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SAINT JOHN – The New Brunswick Youth Orchestra wants you to make your old musical instrument an instrument of social change.
The orchestra is having an instrument drive for Sistema, their free orchestral outreach program, from Monday to June 13.
“We provide them (kids) after school activities, some nutrition and we also provide them with professional music instruction,” said Don Matheson, executive director of the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra and Sistema New Brunswick.
The donated instruments will be used by the kids in the Sistema program, which currently has 400 students throughout the province, with centres in Saint John, Moncton and Richibucto. They are also opening a new location in September on the Tobique first nation. When it opens, the program will serve about 600 students daily.
“A lot of people have an instrument sitting in their closet. Maybe their son or daughter played an instrument when they were younger and maybe they’ve grown up and gone off to school and they’ve got an old clarinet sitting in the closet just gathering dust,” said Aaron McFarlane, the Saint John Sistema Centre director.
“We like to say that an instrument in the hands of a Sistema kid gets played more in one year than maybe it has been in its entire life.”
The instruments they’re looking for include, violins, violas, basses, clarinets, trumpets, and tubas. Basically, anything you could see in an orchestra. Donations will be appraised and the donor will receive a tax receipt.
Matheson said the Sistema program focuses on children who could be at-risk.
“If you look at the communities that we serve, the community schools that we serve, you’ll see that we focused our Sistema outreach in areas where there is substantial unemployment,” he said. “As we work with schools and school administrators, we’re concentrating our efforts on serving people who are underserved.”
“Our goal is to engage young people, give themselves confidence, a skill they can apply and the joy of performing in and having a team they can work with every day.”
Like many Canadian cities, McFarlane said Saint John has a problem with exclusion.
“Exclusion can come from many sources, but certainly the source we see a lot in Saint John is exclusion from material poverty. That exclusion can lead to kids feeling like the possibilities for them are limited,” he said. “So a program like Sistema opens up a whole world of opportunities for kids to start dreaming.”
McFarlane said an instrument in the hands of a kid who needs it makes it an instrument of social change, helping them see their potential.
“An instrument is a symbol, but an instrument is something kids can use to start dreaming. If you’re playing an instrument and you’re starting to get quite good at it, then you start to dream using that instrument.”
The instrument drives goes from Monday until June 13. Saint Johners can drop of their instruments between CBC Radio in Brunswick Square and the Saint John Sistema Centre at Millidgeville North School.
