About 

Our thriving music department is a home-away-from-home for many SKSS students. It is a place where students can shine with creativity while immersed in our musically diverse repertoire. Whether enrolled in concert choir, one of our various concert bands, or our reputable jazz band, students take part in performance opportunities that will help contribute to community and their personal growth as young musicians. 

Rehearsals are held in our modern and spacious music room, while performances are most often onstage at the beautiful Sagebrush Theatre, which is connected to our school. Professional lighting and sound technicians are hired for all theatre shows. Our music department welcomes band and choir students of all levels and offers students a place where they can express themselves creatively and gain a deep musical and social connection with others.

Hello! My name is Michelle McRae, and I am the music director at South Kamloops Secondary School, one of the largest high schools in School District 73. I am also a wife and mother, and I cannot thank my family enough for their support throughout my busy career. After my high school graduation in Kamloops, I obtained a Bachelor of Music Degree, majoring in music education, from the University of Victoria. 

I began my teaching career as a TTOC in SD73 and then relocated to the Cariboo-Chilcotin (SD 27) where I ran the elementary, junior, and senior high school programs at various times over the course of my nine years there, building much of the elementary program from scratch. Upon returning to Kamloops in 2005, I became the music director at Chase Secondary School, again building a music program, before teaching at Brocklehurst Middle School for several years and then moving to South Kamloops Secondary School.

During the course of my almost thirty-year teaching career, I have built programs, served as a concert band guest director, taught saxophone masterclasses and jazz improvization clinics, brought my jazz groups to the national level, co-organized district-wide music retreats, and had the pleasure of working at the Kamloops Interior Summer School of Music in several different teaching capacities. 

I am a strong music education advocate, and I am passionate about running a music program where students feel safe to explore their musical creativity in an inclusive, music-family environment. I feel extremely grateful to work with amazing students and staff in a school where music is appreciated and supported as much as it is at South Kamloops Secondary School.