Canadian Musician November / December 2019 | Page 48

in 2008, we moved to Canada from Bahrain and I
started playing trombone and joined the choir in my
elementary school. That was really my first intro-
duction to western classical music. In high school, I
took vocal lessons in jazz. Besides that, I never took
conservatory or private lessons; it was all school
programs.

CM: What was the transition like from high-school
lessons to university?
GURSHARAN KAUR
My first interview was with my York University class-
mate Gursharan Kaur, a third-year vocal major. After
starting out in sciences, she switched to the music
program where we had a few classes together. I
found out she’s one of many students who will be at-
tending teacher’s college following her music degree.
We recently sat down to talk about her experiences
and plans.
CM: What was your music education before coming
to university?

GK: When I was young, my mom was a music teach-
er and she taught me Indian classical music. Then
48 CANADIAN MUSICIAN
GK: For the first two years of university, I really had
to buckle down on theory. I’m pretty sure I failed the
theory exam to get into university but was told by the
university that the theory exam didn’t matter as much
because it’s something you can work on. It’s more
about your skillset and your talent. The first-year the-
ory class starts at ground zero, so that helped a lot.

CM: Which aspects of the program surprised you?
Maybe a subject or a teacher you didn’t think you
were going to like but ended up liking a lot?

GK: The music and cultures classes were really inter-
esting. They made me want to learn more about the
history. Even in the first-year course, [we] talked about
how music travels, comparing music to noise, what’s
music, what’s sound, fractals – almost the philosophy
of music. It’s not something I would have imagined to
be in the program but it was a really interesting course
and I was happy it was a prerequisite.

CM: What are your courses like this year?

GK: Once you get into third and fourth year, you
have more flexibility with your courses and you can
focus more on what you’d like. This year, I’m taking
choral conducting as well as instrumental music ed-
ucation and vocal music education. These are great
courses for students who want to get into teaching.
Teacher’s college focuses on general education like
how to handle a classroom, lesson planning, or talking
to students. The fine arts faculty offers courses that
focus on teaching music specifically and aren’t limited
to teaching in a classroom.

CM: You’re in the concurrent education program to
become a teacher, right?

GK: I’m not in concurrent but I’m applying to do
consecutive, so I’ll be going to teacher’s college after
this. The concurrent program is six years. You go
back-and-forth between your major and teacher’s