Nunavut music-teaching workshop hits all the right notes

Music professor Lori Anne Dolloff (centre shows teachers strategies to bring singing into their classrooms during the Piliriqatigiinniq Teacher’s Conference on Feb.13. Dolloff visited Iqaluit for the seventh annual choral festival in Iqaluit, where she worked with local school and community choirs, culminating in a Feb. 11 concert at Inuksuk High School. Dolloff also taught choir workshops at the teacher’s conference, also held in Iqaluit from Feb.13 to 18. (PHOTO BY DEAN MORRISON)

When schools need to cut costs, arts programs are usually the first to go.

That’s why Lori Anne Dolloff, a professor of music education at the University of Toronto, is working with teachers and community groups to make sure they can keep the music alive.

Over the past two weeks, Dolloff has been in Iqaluit where she’s worked with local choral groups and conducted workshops with teachers at this week’s pan-Nunavut teachers conference.

“I love coming to Iqaluit because I always learn new ways to teach,” Dolloff said. “Every community has its own emotional climate, and learning how to differentiate my instruction so that it reaches everyone is one of those things that keep teaching a challenge and an interest for me.”

In her workshops for teachers at the Piliriqatigiinniq Teachers Conference, Dolloff focused on helping teachers explore new strategies to feel comfortable with bringing music into their classrooms.

Dolloff wanted to give teachers enough confidence to use their voice as a teaching tool and strategies so teaching music and choir isn’t “a scary thing”.

“Most teachers would rather teach anything but music,” Dolloff said.

Impressed by the quality of music programs available in Iqaluit’s schools, Dolloff hopes her workshops with Nunavut teachers will see even more students throughout the territory singing.

“When I was working at Nanook Elementary the whole school would come from kindergarten to Grade 5 and they would all sing together. It really helps to promote community,” Dolloff said.

Too many schools music programs are being eliminated due to budget cuts or being pushed aside to make room for technology courses, she said.

And while she respects the need for schools to embrace and teach about new technologies, Dolloff wishes it didn’t have to be at the expense of the arts.

“You don’t want a child that can’t read, but no one seems to worry too much if a kid can’t sing,” said Dolloff, who took piano and organ lessons as a child.

But in Nunavut, there’s an additional challenge: to uphold traditional culture, while you introduce new musical styles.

“We have worked in Iqaluit on ways to combine both English and Inuktitut and traditional drum dancing,” Dolloff said. “Anytime we stop the evolution of art and music, we make it a museum piece and it ultimately will stagnate, because it is a living tradition.”