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Heart of our City: Daniel Sim, arranging Prince Rupert’s music tempo

The pianist and saxophonist always knew teaching was his beat
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Daniel Sim, said Prince Rupert was recommended to him by his own band teacher who taught in Prince Rupert years ago. (Photo: K-J Millar/The Northern View)

Daniel Sim, a music teacher at Charles Hays Secondary School, has been a band teacher for two years. Music is his life source, running like blood through his veins with different tempos and crescendos pumping his heart for melodies in our city. But, teaching is his ‘partitur’, or passion.

“I was just always involved in music my entire life. I started piano when I was six years old. I joined the band in grade six. I knew I wanted to be some sort of teacher in high school. I chose music.”

“It’s mostly because I can connect with students. I really love the connection and those relationships. It’s a lot of fun with music as well. They’re all choosing to take the class, so they all want to be here,” he said.

Growing up in Port Alberni, near Vancouver, he moved to Prince Rupert for the job at CHSS, just before the pandemic depressed the damper pedal for a long quiet sustain on arts and music.

After high school, he spent five and half years studying to pass on his love of music to youth. He enrolled in the music program at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo and finished it with a post-baccalaureate in education.

“I just wanted to start teaching. A friend from up here said it is a really good school. Plus, my band teacher in high school said this was a good place to teach. She taught here for a bit.”

He said initially he wanted to teach closer to home and his family, but available positions were not aligning with his stars. Then the job in Prince Rupert became available.

“It seems very familiar to me. It reminds me a lot of Port Alberni. And some people that I’ve talked to have even said that Port Alberni is like the Prince Rupert of Vancouver Island.

He likes nature and trees, and of course the rain. He’s s used to the same climate.

As his tiny fingers tickled the ivories when he was a boy, he can’t remember the first piece he learned to play because, he said, it was so long ago. He wanted to follow his brother, who was three years older and already playing the piano.

Music runs in his family through his mom, who played the piano and the flute in the school band.

Daniel participated in a few community recitals, and when he hit middle school, he started playing saxophone in the band. Which he still plays today. As the band teacher, he agreed he needs to play a little bit of everything, and he does.

“I’ve just always felt enjoyment from music.”

While many believe that music and arts are subjects that need to be cut for budgets and may not lead to “decent jobs”, Danielle disagrees and said music has helped him overcome an employment search challenge as he has secured an excellent job.

“Music is super important,” he said.

While the argument for keeping music in school may have some truth because it helps with math, science and other academic subjects, he said he believe there is a much more important point that is often overlooked.

“Really, the argument that I find is much better is students are choosing to take it. If there’s no choice, then students might not come to school. Some people only come to school for the electives that they want to take.”

He also feels the argument that music helps students with math and science may have the scales tipped unfairly and be misleading.

“It’s mainly academic students taking band — and that would skew the numbers a bit,” he said, adding that some students, due to individual life circumstances, may not be able to choose band or a music program.

Daniel said it’s important to share music with others, which during COVID-19 has become a challenge. Music and band students usually play concerts and participate in live performances which parents, and the public can attend. During COVID, this came to an abrupt ‘fermata’.

With Remembrance Day approaching in 2020, Daniel was thinking of ways to make the school ceremonies virtual.

“We couldn’t have concerts. I wanted to share [the students] music in other ways,” he said.

Having only a small recording interface with one microphone, he recorded each band student paying their part individually. He had to layer their parts on the computer to come together as a whole band playing one piece of music. The concert band class has 16 students, so that was “a bit of work”, he said, but he also teaches Grade nine band, jazz band, choir, musical theatre orchestra, as well as musical composition.

The students liked the idea of recording and wanted to do more. With a newer, larger interface, and more microphones, he can now record students in sections. They have recorded several pieces including the jazz and concert bands as well.

He said that parents and families are just singing about it and love it because he can send them the music recordings and track the musical progress of their children.

The technology and processes he used to present the musical accomplishments of his students were recently showcased in a video for BC Culture Days in a production titled ‘Regenerate’. The film featured more than 18 local artists celebrating their various genres. He was contacted by the videographer and thought it would be ‘pretty cool’ to feature the students in a video.

“I really wanted to showcase the students and what they had done over the year and what they’ve learned with recording,” he said.

Sim said his work and music keep him fairly busy. If he had to choose between sports, such a Tae Kwon Do, curling, soccer he played as a youth as well as much more recent university-level basketball, and music, he said he would choose music any day.

“I’m just better at music. I get more enjoyment from music although I did find joy in sports, music is most enjoyable for me.”

When he does have downtime from teaching and after-school rehearsals on this year’s high school musical production of Matilda, he said he justs listens to music and plays songs on the piano.

The pandemic and its ensuing restrictions have disabled opportunities for him to get out and meet new people. Having always lived with family close by, the move to Prince Rupert has given him a lot more freedom, he said, which he likes.

“I’ve definitely got better at being on my own,” he said.

As for the future, he is looking forward to meeting more people.

“I’ve been waiting for all the ensembles to go back to regular rehearsals so I can join the choir, the community band and probably play in the community musical,” he said, adding, “It’s never too late, never too late. If you want to do something, just do it.”


K-J Millar | Journalist
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Daniel Sim, a music teacher at Charles Hays Secondary School has played the piano since he was six years old. (Photo: K-J Millar/The Northern View)