Five Hundred music students from 16 schools in Huron and Perth counties will take part in the fourth annual Loud and Proud Mass Band event Tuesday night at Stratford Northwestern Secondary School.
Kendra Pearson is the music teacher at Anne Hathaway Public School and she's coordinating the event. She says the students are from Grades 5 to 8 with a range of musical experience and with a range of instruments.
The students will attend workshops this afternoon, grouped together by the instrument they play. Starting at 6:30pm Tuesday evening, all 500 of them will play in a mass band.
Pearson says her goal is to instil a love of music in the students while they're young and not distracted by all of the things they'll be confronted with in high school.
Admission to the concert tonight at Stratford Northwestern is by donation, with all of the proceeds going back to the music program.
"We have over a hundred clarinet players that will be playing. We have trumpets, we have baritones, we even have a huge gong that's going to be there. There's a wide variety of instruments, so it's a full band plus, is what I would say," says Pearson.
