Cirque de Orff with Sue Harvie

Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to our circus!

On May 14 2019, our Orff Chapter welcomed the energetic and engaging Sue Harvie (with special guest Heather Nail) for a spectacular Children's Day titled "Cirque de Orff".

Local teachers were invited to attend as observers or to register their students for the chance to work under Sue and Heather at the beautiful Winspear Centre. ​

Upon arrival, students were separated into two groups (blue and green) with each group learning a different vocal, instrumental and movement portion of the performance. Students in the green group learned the A section which played on the iconic "Chopsticks" theme while the students in the blue group learned the B section which was based off the "Can-Can". While each group had their turn to learn with Sue, the opposite group worked with Heather on the movement portion and also got treated to a tour and fun facts about the Winspear. 

It was remarkable to see how students quickly learned the various parts with only a few opportunities to rehearse. They responded amazingly well to Sue's intricate score while having a ton of fun along the way.

It was lovely to see many families arrive at the end of the day to watch the final performance. Seeing the camaraderie, effort, excitement and enthusiasm of the students demonstrated how critical quality music education is in our schools.

​A huge thank you to the talented team of Sue Harvie and Heather Nail who provided Edmonton teachers an opportunity to see how big the "big top" can really be using the Orff approach. Thanks also to St John's Music for loaning the instruments as well as the entire team at the WInspear for being fantastic hosts for the day.