Fine Arts

A quality Fine Arts program reflects the standards in which students create, perform and produce. At a minimum, such a curriculum encompasses four basic aspects, with the expectation that students will:

Create and perform the arts
Understand the role and importance of the arts in culture and history
Perceive and respond to the qualities of the arts
Value the major art works and artists of the discipline
Make sound judgments about the arts and understand the bases on which those judgments rest (Arts Education Partnership Working Group 1993, p. 5)

Private Music Instruction

All too often high school students drop their studies in music due to their hectic schedules. Saint Joseph's Catholic Academy believes strongly that music is an integral part of the whole development of the child. Therefore, Saint Joseph's Catholic Academy would like to offer to area music teachers, who have students attending Saint Joseph's Catholic Academy, the opportunity to schedule their lessons during the school day at SJCA. Saint Joseph's Catholic Academy will make available rooms for private music lessons. All fees for instruction will be between the student and the music teacher. The private lesson must be offered during the student's study hall.

The Carnegie Hall Royal Conservatory Achievement Program

Saint Joseph's Catholic Academy would like to make available to its students and their parents The Achievement Program, a music education program for piano, voice, violin, flute, music theory and guitar established by Carnegie Hall Royal Conservatory and The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

The Carnegie Hall Royal Conservatory Achievement Program provides a recognized standard of music success through an effectively sequenced course of study from beginner to advanced levels.

Why choose the achievement program?

National standard of excellence through a non-competitive assessment
Pride of accomplishment in recognized nationwide program of assessment
Motivation to achieve a goal and continue studies
Commitment to practice
Experience performing and skill development for music literacy
Development of self-discipline, goal setting, and time management skills
Growth in independent thinking and love of music
Consistent Standards across Canada for 125 years
Students receive certificates of achievement
Consistent judging standards if the student participates in adjudication
Lessons are available for students of any level of ability and interest

All fees for this program will be between the student and the music teacher. Saint Joseph's Catholic Academy will make available rooms for private lessons. The private lesson may occur during the school day and offered during the student's study hall.

The piano and theory instruction for The Achievement Program will given by Wendy Bachman.

Mrs. Bachman, a native of Vancouver, holds an ARCT Diploma in Piano Performance and an ARCT Teacher's Diploma from The Royal Conservatory of Music, a Bachelor of Music from the University of British Columbia and a Masters Degree in Piano Pedagogy and Performance from Westminster Choir College (Princeton, New Jersey).

Her teachers and mentors include Mary Tickner, Nan Gorringe, Edward Parker, Leonard Richter, Harold Zabrack, Frances Clark and Louise Gross. Over the past 29 years, Mrs. Bachman has taught in music conservatories in Princeton, Minneapolis, Vancouver, and Seattle.

In 1990 she was selected to teach and perform at the National Conference of Piano Pedagogy in Chicago. Currently, Mrs. Bachman teaches keyboard and theory in her private studio, and used to teach part-time at The Pennsylvania State University. Mrs. Bachman has 17 years of experience as a senior adjudicator for the Achievement Program as well as being the representative for State College.

For more information please go to theachievementprogram.org or email Wendy at wendybachman@hotmail.com.