A song for small schools: How $1.1M in new instruments is putting music back in Hutterite kids’ hands

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In a quiet classroom on the Oak Bluff Hutterite Colony, just east of Morris, a group of children now cradle brand-new ukuleles. Their fingers stumble over chords until the sound, imperfect but undeniably joyful, fills the room.

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For music teacher Jessica Maendel, it’s the sound of possibility.

“We’ve always had students eager to learn,” she said. “The heartbreaking part was having to tell them we simply didn’t have enough instruments.”

That changed this fall, when Albright School, home to just 34 students, was chosen as one of 85 high-needs schools across Canada to receive support from MusiCounts, the country’s leading music education charity. In its largest disbursement in 28 years, MusiCounts is investing $1.1 million in instruments and equipment, placing guitars, drums, ukuleles, and recorders in the hands of students from Lac Brochet to downtown Winnipeg.

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“Music classrooms are the beating heart of any school,” said Kristy Fletcher, President of MusiCounts. “With these resources, students nationwide will build connections, find their voice, and discover healthy ways to cope with their emotions. Though we’re proud of what we’ve done in these 85 communities, the truth is, there’s still so much work left to do.”

Jessica Maendel teaches students to play their new instruments.

The demand is staggering. Only one in five schools that applied for MusiCounts funding this year received support. Among those, 20% reported having no annual funding at all for music programs.

At Albright, where every student is an English-as-an-Additional-Language learner, the barriers are compounded by scale. The school receives the same per-pupil funding as any other in the Red River Valley School Division, but with only a few dozen students, the money doesn’t stretch far.

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“Last year we had a guitar program,” Maendel recalled. “But only kids with a guitar at home could participate. It meant interested students were left on the sidelines.”

This fall, thanks to MusiCounts, every student who wants to play can. The colony’s high schoolers now have access to brand-new guitars, while younger grades are strumming ukuleles. The excitement, Maendel said, is palpable.

“I was posting an announcement for guitar class last week and told them, ‘Don’t worry about bringing guitars, we have guitars now.’ Seeing their faces light up, that was worth everything.”

In Winnipeg’s Norquay Community School, where children have been making music with little more than buckets and their voices, MusiCounts funding will introduce ukuleles, drums, and recorders. The goal is simple: Move from noise to harmony, from improvisation to understanding.

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Other Manitoba schools benefitting this year include École New Era School in Brandon and Petit Casimir Memorial School in Lac Brochet, underscoring the reach of the program across urban, rural, and remote communities.

The instruments are already arriving, already being played. In Albright, the sound of guitars now threads its way through the hallways, a little clumsy, a little raw, but alive with possibility.

“It’s super rewarding,” Maendel said. “We might not be able to offer every instrument — flutes, cellos, those are still out of reach. But now our kids can start somewhere. They can explore, gain confidence, and maybe one day pursue more on their own.”

That’s the point, Fletcher insists. Music is not just about producing musicians. It’s about giving children a way to express themselves, to connect, to thrive.

A new generation of kids, many of whom might never have touched an instrument, are beginning to pluck, strum, and drum their way into a world of music.

— Steven Sukkau is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

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