Page 15 - Presbyterian Connection

Connection
MISSION AND OUTREACH
Music Outreach in Victoria
presbyterian.ca
FALL 2022
PRESBYTERIAN
15
By Dawn McLean, Project Coordinator for the Outreach Team at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Victoria, B.C.
During the spring of 2021, an on- line meeting took place between several volunteers, staff and Ses- sion members at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Victoria, along with a professor from the University of Victoria (UVIC) School of Music. We explored ways of sharing the sanctuary with some UVIC music students who don’t have access to a prac- tice space or an opportunity to perform in front of a live audience during the pandemic.
The St. Andrew’s group de- cided to apply to the local Victoria Foundation for a Covid Recovery Grant. Our objectives were to provide practice space to music students, provide live audiences for the emerging musicians when the time is right, offer an oppor- tunity for St. Andrew’s volun- teers to support young people, and encourage the congregation and wider Victoria community to come back downtown again.
Our music outreach grant sub- mission was accepted and the process of building a relationship
with the School of Music staff and students began. We provided an in-person site tour of St. An- drew’s and the sanctuary for UVIC music staff. We introduced the UVIC educators to the staff at Ballet Victoria who already share space at the church. We hired a violin student on a contract to book practice times in the sanc- tuary for students. The practice times were blocks of time avail- able during the week, agreed to with the St. Andrew’s Music Di- rector. A St. Andrew’s volunteer meets the students (masks and protocols in place), lets them into the sanctuary, stays and listens to the practice with a book or per- haps goes for a walk, and then sees the student out of the church at the end of the practice.
Music and art are great fits for a beautiful heritage downtown building like St. Andrew’s Presby- terian Church. The acoustics are excellent.
The music outreach project is under the umbrella of Mission and Outreach. The Chair is a Session member. Another member reports to Session on the progress of the project. The Treasurer monitors the finances. Updates in our Link newsletter have kept the congre- gation informed of the project.
So, we just got going in the Fall of 2021 and then Omicron arrived with a vengeance. The Fall was slow for the many reasons we all know. We did manage to have a Christmas Music performance with students (under provincial health protocols), led by Profes- sor Adam Con, an organist and choir director at UVIC. The con- cert can be seen on St. Andrew’s YouTube channel.
In January and February, the project was postponed due to Omicron. To restart and re-ener- gize we decided, along with two
UVIC strings professors who are also members of the internation- ally known Lafayette Quartet, to have two concerts—one April 3 and the other May 1, 2022. The students began practicing in the sanctuary again in March, and Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. was confirmed as the performance time for ongoing concerts.
Volunteers cleared the stage af- ter Sunday service and replaced the communion table, lectern, etc., after the performance. Vol- unteers also welcomed the audi- ence, hosted the students and ushered attendees, all according to provincial health protocols for concerts. St. Andrew’s tech vol- unteer has been a huge support, continually supplying videos of the performances to the profes- sors, so that they could later watch and review them with the students. The church’s newslet- ter included pictures and updates from concerts on St. Andrew’s website.
On Sun., July 3, 2022, St. An-
drew’s was the downtown venue, allowing 22 strings students from western Canada to perform as part of Quartet Fest West, a two- week in-service program at the UVIC School of Music. A quintet and three different quartets com- prised of cellos, violins and viola all performed classical pieces. The finale was a clarinet, viola and piano performing eight music pieces. Some students had not performed in front of a live audi- ence before.
The outreach project is set to begin practice times again on the 18th of September, with per- formances in November and De- cember. We live in hope that the virus will not hold things back. If so, the project will adjust in order to keep going.
Feedback has included: “The music was glorious”; “Such pas- sion and beauty”; “These stu- dents are a joy to listen to as they play classical and other music”; “A relaxing way to spend a Sun- day afternoon.”
Maki Yamagata, violin player, and Alex Chernata, clarinet player. They are both part of the Finnerty Trio, along with Jany Lu, not pictured. PHOTO CREDIT: DOROTHY REIMER
Dorchester Presbyterian Church member, Norm, holding the Izzy Dolls on a past mission trip to Peru.
Comfort Doll Ministry in Dorchester
Submitted by Dorchester Presbyterian Church in Dorchester, Ont.
The “Izzy Doll” project has been an important ministry of Dorchester Presbyterian Church in Dorchester, Ont., since 2018.
Izzy Dolls are small woollen comfort dolls that are knitted by individual women and children in the congregation and community.
They are sent with the Canadian Armed Forces on peacekeeping missions in countries impacted by war or natural disasters, pro- viding members of the Canadian Armed Forces with a special way to greet and help children feel at ease in their presence. The dolls have even accompanied Dorchester PC member, Norm, on a past mission trip to Peru.
In early July 2022, the congre-
gation sent off 431 newly knitted dolls—marking a total of 1,554 Izzy Dolls created with love and shared in hope. Pictured are a small sampling of the dolls in- cluded in the July shipment.