ESTEVAN - A skilled young musician has earned an international accolade for a recent submission.
Claire Kwochka, who is part of Music for Young Children in Estevan, finished third in the Music for Young Children's Composition Competition in the Sunshine I Division for her song Little Groundhog. The Sunshine Division is for those ages four and five.
She was the contest’s Canada West winner and then her song moved onto nationals.
“I am over the moon happy for this young lady and so excited this opportunity came about because of this wonderful program I have been teaching for nearly a decade,” said Alisha Mann, the owner of Music for Young Children in Estevan, in a post on her Facebook page.
Music for Young Children teaches young kids about critters, using stories of where they live and different things about them.
“One of our critters is a groundhog, so she pulled from that critter story and made her story about the little groundhog,” said Mann.
Claire had a good understanding about the different compositional techniques, Mann said.
“We teach them different tricks of how … you can make songs interesting by following different patterns and different things, and so she had a really good understanding of that,” said Mann.
For the sunshine division, the song the children create only has to be four measures, which amounts to about eight seconds. Claire came up with one that was 10 measures, so it would likely be around 20 seconds in length.
Claire has a good understanding of all the things they have covered so far, and she is eager to learn.
Composing a song is part of the curriculum for Music for Young Children, but Mann said it’s up to them whether they want to enter a song for the competition.
There are different levels based on age and experience, and each one has different parameters. They all have to understand the different elements of making a song, like rhythm, pitch, movement, dynamics, articulation and how to write music on a page.
“It’s a really cool little project for them to take on, even in the Level 1 students who are just beginning their musical studies,” said Mann.
The song is played at least three times by current and past teachers and guest reviewers before the song advances to the next round. Hundreds of compositions for each level are received from Canada, the U.S. and Asia.
“For Claire’s submission, there was about 300 entries in that level,” said Mann.
Approximately 3,500 students were entered internationally between the different levels.
Over the years, Mann has had many students receive an honourable mention.
