Saskatoon elementary school takes holiday concert online

During a non-pandemic year, the gym at École Victoria would normally be filled to capacity for a holiday concert.

Parents would be jockeying for the best seats and angles to get the perfect picture of their child or children — and the kids making sure they remember their lines, their music and their costumes.

This year, take away the gym filled to the brim with people and replace it with a video camera, a green screen, masks and lots of sanitizing.

Justin La is the band director at the French immersion elementary school. He says putting on a holiday concert this year is all about being able to adapt.

“This year, unfortunately due to COVID regulations, we’re trying to keep things safe and we’re trying to put on a virtual concert so that parents and family can still enjoy students’ gifts and talents in band,” he explained.

The concert involves about 100 kids, and includes a sing-a-long, band performances and tributes to other December holidays like Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. It involves a lot of videotaping, a lot of retakes and a lot of editing.

“It takes a little bit more time than the typical concert just due to the filming aspect of things,” he said. “(It’s) kind of like stringing things together. Transitions with virtual (concerts) takes a little bit more effort to make it engaging to the audience. Transitions and effects definitely go a long way.”

Grade 8 students Lucy Glyn-Jones and Ama Behning play the snare drum and alto saxophone in the band. While the virtual concert is out of the ordinary, both say the experience was interesting.

“It’s kind of cool though, ’cause a virtual concert isn’t very inherently bad,” said Glyn-Jones. “We get to have cool green screens and there’s a lot of atmosphere. The Grade 7 (students) set up really dope Christmas lights throughout the auditorium and we filmed it.”

“My family likes music, too, so they’re very excited to see the concert,” added Behning.

According to principal Gwyn Fournier, it’s vital for the kids to have some sense of “normal.”

“Even just to be able to return to school and be here, and some of the things we’ve been able to adjust even over last year have just changed the whole trajectory of the year,” she said.

“We can get back to some high-quality learning, getting back to band, moving freely in our classrooms … All of these things are part of the experience of coming to school and part of the important learning and building community. It’s so good to be able to do at least something to get back to that.”

Above all, La said it was important to give back to families.

“This is just a heartfelt moment of just being able to show all the hard work and band — especially as a performance art,” said La.

The video will be uploaded to YouTube once it’s complete and a private link will be sent out so families can watch the entire concert from the comfort of their home.