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The Park Songbook In 2012, Regent Park School of Music held its very first Song Interpretation class in our old well-loved space on Queen Street East. We had six RPSM students, three pianists paired with three singers, working together, unpacking the larger questions of why we make music, what we are saying in each song, and how composers use their superpowers to tell the story. Even in that first year, we saw how these young musicians began to find their own voice, and indeed, their own way of relating to and expressing story through vocal art song. While the act of singing art song is often taking someone else’s ideas and inhabiting them in song, we started to imagine what it would be like if our students were given music that really spoke to their lives and the Regent Park neighbourhood. The underlying goal of the class was to facilitate a musical experience that showed these young musicians the most beautiful facet of art: its ability to reflect ourselves and illuminate what it means to be human. Fast forward to 2014: Robin and Margaret Brock of the Aaron Brock Foundation approached RPSM voice faculty member, Zorana Sadiq to see if there was a teaching initiative that she had always wanted to embark on, but that required support. Soon after, we were able to put the wheels in motion. The first step was holding a student song lyric contest, from which we selected a variety of texts, from both younger and older students - some introspective, some silly, all wonderful! Ten students signed up and composers Jeffrey Ryan, Juliet Palmer, Saman Shahi, Dean Burry and Brian Current wrote original songs set to text by our own students. For the first time in the school’s history, we’ve been able to commission new works and collaborate with Canadian composers on a truly original project. The Park Songbook paired five piano students at RPSM with five singers to bring this new music to life. Students worked alongside Canadian composers, who helped them reach new musical heights, and see a different side of collaborative music-making. We must thank: Matthew Fava, and all of the staff at the Canadian Music Centre for believing in this project; Kate Carver who team-taught this class with Zorana at RPSM supported by teaching assistant Stacy Darko; our entire team at RPSM; and our young writers for providing such vivid, honest, beautiful words for our composers: Mustafa Ahmed, Nikita Layne-Austin, Fatou Mukuna, Lotus Sheikh-Lewis, Crystal Qiu, Ethan Qiu, Isidora Ateljevic, Hannah Yusuf, Jenny Zhang, and Emily Hoang. Finally, we are very grateful to the Aaron Brock Foundation for allowing this dream to come into sharp focus, and for supporting this learning experience for our students. We are sure that Aaron, a champion of new music and a composer himself, would approve. Zorana Sadiq & Richard Marsella, July 2014