Lynn Tucker, an Associate Professor of Music and Culture in the Department of Arts, Culture, and Media at UTSC, describes the importance of the music program to UTSC students and community members, and reveals the chant developed by music students to help guide visitors to the music room.
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0:05
[Lynn:] And the students, they loved being able to make music here.
0:14
They had such great experiences in their own high schools. And so they’re, you know, grateful to their music teachers as well because they did such a wonderful job in engaging these students and lit this fire, or passion for music making regardless of the career path.
0:32
‘Cause all these students, they were studying biology, and geography, and neuroscience, and management, and history, and English, and you name it, they were all in there making music together.
0:48
And I’ve heard so many different students express it differently over the years, but even if their academic home was somewhere else on campus,
1:00
this is where they felt most at home while they were at UTSC. Because they were able to do something that they loved, it was a break from the other stressors in their life, and this is where they made some of their best friends while they were here.
1:18
So it was sort of, music brought them together. And we were fortunate to have a space, 303, to house all of that, and it just became this anchor space.
1:35
So people were always moving in and outta the space. So like, the UMAP turned into the UTSC Music Society, which later turned into Music 303.
1:44
So the student club on campus right now is actually named after the space — [Christine:] Oh, fun. [Lynn:] Where music making happens. Or, some music making happens on campus.
1:54
They even have a chant. (Both laughing) So do you want me to tell you? [Christine:] Yeah, absolutely! [Lynn:] Okay. So the chant that they, so it was a group of students and if I got the story right, they were actually, there was a group of them and they wanted to support their theater colleagues.
2:13
So they were all met over here and on the walk, either to the Leigha Lee Browne Theater or on the way back, they came up with this chant. And it goes like this:
2:25
‘Where do we come from?’ ‘303!’ ‘Where do we come from?’ ‘303!’ ‘Where do we come from?’ ‘303!’ ‘And where the heck is that?’ ‘AA!’ Because nobody could ever find the music room. (Christine laughs)
2:43
[Christine:] That’s wonderful. [Lynn:] And so it’s in the AA Building and, yeah. So that cheer went on for a little while. Sometimes we’d end our concerts with it. [Christine:] That’s very cool.
2:53
[Lynn:] And it’s just a bit of fun, but it’s just, you know…
