SMCS Spring Concert

The HNMCS Senior Choir wowed the audience at the SMCS Spring Concert in May. The girls performing works from our own Grammys’ Showcase, including Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi", Cindy Lauper's "Time After Time" and Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody". Both the Choir and Chicago Trip Band joined forces to perform Journey's "Don't Stop Believing", finishing off the night with the Sr. Concert Band performance of "This Is Me" from The Greatest Showman.

Viola

The Grade 6 Music Class was assigned a project to research and create from recycled materials their own instrument. Below is Maya Slowikowski’s project on the viola from the string family. It is exceptional!

Maya Slowikowski, Grade 6 Music, In her own words

“The instrument I chose was the viola. I chose the viola because of its history and its sound. The believed creator of the viola was an Italian luthier named Andrea Amati. Andrea Amati made the modern viola in the 16th century also known as 1555.

When I first started making the viola I was so excited and wanted to finish it in one day, but it took longer than I thought. Of course this instrument is not the one from the music shop. So it would not sound like the real viola, but I had fun doing it anyways.

When making the viola I grabbed some shoe boxes, a piece of plywood we had in our garage, a handful of screws and hardware from local Home Depot store. The construction of the viola took me about 2-3 days. It took me this long because of some of the supplies I used, letting the glue dry while shaping the bout, then cutting the wood, finishing the viola and adding other components that needed time to set. Gorilla glue works really well, trust me. I used a shoe box for the upper bout, waist and lower bout of the viola. I used wire for the strings, screws, nuts and bolts for the tuners and wood for the fingerboard.

I hope you like my viola as much as I enjoyed making it.”