Angela Li, an 11 year old from Fort MacMurray, was recently awarded a Royal Conservatory gold medal for her piano skills. Li is the top in her entire province, and her Grade 2 piano score won her the gold. According to the senior director of the conservatory academic programs Janet Lopinski “It’s an extraordinary accomplishment. This is an awarding for the highest mark in the exam for the entire province of Alberta. She obtained a mark of 97%, and to (get that) it means in all areas of the exam, she scored really, really high.” The senior director continued by saying “Our tests aren’t really meant to be competitive. Each student is assessed for their own accomplishments. (But) when somebody comes up with a really high mark like that, it shows that first of all, she’s done very well in her own progress, but also, she’s in the top percentile (overall).”
The Royal Conservatory gold medal that was awarded to Fort MacMurray’s Angela Li is quite an accomplishment at any age. Fort McMurray Young Composers Program instructor Susan Maxwell, who is the piano instructor for Angela, has had 4 students including Li win a Royal Conservatory gold medal in the past 5 years, and this is also an accomplishment and a testament to her teaching skills as well as the skills of her pupils. Lopinski explains “The role of the teacher is really important in this. The students are the ones who practice, who have the talent and the ability, but the guidance of the teacher is often what gets them up to that very highest level. So the teacher is really working with them to bring out their full potential. It does seem some teachers have the gift to do that — that special ability to motive and inspire and encourage — so I’d say this result shows the ability of her teacher to motivate her to do that really dedicated work that’s required to achieve this.”