Tim – the man behind the song

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Timothy Ulucake Picture: SUPPLIED

Ten years ago Timothy Nova Ulacake had to give up playing in bands and focused specifically on teaching as it was quite an effort juggling both at the same time with odd hours singing/playing with bands at night in pubs and students in the morning can be extremely challenging and exhausting. Find out who Timothy is.

How long have you been a music teacher at ISS? I started teaching at ISS 2006
Work experience:
My Teaching journey started in the year 2000 at Nadogo Secondary School (Labasa) as the PEMAC teacher. 2003-2005 Veiuto Primary School 2006 – Present ISS

Can you explain more about your music experience / background / qualification/ performance?
Background:
My love for music started in church following mom around as she use to sing in our church choir in Savusavu.

Growing up in a family of six our dad was a police officer, mom was the boss at home. I was quite a cheeky little fellow growing up and mom couldn’t trust leaving me at home as I was always up to mischief.

Every time my mom went for choir practice she had me with her, I remember sitting amongst these adults as they practiced Sunday hymns.

This is where I started singing and it quickly became embedded in my everyday life at home and in school.

In high school I was always hanging around students who liked music or students who could play instruments and I remember during lunch breaks at Holy Family Secondary School (Labasa) instead of running around playing on the field.

Instead with four mates of mine, we would all gather and just sing songs that were popular then. (It’s funny… We chose to sing in our boys bathroom as the acoustics would echo and we could hear each other’s voices echoing with this beautiful four part harmony).

Towards the end of play time we’d have a little audience outside the washroom. After completing high school my dad enrolled me into Business Management studies at USP which I attended for only two weeks and stopped as my gut feeling told me that I was not cut out for that field.

Without his knowledge I joined the Fiji National Youth Band and studied music instead from 1998-1999.

Much to his disappointment, he couldn’t change things for me as I was so keen to learn more about music.

This experience opened up a new musical journey for me adding to my knowledge and musical skills, learning different brass instruments, marching drills, and as a singer I was blessed having opportunities to perform with our dance band that toured Fiji playing in all sorts of occasions from village grounds, halls, community centres, pubs, hotels and different islands across Fiji.

I am forever grateful for my two year scholarship with the FNYB and to our government for supporting students like me who were passionate about the arts.

Most of our FNYB graduates joined the Fiji Police Band and the Military Band after graduation, but I opted to further my studies to be a music teacher.

Through the Fijian Affairs Board (FAB) I was offered a three year scholarship to study music at the Fiji Institute of Technology, School of Arts attaining a Diploma in Music Education.

I then joined Veiuto Primary School for three years before getting a big break to teach at International School Suva in 2006.

Being a young teacher then, at ISS teaching was a different ball game whereas we had to teach through inquiry which was a major shift and challenge for me.

I was fortunate to teach alongside Jean Long Tikaram our high school music teacher then whom I shadowed and learnt so much from and ISS gave me the opportunity as part of our professional development to take part in several offshore music teachers workshops through the Primary Years Programme (PYP) teachers conferences.

Last year I was fortunate to join teachers from across the Asia-Pacific Region “EARCOS” (East Asia Region Council of Schools) learning more about teaching global citizens through music.

During our workshop we were encouraged as music teachers to help take action with our students and igniting their learning through the arts.

Performance:

Ten years ago I had to give up playing in bands and focused specifically on teaching as it was quite an effort juggling both at the same time with odd hours singing/playing with bands at night in pubs and students in the morning can be extremely challenging and exhausting.

I had to choose and I switched my focus to teaching and helping groom budding artists. I got involved with judging Kaila! Star Quest Singing competition Chief judge again working with budding musos for several years.

Last year and 2020, I was invited to be Chief Judge for the Fiji Performing Rights Association Music Awards which has been quite an honour for this primary school music teacher.

What motivated/ inspired you to write the song? Please explain.

After the confirmation of our first COVID-19 patient on the 13th of March all schools were closed, ISS switched to online learning immediately.

I received a message from our Head of Primary “Rebecca Clenthworth” asking if I could compose a song about COVID- 19 and if this process could be part of students online learning through the music lens.

I was excited about this idea got out my guitar and started working on my lyrics using a melody that I had composed for a tune about Cyclone Winston in 2016.

The melody line was already taken from my Winston Cyclone song that was taught to students but was never released on air.

Having this melody line was handy as all we needed were lyrics and a few variations for our COVID-19 focus.

During our online classes this song was introduced to our students through our music activity on our online learning platform (SeeSaw). Our students loved the song and connected easily learning the chorus and sharing their video’s singing the song through our SeeSaw online learning platform.

I contacted “Phil Dakei” ( Noisy Oyster Production) as we started our collaboration began on producing our track. With the completion of the track Ms Becki was so supportive in bringing in the next BIG IDEA to have a video production, at ISS we have this extremely talented Benitera Koroijiuta who is part of our Sound and Lighting team at school who produced the video on “We will rise”

Is this ISS first single original ? Yes

How many students took part ? To sing we had 10 students.

Age group range of those students? Students from primary school, middle school and high school ages between 9-17 years old

I hear you guys are organsing another for Fiji Day can you please explain a little more about this? Without reveal too much lol hahahahahaha I’ll try… yes we have started working with students from (PS, MS and HS) with our Fiji Day song and yes we are still in the early stage of it’s conception and we’re approaching this song having more input from our students with lyrics and the melody line as well.

Can you fill me in about the hard work behind the scenes composing “We will rise”? (If any) The challenging bit was when Phil had to move his recording gears moving from one location to another as we had to record students from their homes because of COVID-19 restrictions.

I’d appreciate any comments about ISS and music:

2019 I started a song writing Tuesday After- School Club where interested students from Years 1-5 were invited to join every Tuesday afternoon in Term 3. We named this club “THE NIU KIDS CLUB”.

We had around 23 interested students who joined this club and students were taught on the process of how to compose songs.

Five weeks into our program our students as a group managed to start composing simple short tunes. We composed two short songs about road safety and rules while riding a bus song.

Our Niu kids club was on a high as they experienced firsthand how it feels to be a composer at a very tender age.

After several practices on our newly composed song, we contacted LTA and asked if they could send a team down to ISS as we shared these two songs with them.

A representative from LTA joined us during a lunch time concert where our students showcased these two original songs.

2020 we’ve had students compose as young as 10 years old in Year 4 showcasing their composition original at the Allience francie original composes event.

Four students from ISS entered this event, two of these students were part of the NIu Kids Club.

Creativity and response are two of our strands that we use in the arts through the primary years program and through the creativity strand we would like to see more students creating their own songs through this program.