Piano donated to concourse for student use

Photo by Emi Zibaei
Photo by Emi Zibaei

This past week, Wilfrid Laurier University’s faculty of music hosted an event in the Concourse to inaugurate the newly donated piano for all students to use.

The piano is located in the Fred Nichols Campus Centre beside the Starbucks on the Waterloo campus.

The concert took place on, the afternoon of Thursday, Nov. 17.

The concert included performances from various students from the faculty of music who played instruments such as the violin, bassoon, trumpet, vocals and finally the piano, which was showcased.

Music students continued to inaugurate the piano even after the concert was over.

Glen Carruthers, dean of the faculty of music, explained the importance of having music as a binding force that brings all Laurier students together.

The faculty of music donated the piano to ultimately increase the participation of musical expression on campus.

Pianos exceed their useful lifespan when they can no longer be used by university level pianists, after which they are sold for low prices.

“In this case, rather than selling the piano, it made sense to reposition it in the Concourse so that students from across campus could access it,” said Carruthers.

Carruthers hopes students from not solely the faculty of music, but also other faculties will use the piano.

“We live in a very musical community on campus and off, it’s a community that values music and something that my students hear from me all the time is that I am convinced that music will be a catalyst — something that will bind people together during difficult times,” he said.

The faculty of music wants to create a space in which every person in the university benefits, not just music students.

Although music students have other opportunities to play at events like the one this past Thursday, Carruthers emphasized that Laurier has a role to allow students to express themselves musically, either inside the John Aird Centre or anywhere on campus.

“I think having instruments accessible is a very good thing and any role that we can play in increasing that accessibility, we have a responsibility to do what we can,” said Carruthers.The university hopes to increase the musical engagement of those inside and outside the faculty of music.

This is not only for music students to host concerts that showcase their hard work in the studio, but also for Laurier students to share their musical outlet with peers.

“We look for the commonalities and the differences that may not be the same music that we listen to, or my neighbour listens too, but we are all musically engaged in one level or another,” Carruthers said.

“Whether we are making music ourselves or appreciating music made by others or appreciating music solo, there’s no one in our community who’s not musically engaged one way or another.”

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