VIDEO: White Pines music students play some ‘oldies’ for long-term care home residents

Undaunted by COVID-19 restrictions on in class learning and performing, White Pines Collegiate music department students, with guidance from their teachers, have produced a music video aimed at entertaining a demographic which has been profoundly impacted by pandemic-caused isolation.

White Pines music teachers Hollie Filice, Greg MacLachlan and Aaron Dunn (‘Dunner the Drummer’) tried to gear most of the music in the 28-minute video towards those in long term care homes.

“Because most of those residents are older, we encouraged the students to perform songs from the 1950s and 1960s. There are a few more contemporary tunes and some originals too, but the bulk of the concert is aimed at pleasing older residents of long term care homes so that they can listen to music from their younger days performed by high school students,” wrote Greg MacLachlan, White Pines Collegiate music teacher in an email to SooToday.

The video’s songs include Hey Jude, Bad Moon Rising, It’s My Party, and Don’t Be Cruel.

“We promoted the concert by sending the link to planners and organizers of events in long term care homes. All students performed individually and used collaborative technology on platforms such as soundtrap to perform in duos or groups. Where that was not possible, we recorded outside using Algoma Public Health protocols for safety during the lockdown,” MacLachlan wrote.

The ‘June 2021 Coffee House Concert’ video is the fifth virtual concert video the White Pines music department has released since the pandemic began in 2020.