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Inspiring Artists: Stuck at home, Kaylee Kruk penned a song for Marymount’s class of 2020

The 17-year-old said she channeled her energy into songwriting during the pandemic lockdown
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Kaylee Kruk. (Supplied)

The COVID-19 pandemic has meant hard times for local artists, with summer festivals and performances cancelled.

Even with Greater Sudbury now in Stage 3 of the reopening, and the province giving the green light for performance venues to reopen, it remains to be seen how the local arts scene will adapt — although artists have already been doing plenty of that during the pandemic.

Given the unusual situation, we decided to put the spotlight on local creators of all kinds this summer, whether they’re musicians, actors, filmmakers, authors or fine artists. Many have been putting out new work amid the pandemic.

As is the case with all graduating students, the last few months of Grade 12 didn’t exactly go as planned for Sudbury’s Kaylee Kruk.

Normally busy with sports at Marymount College, Kruk was stuck at home during the pandemic lockdown with not much to do.

So she decided to focus on another one of her passions — songwriting. 

A member of the worship team musical group at Glad Tidings Church, Kruk said she wrote her first song — a worship song — a couple of years ago.

She thought the exercise was fun, but didn’t really get into songwriting until this past winter, when she went through a relationship breakup, and needed an outlet for her emotions.

Kruk, who plays the keyboard, said she has now written about 15 songs in total. 

That includes a song she wrote for her graduating class at Marymount, called “The House on the Hill.” 

The song was professionally recorded by Brian North, a friend of Kruk’s family. Check out a music video of the song below featuring video footage Kruk collected from her Marymount classmates.

 

The song’s title refers to Marymount’s location — anyone who has ever visited the all-girls’ Catholic school knows it’s located at the top of a steep hill overlooking downtown Sudbury — as well as the fact Kruk thinks of the school as home.

“The message of this song, it was kind of like although we have one thing in our minds that we wanted our school year to look like, and life to look like, sometimes it doesn’t always go exactly the way that we had planned for it,” she said.

“That’s kind of what it says in the song. One thing I did learn, if I learned anything at all is that life isn’t always in my control. I don’t have control over everything, especially when pandemics like this kind of happen and shake the whole world.

“I just wanted to send the girls away, kind of letting them know that I will be praying for them, and I hope that there’ll be blessings in their lives.

“It was an inspirational song for the Grade 12, but I think it goes for a lot of different situations and a lot of different people, especially during these times.”

The teen, who said she is planning to work for a year to save up to attend Bible college, encourages others to search out their passions, artistic and otherwise, in these unusual times.

“I think especially during this time, there could be a lot of mental health issues that can come out, especially with being isolated and lonely,” she said.

“I find for me, especially, writing music, being creative, finding a way to express yourself, having an outlet, this is definitely the way I found that I could do that  … I would 100 per cent encourage people to search out a passion, find what they really enjoy to do, and then go after it.”

If you or someone you know has a project you think we should write about with our “Inspiring Artists” feature, email us at [email protected]. Be sure to include contact information.


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