Emma Gillingham (’22) is building a music program at Hague High School, from the ground up.
After her first year of music performance at the University of Saskatchewan, Gillingham was talking to parents from Hague, her hometown. They lamented the lack of music programming at the high school, where their kids would soon attend.
Gillingham, who attended Hague High School for Grades 9 and10 before attending RJC, saw an opportunity.
“I had decided over the summer going into my second year of university that I really wanted to start this program,” said Gillingham. “I thought it would be very valuable. Then I just went from there.”
The 21-year-old approached the school’s administration about leading a choir. The school dusted off the “cobwebs” on the old piano in the cafeteria, tuned it up and moved it to the library, where it now accompanies the Hague High Singers twice a week.
Gillingham said at first the staff were uncertain whether students would be interested. Now in her second year, the number of students participating has tripled to 25. Gillingham said everyone is supportive.
“Once they saw the value in it after last year, the support has just grown so much and I think that it will continue to grow,” she said.
Gillingham will lead her crew in an adaptation of The Wizard of Oz this spring, the first musical production that the school has put on since she’s lived in Hague.
Music and singing have always been part of Gillingham’s life. She chose to switch to RJC for Grade10 because of its strong arts program. She sang with the RJC Singers, the concert choir and in the musicals Freaky Friday and Anastasia.
RJC produced Freaky Friday during the pandemic, recording it and showing it as a film, and Gillingham remembers how hard the Grade 12 students worked. She said she gained a sense of what students can accomplish when they are supported.
The music program at Hague is in its early stages. Gillingham spends time in rehearsals teaching students to read music before they sing together. But this hasn’t kept the group from performing. The Hague High Singers have performed at the Sask Valley Music Festival the past two years. During Christmas they visit care homes in Warman and Saskatoon and finish their tour at the city’s Glow festival.
Gillingham brings the positivity she experienced at RJC into her music teaching at Hague.
“RJC definitely taught me the value of those things and showed me that [music] is doable as long as somebody is passionate about it,” she said. “RJC showed me how possible music programs are. I want to bring that passion to the kids at Hague, that sense of possibility that I missed.”
Gillingham sees value in how music programs bring students together.
“At RJC I learned that music is one of the best ways to connect with other people. I want to give kids at Hague that same opportunity.”
Looking ahead Gillingham hopes more students keep participating each year and that they have more opportunities to perform. She doesn’t plan on becoming a school teacher but is planting the seeds of a program that she hopes someone someday will take over and nurture.
“My overall hope is that Hague High will have an accredited and permanent music teacher who can take this idea I have created and develop it into a full program,” she said.
Written by Katie Doke Sawatzky
Pictures: Emma Gillingham (’22) & Emma with the Hague High Singers. Source: Emma Gillingham
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