The Sistema Choir performed at the Kiwanis Highlights Concert in April 2025. Photo via Sistema Kingston on Facebook.
Sistema Kingston will celebrate 10 years of music education, community, and learning with a fundraising concert.
The concert will take place on Thursday, May 8, 2025, at 4:30 p.m. at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts, and hosted by Chelsey Hiebert, Network Lead of the Sistema Canada Network.
The 10th Anniversary Concert — Ten Seasons of Love — is a musical celebration that brings together all of Sistema’s current students in grades 2 to 8 from Molly Brant Elementary School and St. Thomas More Catholic School, according to a release from Queen’s University.
The Sistema Kingston program is housed at Queen’s Faculty of Education and is supported by Bader Philanthropies, Joe’s Music MILL, Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board, Limestone District School Board, the Lloyd Carr-Harris Foundation, The Isabel, the Morgan Foundation, the Cataraqui-Kingston Rotary Club, and many private individuals. Sistema Kingston offers “an intensive after-school music program that focuses on positive social change through the pursuit of musical excellence,” according to the organization, which employs the Venezuelan El Sistema model to “inspire children to reach their full potential as students, musicians, and citizens.”
“The performance will include a Nahuatl song, a string piece commissioned by the Sistema Canada Network, our very own take on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, two brand new songs from a collaboration with Sistema and Kingston singer-songwriter Gary Rasberry, and ‘Seasons of Love’ from the musical RENT,” organizers stated.
“Students will perform in choir, as well as drumming, strings and xylophone ensembles.”
Image via Sistema Kingston on Facebook.
The event is also a fundraiser for the Sistema Kingston program. Admission is by donation at the door, or online at https://www.givetoqueens.ca/project/view/661. Further details on the event are available on the Queen’s University website: https://www.queensu.ca/theisabel/whats-on/ten-seasons-love, and further details on Sistema Kingston can be found on the Queen’s Faculty of Education website at https://educ.queensu.ca/community/initiatives/sistema-kingston.