ARCHIVED—David Sisler
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Year: 2006 – Province: Ontario
Certificate of Excellence Recipient
School: Laura Secord Secondary School
349 Niagara Street
St. Catherines,
Ontario
L2M 4V9
Principal: Robert Montgomery
School Telephone: 905-934-8501
School Fax: 905-934-8502
School Website: www.dsbn.edu.on.ca/Schools/LauraScrdS/
Grades/Subjects Taught: Grades 9-12, Beginner and Advanced Band
Repertoire
Teaching Approach:
- Integrates current technologies in ways that stimulate student creativity and encourages applied learning both in and beyond the classroom.
- Shares a love of music with his students. Participation rates of his students in extracurricular activities involving music are incredible.
- Organizes field trips so that his students can experience the world of music with a professional focus. Interactive workshops with opera singers, choirs and other musicians provide the students an opportunity to see where their dedication can lead them.
- Fundraises for his bands to travel and participate in festivals and concerts. Students receive the benefits of their efforts; what they sell is credited to their individual accounts.
Outstanding Achievements:
- Mr. Sisler organized an exchange with Burke High School in Charleston, South Carolina, a school from a predominantly black and disadvantaged neighbourhood, allowing his students an opportunity to experience a different side to music and life.
- Mr. Sisler's choir has performed with Robert Pilon, one of Canada's most famous and respected musical performers for concerts. With Mr. Pilon and under Mr. Sisler's direction, the students have helped raise funds for Boys and Girls Club of America, Credit Valley Hospital, and Yee Hong Community Wellness Foundation. Mr. Sisler's choir is to perform with Mr. Pilon at Vimy Ridge.
- The Concert Band, Jazz Band, Jazz Choir, and Concert Choir have been awarded the Gold Standard of Performance by Musicfest Canada.
- Mr. Sisler's reputation in the musical community is such that John Rutter, renowned choral conductor and composer, chose to perform only with one school choir - the Laura Secord Choir - during his North American tour.
- Mr. Sisler received the Excellence in Education Award for the Lincoln County Board of Education in 1998.
Rave Reviews:
"Conductor David Sisler has the magical talent of understanding the skills, passions and limits of his charges and being able to draw their best from those, filling the room with more comfort and joy than any sing along ever could. The enthusiasm and mutual respect generated by the boisterous choristers and their talented leader should be bottled and sent to every secondary school in the country." - Symphony Music Director