Drama, Arts & Music
SJK offers a full arts program for students of all ages. Each spring the School hosts an annual Arts event designated 'Arts Around Us' highlighting the work and talents of music, drama and visual arts students.
Dramatic Arts
Each year the Upper School performs at least one major drama production. Performances take place at significant theatre venues in the area such as the University of Waterloo's Theatre of the Arts or the River Run Centre in Guelph. Over the past few years, the Upper School has produced such plays as Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet, by acclaimed Canadian playwright and novelist Ann-Marie MacDonald, The Laramie Project, and The Crucible. This year's production was Thornton Wilder's Our Town. The Lower and Middle Schools also regularly stage full productions such as The Wizard of Oz and The Pirates of Penzance. On occasion, larger productions are staged that involve the entire school community, such as our 2003 production of the musical Oliver.
In the Upper School, dramatic arts courses are offered at all grade levels, and visits to Stratford and other professional theatres as well as workshops with groups such as Toronto's Canadian Stage Company and visiting artists are important elements of the program. Our improv team has competed in the Waterloo Regional Improv Games, and our senior students take part annually in the Conference of Independent Schools' Drama Festival.
Visual Arts
SJK offers visual arts instruction at all grade levels. Through curriculum courses at all levels, students have many opportunities to develop strong technical skills, experiment with a wide variety of media and develop a sense of aesthetics. Students are encouraged to think laterally and work creatively in a supportive environment where risk is part of the process of wondering "what if.". Visual arts study offers students at SJK the opportunity to explore and develop the right side of the brain - expressively and intellectually.
For students who do not study visual art but still wish to participate in extra-curricular visual arts activities, there are opportunities to assist with poster design work for School events, set design and painting in conjunction with a drama production, mural painting or the creation of one-of-a-kind art objects used in School fundraising events.
Student art work is proudly exhibited throughout the School, and more formally in annual exhibits including the Arts Around Us event held each spring.
Music
SJK's music classes, private music lessons, and extracurricular musical ensembles provide students with a well-rounded music education.
Lower School vocal classes progress children to a combined vocal and instrumental program beginning in Middle School. The school also offers students the use of a MIDI Lab which consists of nine student stations and one teacher station. Each student station is equipped with one 49-key piano keyboard and the room has a ceiling-mounted projector which projects information on the teacher's monitor to a screen. The lab is fitted with Sibelius 5 music notation software and is used in training students in music theory, aural skills and composition. Private piano, voice, organ and violin lessons are available at the school for interested families.
Extracurricular ensembles include five school choirs to accommodate students of every age. SJK school choirs are often called upon to perform at various community events. Extracurricular ensembles travel to compete in the Kiwanis Music Festival, in the Waterloo Region High School Choral Festival at Centre in the Square, and in the Conference of Independent Schools' Music Festival at Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto. Proudly, the Middle and Upper School choirs achieved gold standard at the Kiwanis Festival this past year, were awarded scholarships and were nominated to compete in the Provincials. Every Christmas each of SJK's choirs is featured in the singing of the traditional service of Nine Lessons and Carols in the school's beautiful chapel building complete with 1953 Casavant organ.
SJK welcomes guest choirs from around the world to perform for the student body and the wider SJK community. Past visiting choirs include the Vancouver Chamber Choir, the Sankt Annae Youth Choir from Copenhagen, Denmark, the Kitchener-Waterloo Philharmonic Youth Choir and the all-professional St. John's Parish Choir, Elora.
