Together with my string quartet The Ton Beau String Quartet, I have presented many workshops and presentations in Ontario and Alberta. In our presentation with TBSQ, we will briefly introduce the students to the family of String Instruments, explain the ways they are complimentary but also different than one another, and demonstrate the various ways sound is produced on them. After the brief introductions, TBSQ will choose a number of carefully selected musical excerpts to introduce the idea of “Music as a Vehicle for Expression and Emotion”. We will guide the students through various emotions presented through the selected music, starting with simple ones for the younger students Grades Jk to 4 (Happy, Sad, and Scary) and expand that to more complex ones (Love, Anger, Fear, and Compassion) for the older students from Grades 5 – 8.
Additionally, as a member of the Iranian community, I have numerous musician colleagues who specialize in ethnic music (Persian/Arab/Greek music and even Celtic fiddling). If you are interested, I can put together a school presentation that will introduce the students to many ethnic instruments and musical styles of these regions with the assistance of one or two of my colleagues. To make it more relatable, what I have done in the past is that I have introduced a common melody like “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and taken it on a journey across different countries and adding the "flavour" of each country to it. We will bring a number of traditional Middle-Eastern instruments in addition to western instruments to make the presentation more dynamic and engaging for the students. Like the quartet presentation, this presentation will be simplified for younger students and expanded upon for the older students.