November was Pride Month at Sistema Toronto!
June is the traditional month in which Pride is celebrated by the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and their allies, but June is a short month for Sistema Toronto’s programming due to the summer holidays. We wanted to make sure our students didn’t miss out on the opportunity to learn about inclusivity, self expression, 2SLGBTQIA+ identities, and taking pride in who they are, so we dedicated November to teaching these important lessons, giving us the chance to dive a bit deeper into the material and bring our signature musical spark to the lessons.
At its core, our Pride month curriculum is aimed at helping out students think and talk about 2SLGBTQIA+ identities, how to be affirming and accepting, and making a safer space for students who are themselves, or who have family or friends who are asking questions about their sexual and gender identities. As this is a topic that has historically been absent from classroom discussions, learning the appropriate language and how to navigate conversations respectfully are an important element of our social development programming.
In the past, our Pride curriculum has included activities focused on learning and understanding appropriate language around 2SLGBTQIA+ communities and identities, and on contextualizing the Pride movement for our students. This year, we expanded on this, bringing our students films from British Columbia’s award-winning 2SLGBTQIA+ education program, Out on Screen, which include stories of young people’s experiences learning about their sexual orientation and gender identity. To encourage respectful conversation and help our teaching artists facilitate these conversations comfortably, we developed a special activity called Ground Rules, in which students were invited to collaboratively develop guidelines for appropriate behaviour during the discussions. This is not only helpful for approaching topics during Pride month, but can be replicated for other sensitive topics as well. We also created a library of all of the Pride activities and resources which we have shared with participating schools as well as our own staff.
Ramona, a long-time Sistema Toronto Teaching Artist who dove deeply into this work with her students, noted that teaching this topic broadly will ensure all students feel supported both in exploring and discussing sexual identities:
"I think these kinds of projects are important and exciting for the students. It feels very worthwhile to hold conversations about pride, and helping students normalize what might not be a conversation they have at home. I look at the class and wonder which students may already be questioning their sexual orientation, and I'm happy that they know they are not alone. I know the students had a great time. I also love that this project took place in the fall and not during the token 'pride month.' Pride is an all year experience."
Exploring Pride throughout November also gave us a chance to work towards another one of our objectives: to incorporate more genres of music – particularly contemporary music – into our classrooms throughout the year. It’s important to us that our students see their everyday lives reflected in our curriculum, so we’ve been working to include music by artists familiar to them, and even started incorporating aspects of internet musical culture into the lessons (Skibidi, for example). As part of this effort, during Pride month we brought our students two songs by artists they’d be sure to recognize: Proud, by queer Canadian pop duo Tegan and Sara, and Ever New by Canadian transgender singer and songwriter Beverly Glenn-Copeland.
We also partnered with newchoir, a Toronto-based pop choir, whose Choir Leader, Scott Pietrangelo, arranged the songs for performance by choir. Pietrangelo, along with members of newchoir then joined us at Sistema Toronto – Parkdale for an inspiring afternoon of music: 60 Sistema Toronto students sang alongside 60 members of newchoir with accompaniment from a three-piece rock band and 10 Sistema students playing their string instruments. For our students, this afternoon provided exciting new experiences: for most, this was their first time playing with amplification and rock musicians.
Hannah, another Sistema Toronto Teaching Artist who explored this topic closely with her students, reported that the experience was beneficial to her students as a musical challenge, and also due to the valuable conversations and explorations around identity and acceptance:
“The collaboration with the newchoir was an invaluable experience for the Parkdale students. We talked about identity and pride, not only in our music making, but in life. Since this was a collaboration with a choir that rehearses separately from our students, we had to use sheet music to practice our parts, leaving space and counting rests where the newchoir sings. This was a special challenge that required lots of listening from the students. On the day of the recording, both groups finally sang together, breathing new life into the songs.”
After the event, we spoke with Scott Pietrangelo, Choir Leader for newchoir, about newchoir’s history and mandate, their partnership with Sistema Toronto, and the music they chose to sing with our students.
What is newchoir and what is its mission/mandate?
newchoir is a choral community founded and focused on the genres of rock and pop that strives to create high-calibre joyful musical experiences for its members and audiences. We emphasize musical growth and teamwork among members by fostering an atmosphere of respect, discipline and positivity, while being accessible to as many levels of musical ability as possible.
newchoir is an auditioned group of 100+ singers from all musical backgrounds and all walks of life. We are a non-profit, membership-based organization, generally performing two major concerts a year in a variety of exciting concert venues.
How was newchoir founded, and how did it grow?
newchoir was founded by Ian Crowley in 2005 as a response to the surge of interest in TV talent shows like American Idol. People were looking for a place to sing songs they knew and wanted something different than a traditional choir. Between 2005 and 2010 newchoir grew from about 15 people to over 100 and is still going strong post-pandemic with 100+ members each year.
Who are the members of newchoir, and what is the newchoir community like?
The members of newchoir come from all walks of life and all musical levels of experience. Members are auditioned each year and a musical standard is maintained, but newchoir is also a community of people who share the common bond of the love of singing. It is a very welcoming place and many long-time members have made friends for life.
What made you decide to partner with Sistema Toronto?
newchoir has always been very supportive of music education. We’ve collaborated with schools and organizations in the past for various performances but we’ve never done one quite this extensive with anyone before. We really wanted to share an experience with kids and show them that the love of music and music education doesn’t have to stop with school. You can keep doing this and having a blast when you’re an adult too!
What made you want to work with young musicians?
It’s just so rewarding seeing kids and youth right in the throes of learning, growing and discovering. You can see what they’re getting from the experience even if they don’t necessarily always outwardly express it. They show up. They commit. They do the work. And that reminds us as adults that we can and should always strive to do the same when we’re passionate about something.
What do you hope the students will get out of this experience musically? Socially?
I hope the kids see the power of community, and that when we all come together with a common goal anything is possible. I hope they take the message of these songs to heart, to live with pride in who they are as they grow into adulthood. And I hope they see that music is a safe space for everyone. I grew up always feeling welcome in the music room at school, and there’s a reason for that. Music brings people together, and it always will.
What about the members of the choir?
The choir members are already so thrilled with the experience of singing with the kids for this recording, and they wish they could spend more time with them or perform with them in the future! They just get so much energy from youth; it really adds an extra layer of joy in their experience and their performance.
What made you choose Beverly Glenn-Copeland and Tegan and Sara as the artists for the project?
Shawn [Sistema Toronto’s CEO] and I wanted to select songs from Canadian LGBTQ+ artists that reflected themes of positivity – pride in oneself, being welcome in a community, finding safety and comfort in the acceptance of one’s own identity. These two songs, while being completely different stylistically, are a perfect reflection of these themes, and we are so grateful to have the blessing of the artists who wrote them.
Can you tell us about the style and arrangement of the music?
Proud is an upbeat groove with a consistent guitar pattern that digs in and doesn’t let up. It establishes its message and drives it home throughout: shedding toxicity from your life, accepting yourself and moving into the future with confidence and pride. Ever New, by contrast, shares very similar messages but with a gentle, almost meditative musical pattern that settles that intensity and excited energy from the other song into a soft, warm blanket of love and acceptance that you can just sit in and rest. It reflects on the changing of the seasons as changes that we go through in our own lives; we can all trust that transition is a natural, beautiful thing that we can all embrace.