
—André Previn (b. 1929)