Building Community Through Music

David Rankine
Dearborn

Do you ever feel pressure to put on a musical show or concert, often with music of questionable quality? Are you ever exhausted from the amount of planning, meetings, rehearsals, and staff support needed to organize such events? In this action-packed session, participants will get to experience many wonderful ways that their students can demonstrate their musical growth and development in learning to become Tuneful, Beatful, and Artful – without the need for extensive planning, rehearsals, or staff support. This is not a show or concert in the traditional sense. There are no consumers (sit and listen to music), nor a general audience. There are only music makers – everyone present is involved in the sharing of a wonderful but dwindling commodity – a sense of community. Using activities found in all sections of the First Steps in Music and Conversational Solfege curricula, and enhanced with Folk Dancing, technology, lighting, and props, participants will get to experience what a student, parent, or community member experiences when they participate in a May Day Festival, Harvest Festival, Retirement Home Visit, Winter Solstice, and a Family Folk Dance.

Objectives: 1. To introduce participants to the unlimited possibilities of using and adapting some or all of the First Steps in Music and Conversational Solfege activities outside the classroom 2. To help participants develop the ability to design community-building events such as a May Day Festival, Harvest Festival, Retirement Home Visit, Winter Solstice, and a Family Folk Dance 3. To introduce participants to the logistics of creating and administering a Music Lending Library 4. To synchronize joyfully with each other while making music and experience the true meaning of building community 5. To provide life enhancing experiences so that all of our students, families, and communities “will come to embrace and be edified by the wonders embodied in music.”

David Rankine

David Rankine is from Ontario, Canada and has been teaching music in Kingston area schools, community organizations, and historic sites for more than 17 years. A Kindergarten teacher for 8 years before becoming a Music Specialist, David completed his Honours Bachelor of Arts from Queen’s University where he was an apprentice conductor with Dr. Mark Sirett, and his Bachelor of Education from Queen’s University where he received the L.W. Copp Teaching Award. David is the former Artistic Director of the Gananoque Choral Society, and the former Music Director of the Young Choristers Limestone Junior Choir.

In 2005, David received the Colonel Truman Crawford Cup, USMC, for Excellence in Music Leadership while serving as the Drum Major of the Fort Henry Guard, and from 2009 – 2011, was awarded several scholarships from the Royal Canadian College of Organists. With both Piano and Organ certifications from the Royal Conservatory of Music, David is also a Church Organist and Music Director, as well as the Organist for the Kingston Frontenacs OHL Hockey Franchise. David received his First Steps in Music and Conversational Solfege Certification in 2015 and is Certified Teacher Trainer in First Steps in Music.

In addition to his classroom work, he has received numerous grants and donations under the umbrella of ‘Building Community Through Music.’ Surmounting his belief that to build community one must go into the community, these proceeds have enabled more than 800 K-6 students to annually take part in and host Folk Festivals, May Day Festivals, and Family Folk Dances all based on the First Steps in Music curriculum to help create a more Tuneful, Beatful, and Artful society.

David lives in a forest just north of Kingston, Ontario, Canada, with his wife and two children, surrounded by Peep Squirrels and Wise Old Owls.