Good People is a bi-monthly column highlighting McGill students doing community-oriented work on and around campus. Because it’s important to celebrate good people doing good things.
Musical education has shown to benefit children’s cognitive, social, and emotional development, but many primary schools in Canada lack the resources to provide personalized music education to all students. McGill student club, Montréal Heart of the City Piano Program (MHCPP), fills this void by providing free piano lessons to elementary schools in underprivileged areas of Montréal, with an eye towards cultivating an appreciation for music among young students. The Daily spoke with Kasidy Xu, U3 Nursing student at McGill and Co-Director of MHCPP, about the club’s mission, the value of musical training, and what it means to be a good person.
This interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Enid for the McGill Daily (MD): How did you first get involved in MHCPP?
Kasidy Xu (KX): In my first year, I didn’t join any clubs at all and I was looking for ways to get off campus. I felt really stuck in the bubble, living in residence and everything. I was like, ‘I need to get out into the community,’ and I used to be a piano teacher for two years in high school. So I found this club and I was like, ‘wait, this is perfect.’ In my second year, I joined as a volunteer and when they opened up executive positions for the next year, I became volunteer coordinator for the school that I was volunteering at. Now I’m Co-Chair this year. When I first started [getting involved with the MHCPP], it definitely felt a bit uncomfortable but then I got to the school and I thought, “wow.” Just being surrounded by kids and all of them coming up to you, yelling at you, like they have no care in the world, made me feel immediately comfortable and I was like, okay, this is exactly where I should be.
MD: If you were pitching your club to a first year student at Activities Night, how would you describe it?
KX: We are coupled with four different schools, three English ones and one French school. You’re assigned to a school and a student for the entire semester, so from September to December and then every single week, same time, same day, you just teach your students for an hour. Each volunteer gets a one hour shift per week with one or two students, max. It’s never more than two students. You can work on scales, you can work on a song, you can work on music theory, really whatever the student wants.
MD: Your organization is geared towards providing a music education to students who otherwise may not be able to access one. Why is it important for young people to learn music?
KX: I think there’s so many different ways that music education is important. I obviously don’t know all the science and the facts behind it, but I loved playing music growing up. I found it to be not only a good skill to learn but a good way of forgetting about school, forgetting about other stresses in life, and really just giving me something to focus on where I could destress and relax. On top of that, just the process of learning music and learning piano is so transferable to other skills. Learning piano is also really important in terms of working towards a goal.
KX: Through music I also found a great community. People just love to share their take on music, their opinions about it, and I think it’s really wholesome all around.
MD: Are there any specific events you are looking forward to this year?
KX: Our recitals are our biggest events. We hold recitals twice a year, at the end of the semester, around the beginning of December, and then in the beginning of April. All of the kids perform and their parents and friends come, too. It’s always a packed room in Schulich, and it’s so wholesome. The kids dress to the nines. I had my student show up in a full tuxedo. It was my favorite thing ever. To them this is a big thing: coming to McGill University, playing this song that they’ve been working towards all semester. Seeing their work paid off feels really rewarding.
KX: We have lots of parents at the end of the recital speak to us or send emails afterwards saying thank you for having this club, thank you to all the volunteers. Throughout the semester, they hear about their kids going to these lessons at school, but then to see the recital of not only their kid, but other kids in the program, makes them also feel like [their hard work] has come to some sort of result.
MD: The theme of this column is “good people doing good things.” In the context of your work with MHCPP, what does being a good person mean to you?
KX: I think every last volunteer that joins our club is such a good person because they don’t have to be doing this. They’re not getting paid to do this. They are taking time out of their day to go half an hour out of the McGill community. They’re really not gaining anything from this at all, other than just sharing their love for music and hanging out with these kids. And so I’m just so appreciative of all of them, because without the volunteers, we simply wouldn’t be able to provide any of these lessons. I think they’re all good, good people. We’re really just trying to find as many volunteers as we can so that we can provide lessons to all the kids that want them.
Find out more about MHCPP through their website or their Instagram account, @montrealheartofthecitypiano.
If you know good people doing good things who you would like to see featured In this column, email news@mcgilldaily.com