issue 26 // vol 44 Music students recognized at Awards Benefit Concert > Performances and scholarships and awards presented Caroline Ho Arts Editor n Friday, April 6, the Douglas College Music Department celebrated the accomplishments of its students at the Awards Benefit Concert. The annual concert is both the ceremony where the Music Department’s scholarships and awards are announced, and also a chance for music students to perform and show off the skills that these awards foster. Proceeds from tickets for the show, as well as from other additional donations, go right back toward funding the Music Student Award of Distinction. The concert began with performances by Douglas College’s Chorus and Chorale, conducted by Eric Hannan. The two choirs performed a skillful range of works, from lively traditional Welsh and American folk songs, to moving arrangements of hymns by Romantic composers, to more modern, upbeat jazz tunes, showing off deft harmonies and several dazzling vocal solos. After an intermission which was punctuated only briefly by a fire alarm, Music Department Coordinator John van Deursen and Jane Evans of the Douglas College Foundation took to the stage to present the scholarships and awards. These awards are chosen every March by the Music Department faculty and given to students enrolled in the two-year Music Diploma or one-year Basic Musicianship Programs who demonstrate excellence in musicianship or academics. The second half of the show belonged to the Concert Band led by van Deursen. They played a breadth of sweeping works including David Maslanka’s majestic “Mother Earth” and Stravinsky’s “Dance Rouse” from the ballet Petrushka. The concert ended exuberantly on a familiar note—an arrangement of John Williams’ classic Star Wars theme. Walter Mason, who received the Rotary Women’s Association Music Award of Distinction, said he hadn’t expected to win anything this year, so receiving this award was a nice surprise. Mason entered the Music Diploma program for University Transfer in fall of 2017 after earning his Basic Musicianship certificate the year before, and after years of playing guitar in metal and rock bands. During the post-concert reception, he told the Other Press that the classical music he has been learning at Douglas is very unlike his usual genres . “They're different animals,” he said. However, he thinks the training might be helping him as an electric guitarist through improving proper technique, and through learning how to write music. “It’s definitely helped in some ways, for learning how to compose in a different mindset than I’m used to,” he said. He hopes that, with further musical studying, he’ll be able to naturally incorporate the classical training into his own composition and playing. Skye Pruden, a member of the Chorale and one of the concert’s soloists, told the Other Press that being in the Music Department and especially the Chorale has been very rewarding so far. Pruden won the David Peterkin award, which is given to a student in the Basic Musicianship program who combines both performing and academic achievement. She said she’s been singing for nearly her whole life, including singing competitively in a barbershop quartet and barbershop chorus, and this is her first year studying music at Douglas. “I had a more hands-on experience to singing before, and now I understand the theory behind it and how to read music better,” said Pruden. “Being in Chorale is a really rewarding experience. It’s just a nice challenge to have, and the blend we make, it’s just a very good group of singers.” Phe Rw AA CO Photo by Analyn Cuarto Mason said he’s always wanted to formally study music, and he’s glad to be doing it now in such a supportive community. He said he’s grateful for “just the experience of the awesome teachers and all the fellow students, and so many talented musicians to be around and influenced by, and just to have the chance to learn.” PaUiduKolttsdn ma ntom{santcia cue IM eeyvnUbET=4 to a close, the Music Department still has two more concert offerings: GTi UKonianteese MAE hoe OOo w-C is uE| 12 and the Student Composition (Csicoume i w-U ele Meee Tile 7:30 p.m.in the Laura C. Muir Performing Arts Theatre. A crafty and detailed Wes Anderson film > ‘Isle of Dogs’ film review Jerrison Oracion Senior Columnist keen ots of us at the Other Press like Wes Anderson, and ever since his most recent film Isle of Dogs was announced a year ago we've been anxiously awaiting its release. I thought that the film was going to be live action until our Social Media Coordinator Mercedes Deutscher told me that it was going to be animated like Fantastic Mr. Fox. Had it been live action, the film would have had to use a lot of CGI to make the dogs talk. Originally going to be released this month, Isle of Dogs was released a few weeks earlier on March 23 and was released in Vancouver on March 28. The film takes us to Japan in 2038, where a dog (Courtney B. Vance) narrates our story in true Wes Anderson- style and explains that a dog virus is sweeping the country. Six months after Mayor Kobayashi (Kunichi Nomura) of Megasaki City passes a law that sends all of the dogs to a nearby island called Trash Island, his adoptive nephew and ward, Atari (Koyu Rankin), flies a plane to the island to find his dog Spots (Liev Schreiber). Atari crashes his plane on the island and is found by a few dogs including Chief (Bryan Cranston), Rex (Edward Norton), Boss (Bill Murray), Duke (Jeff Goldblum), and King (Bob Balaban). They all try to find Spots even though Chief does not like to take orders from humans—though as they spend more time together, Atari and Chief start to become more connected. Wes Anderson's use of details makes the film look realistic and creates beautiful images. If you watch all of Anderson’s films, you will notice trends in the camera movements and specific shots that he does. While Isle of Dogs takes place in the future, the cinematography makes it look like the 1960s. Throughout the film, there are references to Japanese cinema, including the dogs sneezing a lot to reference the fart joke in the Yasujiro Ozu film Good Morning, and the score of Seven Samurai being played on a radio in one scene. Atari’s name is a reference to the Japanese game company. The film has both English and Japanese language and even the text is shown in both languages. There is a note in the beginning of the film that shows that the Japanese-speaking characters are translated through in-movie translators, and also states that dog barks are “rendered in English.” It is unknown if, in the Japanese version of the film, the Japanese-speaking characters will not be translated. Mayor Kobayashi’s butler, Major Domo (Akira Takayama), is the scariest character out of all Wes Anderson films because of both how he looks and how he talks. Isle of Dogs has some of Anderson's regular voice actors, while others are new to working with him, and some of the highlights include Greta Gerwig playing a foreign exchange student named Tracy Walker, Scarlett Johansson playing a poodle named Nutmeg, Frances McDormand playing an interpreter, and Yoko Ono playing a scientist who is also named Yoko Ono, and who looks like her younger real-life self. Some voice actors only say a few lines, including Tilda Swinton playing a pug named Oracle and Ken Watanabe playing a surgeon. Isle of Dogs is my second favourite Wes Anderson film and one that fans of the filmmaker will want to see. If you'd like to learn how the film was made, you can go to a workshop by the film’s lead storyboard artist Jay Clarke presented by VIFF, which is happening this week between Thursday and Friday at 7:30 p.m. at The Annex. Although it is sold out, rush line tickets might be available at the door.