GPRC wind ensemble performing in April of 2018 (Grande Prairie Regional College / Flickr)

By Liam Verster

Jazz, wind ensembles

Letter writing campaign calls for music program funding to be restored at GPRC

May 31, 2021 | 6:00 AM

A local grassroots movement is calling for the Grande Prairie Regional College to restore funding for music programs that were cut back in April.

The movement, started by the local Facebook group, Friends of GPRC Winds, was sparked by the announcement in April that GPRC’s jazz and wind ensembles were getting cut and the music professor and lead of those ensembles, Dr. Robert Howey, was being let go.

READ MORE: Arts community frustrated with loss of jazz, wind ensembles at GPRC

Matthew Charbonneau, a local musician and member of the grassroots group, says dropping the wind and jazz ensembles are especially disheartening because they weren’t GPRC’s programs to begin with.

“To see GPRC just decide, without consultation, to drop these programs, which they were stewards of the program, they were originally community programs, so for GPRC to drop these and let go of Dr. Bob was a pretty big shock to the community, and we’re all pretty upset by that.”

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Charbonneau, who plays bass clarinet, started playing music in his late 20s when he registered in the Fine Arts program at GPRC. He moved to Quebec to finish his degree, but then moved back to Grande Prairie during the COVID-19 pandemic with plans on taking more music classes at the college.

However, now that the music programs are getting cut, he’s considering leaving the City again, as there are no opportunities to play with the groups that had previously given back to the community by playing concerts at numerous venues, including free shows at the amphitheatre in Muskoseepi Park.

Along with having the funding restored to the music programs, whether that be by finding ways to make smaller budgets cuts that are distributed throughout the college or by freezing salaries, the group is also calling for Dr. Howey, affectionately known as Dr. Bob, to be restored to his position, as he played a big role in the music programs and getting them out into the community.

“The number of roles that Dr. Bob filled in the community, it can’t be done without a professional salary, there’s no way that anyone could be doing this pro bono. It takes so much organization to keep people in the programs, to organize the music, to organize the practice space, the whole process of getting concerts lined up, especially in the pandemic.”

Charbonneau and his group say they are going to put their call out to much more than GPRC administration.

“We’re reaching out to GPRC: the music department, the administrators, the chair. We’re reaching out to Grande Prairie City Council, we’re reaching out to the current UCP government as well as forwarding those letters to the Opposition. I think some [letters] are even going to [University of Alberta], because a lot of GPRC’s programming is based on U of A’s recommendations and their trades and that sort of thing,” says Charbonneau.

“We’re trying to get as much attention as we can.”

Charbonneau says funding the arts is very important, especially in more northern and rural communities, where there is not often a lot of opportunities to participate in or listen to live music.

“The fact that we’re so far out, it costs so much to bring arts and entertainment here that the few programs that do go on are desperately needed.”

He says arts and culture can improve the lives of many people, especially when it comes to live musical performances, adding that it’s unreasonable to think that the only way to hear live music, especially played by a local group, requires hours of driving now that these programs have been abolished.

Charbonneau says in addition to funding post-secondary music, arts and music funding needs to be maintained at all levels of education in order to attract and retain kids who will grow up with these skills.

He says whenever budget cuts are made in education, at any level, he feels it is always the fine arts that seem to go first. Charbonneau says the funding should be maintained, not cut, adding that more needs to be done to inspire kids to get into music programs, because being able to read and play music is a valuable life skill, that can open a lot of doors in the future.

“I cant get my Performance Degree because I didn’t start (playing) until I was in my 20s, and no one in high school or junior high was like ‘Hey, the marching band’s great! It’s super fun, you get to play music with a pile of your friends and it’s so valuable to learn how to read music because it’s like knowing a whole other language and you can turn these dots on a piece of paper into like a really cool, expressive, energetic thing and it’s invigorating and lively.'”

He points to the new Alberta 2030 plan and says the government appears to be more worried about teaching work skills than promoting creativity, whether it be through music or arts.

However, Charbonneau says arts are very important, and compares investments in fine arts to those made in social programs, saying the long term benefits aren’t seen over the span of a four year voting term, but over an Albertan’s lifetime, adding that this vision needs to become more dominant in Alberta politics.

The college claimed in April that the programs were cut because of a lack of enrollment and interest from students, but Charbonneau claims that shows the school was not properly marketing it’s programs and attracting people to the opportunities they were stewards of.

He adds that losing these programs could also discourage the next generation from picking up an instrument in the first place, as they will have nowhere to go to continue to play and progress once they are out of high school.