Mr. Phi Music

"Without music, life would be a mistake." - Nietzsche

Welcome to my teacher website, where you will find recordings of my students, as well as some practice resources. If you have any questions, or if you'd like to share ideas for interesting songs/pieces to learn, I'm always looking for inspiration so send me an email on l.phi@tvdsb.ca Enjoy your visit! - Mr. Phi

29 April 2020

Wow. I had no idea that I'd been away from my website for so long. Happy belated New Year!!! I just wanted to say hello, and I hope that everyone is safe and well. I miss making noise (a.k.a. music) with all the Jags, and taking Jags to perform at different events and festivals. I hope that you're making music at home, and I look forward to seeing you again, hopefully in the near future. Stay safe, and keep making music!

26 October 2019

Happy Caturday everyone!!! Just a quick update to let you know that rough demo recordings of the Russian National Anthem are finally uploaded. I'm sorry but my voice still hasn't fully healed yet. Please go to this page to access them: https://sites.google.com/view/mrphimusic/national-anthems

24 October 2019

Lyrics to Russian National Anthem are posted phonetically on National Anthem page HERE: Unfortunately my voice still isn't well yet, so demo recordings are not yet posted.

18 October 2019

Preparations for the Team OHL vs Team Russia are well underway. I know I said that practice demo recordings would be up Wednesday, however my voice still isn't fully recovered. I'm sorry about this.

10 September 2019

Sorry for the late greeting. Welcome back to school everyone. I've got great musical plans for the upcoming year, so I'm really excited to get everything going. Choirs are likely to start next week, and we'll be working on the Russian national anthem. Looking forward to making some serious noise this year!!!

21 May 2019

Congratulations to all the performers and prize recipients at tonight's Kiwanis Music Festival Gala Concert. A special congratulations to Ms. Barnett and the Delaware Central PS Concert Band on their award! The talent on display was incredible, and TVDSB was very well represented. John Wise received three awards (out of four gold performances), including the O Canada prize, Select Choir and French Choir trophy (awarded to the Intermediate Choir). A special thank you to Ms. Charlotte Cleland - the festival secretary - and colleagues for organising the festival, and a shout out to Sequoya, one of our awesome singing Jags for collecting the prizes for John Wise PS and Delaware Central PS. Looking forward to making more noise next year! Rock On!

16 May 2019

Thank you to all the families who came out to the Spring Concert. I am so proud of all the performers. A huge thank you to all staff who performed as well: Mr. Van de Coevering; Mr. Ambrose; Mr. Ewaskiw; and Mr. Gonçalves!! A special shout out to Jesse Grandmont for lending his violin skills to the evening.

14 May 2019

The Select Choir participated today at the Arts Festival at the TVDSB Education Centre. We had the pleasure of performing two songs, and listening to four other school choirs do the same. There's something incredibly beautiful about listening to a mass children's choir singing is heart out. The finale of the afternoon was getting to work on Sisi Ni Moja with the board Arts Coordinator, Michelle Rees. Click HERE to check out and audio recording of it.

Thank you so much to Ms. Rees and her colleagues for organising these amazing events.

8 May 2019

Concert Band also participated at Arts Festival, where they performed for and with four other Concert Bands. The mass Concert Band of around 150 musicians was awesome to behold. I hope to share a recording of Alpha Squadron soon.

5 April 2019

The Intermediates got to show their stuff at the St. Thomas Music Festival's Keynote Concert, which is meant to showcase highlights of the festival. It was a night of incredible music, and THREE of the acts were from John Wise Public School!!! I had the privilege of accompanying the lovely primary choir from McGregor Public School in Aylmer conducted by Ms. Kim Craig. In total, I played piano for SIX numbers!!! Congratulations to all participants and award recipients, and a HUGE thank you to the organisers!!!

21 March 2019

• Preparations for the Spring concert are well under way. We hope that you'll be able to join us on Thursday 16 May @ 7pm! There will be music by the Plain White T's, Collective Soul, Shawn Mendes, Guns N' Roses, the Arkells, Leonard Cohen, Disturbed and hopefully Queen, amongst others...
• On Friday 5 April, the St. Thomas Rotary Music Festival will be holding its keynote concert at 7pm at Central United Church, 135 Wellington Street in St. Thomas. This event will showcase highlights of the festival. Three acts from John Wise PS have been invited to perform that night, so we hope that you will come out to support our performers!

7 March 2019

Congrats to the Jags for representing at the London Lightning Basketball game vs the Halifax Hurricanes. Singing the anthem for three sporting events at Budweiser Gardens in just over three weeks! The Lightning won 100-99! Next stop: Harlem Globetrotters on Saturday 13 April!

4 September 2018

WHERE HAS THE SUMMER GONE?!?!?!?!? Welcome back everyone. I hope everyone's had a brilliant summer, and that you're looking forward to another year of major noise making. Remember to check the last videos from last year. Rock On!!!

29 June 2018

I can't believe the year is over, and that it's been over a month since my last entry. What a crazy year, including THIRTEEN different performances!!! I've got a few videos to share, which I'll do shortly. Thank you to all who have visited, and to those who have performed with me. To the John Wise Jags Grads, best wishes for next year. Have a brilliant and safe summer everyone, and I look forward to making even bigger noise next school year! Rock On!

21 March 2018

2018 LUSO Anti-Racism Video Contest update: At tonight's awards ceremony, the John Wise submission was awarded the prize for most Powerful and Thought Provoking video! Our Select Choir was also the only school group to perform that evening, singing Phind'ukhulume (a prayer in Zulu) and a cover of With or Without You by U2 to a full house in the TVDSB Education Centre auditorium. Congratulations to all participants in this year's contest - there were so many brilliant videos!

6 March 2018

Congratulations on all John Wise Jags who participated in the 2018 LUSO Anti-Racism video contest - your video has been selected as one of this year's finalists! We've also been invited to perform at the awards ceremony, where they will announce the actual winner!

2 March 2018

Well done to the Select Choir members who performed at the St. Thomas Stars playoff game on Friday 2 March against the Sarnia Legionnaires. Our group was small (13 singers), yet mighty and did a great job. The Stars won 3-2! Next Stop: the Harlem Globetrotters at Budweiser Gardens!

26 February 2018

Congratulations to all John Wise students who participated in the St. Thomas Rotary Music Festival. We had students performing in solo classes and in ensemble classes throughout the day from roughly 9am to 3:30pm, with yours truly as conductor and accompanist. I'm incredibly proud of all of you! The Concert Band was awarded Bronze, the Intermediate Choir was awarded Silver and the Select Choir (grades 4-7) were given Gold!

23 February 2018

A tremendous thank you to the Select Choir and guests on their hard work for the 2018 LUSO anti-racism video contest. It was hastily filmed over roughly one hour. If you like it, please share and like.

16 February 2018

Congratulations to the singers from Delaware Central PS and our Select Choir on tonight's anthem performance for the game between the London Knights & Kitchener Rangers at Budweiser Gardens. The Knights won 6-2!

4 January 2018

Happy new year! I hope everyone has had a safe and wonderful break. I'm looking forward to making more amazing noise with the choirs and concert band! Watch this space for developments! Already on the horizon, after the Select Choir's performance at the World Junior pre-tournament hockey game, we've been invited to perform for the Harlem Globetrotters on 15 April. Hopefully people will be up for the performance!

20 December 2017

The Select Choir did an incredible job performing both the Czech and Canadian national anthems (Kde domov můj & O Canada) for the World Junior pre-tournament hockey game between Team Canada and Team Czech Republic. We received loads of compliments from the organisers at Budweiser Gardens and other people, and Tessa Bonhomme - a TSN anchor woman and olympic gold medalist - who was sitting behind our choir even tweeted: "@Tessab25: Pretty cool start to the CAN/Czech game. John Wise Public School of St Thomas learning the lyrics to the Czech National Anthem and sang it beautifully! #IThinkTheyNailedIt" Canada won 9-0!!! Congratulations!!!

Have a safe and wonderful break!

13 December 2017

To my Select Choir members, I'm so proud of you for your performance at last night's inaugural TVDSB School Board Performance. The night was so emotional, not only because of the powerful speech given by the Matt Reid, the board's chair person, but also because of the Beal Singers' incredible performances, led by Mr. Weaver, and because of your performances. You did such a brilliant job, and were so professional. That makes two board office performances in seven months, with two standing ovations - WAY TO REPRESENT!!! A recording of You Will Be Found is here: https://youtu.be/90YBcK8jlHg Thank you to Mrs. Roberts-Neef for the bootleg!

Next Stop: the World Pre-Tournament Junior Hockey game between team Canada and team Czech Republic on Wednesday 20 December 2017!!! Please practise the Czech and Canadian National Anthems!

23 October 2017

EXCITING NEWS: Our Select Choir has just been invited to sing the anthem for the hockey game between the Canadian National Junior Team and the Czech National Junior Team on Wednesday 20 December 2017 @ 7pm at Budweiser Gardens in advance of the 2018 World Junior Tournament! Here's hoping we can learn the Czech anthem in time! Practice demo recordings and lyrics are under the National Anthems tab.