GDHS Music Students Overcome Loss of Teacher With Impressive Performance

On Friday December 9th Georgetown District High School lost a great teacher and mentor when Ms Eleanor Wallace was transferred without notice to another school. Ms Wallace provided 28 years of dedicated excellent leadership to the music students at GDHS. Through those years the GDHS bands garnered many awards of merit in provincial and national competitions.
My daughter was a band member for 5 years and so I was well aware of the wonderful program available to our local students. It was definitely one of the most rewarding aspects of high school for my daughter.
Plans for the GDHS Christmas concert had to be completely reworked when it turned out that no teachers would be available to lead the bands and choir. Although the students were distraught over the loss of their beloved teacher, they rallied by deciding to put on the show by themselves.
I was invited by the students to attend their concert and took them up on the invitation. It was one of my best decisions of the year.
I have attended many GDHS concerts but this was an outstanding one. It had been billed as "A Classy Christmas" and it certainly was.
The very poised master of ceremonies welcomed us and introduced the first performance.
The Wind Ensemble, all 60 members filed onto the stage quietly, sat and awaited their student conductor, Geoff Chen. The tuxedo clad Chen strode onto the stage, bowed to the audience and then took control of the Ensemble.
And then it began - a  performance to make a teacher proud. The students obviously intended to pay tribute to their teacher and illustrate the passion and musical precision that had been instilled in them . They certainly succeeded.
Each band and choir was lead by a different student conductor and each time the musicians paid close attention and performed marvellously.
And just to take it over the top, we were treated to a string quartet performing chamber music, a gifted opera singer belting out an aria in Russian no less, and finally a showstopping performance of Rachmaninoff  by Grade 12 concert pianist Thomas Dobrovich. Wow!

It is sad that these kids have lost their leader but on the bright side, they have had the benefit of wonderful mentorship and inspiration. They have proven that great leadership produces great results. Wherever inspiration shows up the kids respond. And now these kids have proven to themselves what they are capable of and that will serve them well throughout their lives.
Thank you Ms Wallace for making such a huge difference in the lives of hundreds of grateful students.