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Volume 27 Issue 4 - February 2022

Gould's Wall -- Philip Akin's "breadcrumb trail; orchestras buying into hope; silver linings to the music theatre lockdown blues; Charlotte Siegel's watershed moments; Deep Wireless at 20; and guess who is Back in Focus. All this and more, now online for your reading pleasure.

Gould's Wall -- Philip Akin's "breadcrumb trail; orchestras buying into hope; silver linings to the music theatre lockdown blues; Charlotte Siegel's watershed moments; Deep Wireless at 20; and guess who is Back in Focus. All this and more, now online for your reading pleasure.

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An agency of the Government of Ontario<br />

Un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario<br />

Of course there were times when the magic went missing, and<br />

that’s when mentors like Zorana Sadiq jumped in. During one practice<br />

session, Siegel recalls how sadness over some now-forgotten incident<br />

seeped into the exercise. The uncharacteristic quiver in her voice<br />

affected Sadiq so profoundly that she baked her struggling pupil a<br />

batch of cupcakes to console her. Siegel remembers how touched<br />

she was by the gesture. “It makes you feel seen,” she says, “and like<br />

someone cares about you.” The former RPSM grad remains close with<br />

many of her former instructors, who have become a “second family.”<br />

Performing also boosted Siegel’s morale. From the age of nine, the<br />

young girl was belting out solos in front of large crowds, and these<br />

stints in the spotlight have, for the most part, immunized her against<br />

stage fright. Her growing technical expertise in turn fuelled a sense<br />

of competence that extended into other domains. “Feeling like you’re<br />

getting better at something is …a really big part of becoming more<br />

confident,” she says.<br />

But perhaps her greatest gift from RPSM, she says, was the school’s<br />

cultivation of her speaking voice. In their youth groups, students worked<br />

actively at exchanging opinions and taking a stance on social issues.<br />

“That’s the biggest thing that music gave to me as a youth,” Siegel says.<br />

When she embarked on her music studies at the University of<br />

Toronto in 2013, though, Siegel was initially more bent on conforming<br />

than crusading. The only Black person in a sea of white faces, she<br />

recalls spending hours every weekend ironing out her thick, curly<br />

tresses in order to blend in with her straight-haired peers. Her classmates<br />

called her “Michelle Obama” (who sported a similar sleek bob).<br />

Siegel didn’t mind then, she says.<br />

But her whole world view shifted on its axis the day George Floyd,<br />

an unarmed Black Minneapolis man, was murdered by police officer<br />

Derek Chauvin in May 2020. “I feel like a completely different person<br />

after that moment,” she says. While the former self-described “people<br />

pleaser” once ignored minor racial slurs, her tolerance ground to zero<br />

after that watershed event. “Things that you let slide before, there’s<br />

just not a place for<br />

them anymore,” she<br />

says. Siegel the songwriter<br />

poured her grief<br />

into a composition,<br />

The Dream, about a<br />

world without prejudice,<br />

performing it<br />

online with Pacific<br />

Opera Victoria.<br />

But she did more<br />

than just dream. The<br />

pandemic gave her<br />

space to reassess her<br />

priorities. She had<br />

always wanted to give<br />

back to her old music<br />

school, and, in the<br />

fall of 2020, began<br />

co-leading their youth<br />

group, facilitating<br />

delicate discussions<br />

on both personal<br />

Charlotte Siegel in the COC’s<br />

issues and current<br />

Ensemble Studio Competition, 2019<br />

events. She was a<br />

natural. “The best part was seeing some kids start out quite shy then<br />

open up a little bit.”<br />

Marigold<br />

Revisiting Regent Park School of Music catalyzed another, more farreaching<br />

opportunity for their former protégé. After a visit there, staff<br />

connected Siegel to two other classically trained, like-minded musicians,<br />

Khadija Mbowe and Kevin Mulligan. Two years ago, the trio<br />

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thewholenote.com <strong>February</strong> <strong>2022</strong> | 19

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