The Simon Fraser Peace Choir began in April of 2006 when I had an invitation to bring together a choir to perform at the Opening of the Mayors for Peace and the International Peace Messenger Cities conference, which was part of the World Peace Forum held in Vancouver in June of 2006. As Teacher/Librarian at Fraser who had led student choirs in the past, I decided that this was a wonderful opportunity to start a choir with a purpose: to sing for peace, and to try to do what we could to make the world a better place.
Membership in the choir was strictly voluntary and was open to all grades except ½ day Kindergarten due to rehearsal scheduling. Our First concert was performed at the Orpheum Theatre on a Saturday Morning in June. It was a very exciting start for our choir. One of the people who heard us that day was Reiko Ono, a survivor of the atomic bomb dropped on the city of Nagasaki during World War two. She was so impressed with the choir that she asked to come and visit our school. Her visit to Fraser at the end of June was an afternoon to remember.
In September, 2006 the Peace Choir members met again and decided to sing for our Remembrance Day Assembly. (After each concert, membership in the choir is again open to all students so that students can join after having seen a choir performance.) The Peace choir meets when we have a concert to practice for or when we need to learn a new song. We meet at lunchtime once a week and on Wednesday afternoons during the last period of the day. By December the choir had grown to 66 members and we needed to hold separate rehearsals for Primary and intermediate students until the last week of rehearsals before a performance due to space limitations in the library.
In December, we received an invitation from The Teacher/Librarian at Emily Carr school to do a concert for the school. The Teacher/Librarian at Carr was also interested in the initiative our Student Council at Fraser had taken this year to raise funds for children in Malawi (Southern Africa) who have been orphaned or seriously affected by the disease HIV/AIDS. Our student council has been raising money by selling beaded AIDS ribbons made by the children in Malawi and their care-givers. The students and staff at Emily Carr decided to have a penny drive and to sell some of the pins to support our efforts. The Peace choir worked on a song, “For Nkosi” sung in English and Zulu, and a script explaining the issue of HIV/AIDS.
We performed at Emily Carr School on March 12th, and The Emily Carr school community raised just over $500. for the pins project!
In June 0f 2007, The peace choir recorded a CD of 8 songs called Songs for Peace with the support of the parents and the school. These CD’s are still available at a cost of $10 to cover recording and production costs.
Students in the Peace Choir have impressed me with their enthusiasm, and their ability to learn complex lyrics and harmonies. They have been very dedicated and have come to rehearsals, at times giving up lunch hours to practice. At The end of the 2006/2007 school year, there were 61 choir members from almost every class, and it was a pleasure for me to work with them.
Marisa Orth-Pallavicini - Teacher/Librarian & Peace Choir Director
Simon Fraser Elementary School
