Year: 2017 – Province: Alberta
Certificate of Achievement Recipient
Victoria School of the Arts
10210 108 Avenue N.W.
Edmonton, Alberta T5C 1A8
Principal: Tami Dowler-Coltman
School telephone: 780-426-3010
School email: victoria@epsb.ca
School website: victoria-school.ca
Subjects and grades taught: Grades 7-12, Choral music, vocal jazz
Bruce Cable is a teacher who creates music with his students. He builds a classroom of mutual respect, caring and good humor – not to mention state-of-the-art equipment. Students execute authentic performances by working collaboratively toward a common goal and gaining a deeper understanding of the music.
Teaching approach
Cable creatively integrates a multi-disciplinary approach. He not only looks to the past to deepen student understanding, but also uses contemporary music as a way to make choral music relevant to the students while still adhering to curriculum standards.
Outstanding achievements
- A choir from South Africa, a guest artist from Namibia, a conductor from Red Deer – Cable shows students different viewpoints by inviting members of local and national level music communities into his classroom.
- Cable's students participate frequently in festivals at the local and national level, and have received top honors. The choirs also perform in the community to raise funds for local charities.
- Students are mentored by professionals in the field, and they played the role of sound technicians in a recording studio for the Jazz Choir's inaugural CD.
- Cable has been instrumental in addressing the changing role of gender and traditionally assigned voices in a choir within his school and community, as well as selecting song lyrics that are more gender neutral.
Rave reviews
"It is [Cable's] gentle way of earning the respect and cooperation of his students that identifies him as a teacher who is truly working alongside his students in pursuit of something special."
"To watch this master teacher at work, sharing his passion for music, play and the relationships between art and our humanity is a joy that is mirrored in the faces and more specifically in the voices of his students at work."