Читать книгу Strange Way to Live - Carl Dixon - Страница 12

A big part of my development as a musician and as a person came through my involvement with the high school concert band. After my ninth-grade year in Collingwood, where the emphasis in music class was on the marching band, my family moved again to Barrie, where I began school in September. Being new in town, I could choose which of the town’s three high schools to attend. I chose Barrie District North Collegiate, luckily, as it turned out.

An energetic young woman named Sharon Sibthorpe taught the music program at North. “Sibby” was the guiding light of the music room. Her keenness and enthusiasm for music in all its facets and details was contagious. She touched the students with her zeal for accomplishing things together as a band as well as individually. It wasn’t necessary to hard-sell us on improving our playing skills; a mood of freedom and possibility accompanied all things “North Music.” As a new program, North Music was free to be anything it wanted, not constrained by years of tradition or habit. We were the underdogs in town, the upstart school band with no history, no awards, and no traditions. That left it up to Sibby and the kids who signed on with her to blaze a new trail.

A word from the music teacher

As a new teacher in the early 1970s who was asked to resurrect a dying music program, I depended on my students to get me through the long days. Their spirit, determination, and talent continued through those early days and over the thirty years that followed. Carl exemplified the student who made each day memorable.

I think you have to know that every girl at Barrie North, especially the flute and clarinet players, had a crush on Carl. The long blonde locks, the athletic good looks, and being a member of the track team, Carl had a winning combination. However, it was Carl’s gentle and caring spirit that really made him special. He always had his opinion but was willing to hear yours too.

He played drums in all of the ensembles and over his years at North worked and received first class honours on his Grade 8 Percussion exam. Carl in his last year was Concert Master of the band, a position elected by the students.

I think it is safe to say that in band, through the trips, the rehearsals, the concerts, you learn skills for life. Working as a team towards a goal, travelling across a country together, laughing and crying, struggling through and then mastering the music, were all part of the music experience. I, and the band of the early days, will never forget when a band member died suddenly. Carl and his friends were the pallbearers at that funeral. It went beyond the music, but the music is what brought them all together.

The memory of switching an entire concert program so that the track team could be there to perform is one for the books. The switch from track uniform to band uniform can be done in five minutes flat, I believe.

Every teacher is proud when their students do well in life. Watching Carl’s career soar, watching him come back from the horrific accident, listening to him play last year in his community wind ensemble; all proud moments.

Thank you, Carl, for being such an important part of my musical adventure.

Sharon

Intent on the timpani part, 1975.

Photo: Barrie Examiner

I wasn’t sophisticated enough then to give it a name, but I can now recognize Sharon as the first positive-thinking role model I’d encountered outside my own family. Sharon swept her students along with her toward a “never settle, always keep improving” approach to music education. I thrived in that environment as my latent musical ability was expressed through all manner of percussion instruments. I’ve observed over the years that every organization is a reflection of the man or woman at the top. The organization’s methods, strengths, and weaknesses all result from the energy of the person in charge and from the worth of the central idea. In this case the idea was for young people to improve themselves through playing music. With that powerful idea in place, all our organization needed was the right person to encourage those young people toward the worthy goal. Miss Sibthorpe was the right person.

Under Sharon’s influence I blossomed and grew in confidence and leadership. She encouraged me but also didn’t give me a skate when I screwed up. I missed turning in a major essay in second term one year and watched my report card mark drop from a 90 to a 67. I learned that lesson. It’s not enough to play the instrument well; you have to know the history and theory too. Oh yeah, and do the work!