Stephen Richardson, of Yellowknife’s École St Joseph School, has been nominated yet again for an annual award that recognizes music teachers across the country.
Richardson was named alongside four other nominees – Zeda Ali, Robert Bailey, Élisabeth Bouchard-Bernier and Sarah Comerford – earlier this week, as part of a live stream that also included this year’s Juno Award nominees.
Richardson, who was teaching a choir class at the time, played the live stream on a projector.
“It was pretty cool. So I was like, ‘We’re just going to put this on as a choir warm-up,’ and then I came on the screen,” he said.
Richardson feels grateful for the opportunity to experiment with music and extend that knowledge to his students.
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“The students of today aren’t like the students when I started, or definitely not when I was in high school,” he said. “They try a lot of different things, they can be more modernized when they pursue music, decolonize the classroom and bring in stuff from all the different cultures.”
Eighteen music teachers have received the MusiCounts Teacher of the Year Award since its inception in 2005, including just one northerner, Mary Piercey-Lewis from Nunavut, who won in 2021.
Richardson is now on his third nomination for the award.
He expressed gratitude to his school for providing a range of instruments with which to experiment, and said songwriting classes had allowed students to form bands and make their own songs.
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Last year, for example, two Grade 7 students – Maria Lourdes Du Ausen and Ryder Quinlan – wrote a graduation song titled The End of the Year, which Richardson recorded along with David Dowe. The song was sent to MusiCounts as part of a scholarship opportunity.
Richardson wants students to see the potential of today’s music industry.
“There’s more in the world than making TikTok videos. They can make their own music and create their own YouTube channels. If they have a good idea, then that could be their job,” he explained.
Noting the isolation of the North, the teacher said innovations like the first NWT music awards – held in 2022 – show people in the south “that the industry is coming back up here” and show students this could be their vocation.
MusiCounts president Kristy Fletcher said recognition of northern artists and music through the award was important.
“We want to make sure students are incorporating [northern music] in their classroom as much as possible. There’s different ways of celebrating that, there’s contemporary spins on traditional music. I think that can come through in music class,” she said.
The winner of Teacher of the Year gets a cash prize of $10,000. Fletcher said the organization also works with school music programs to help provide instruments and other equipment.
