George McDougall High School alumna and tuba Wunderkind Hana Hubley has won this year’s University of Lethbridge (U of L) Faculty of Fine Arts Gold Medal for her extraordinary academic achievements.
Hubley graduated from George Mac in 2017 before attending the U of L to take her Bachelor of Music degree.
“The gold medal [is awarded to] the student who, in the eyes of the Faculty, is the most distinguished graduate of that year,” Hubley told the Airdrie City View in a recent interview. “It takes all kinds of things into consideration like grades and extracurriculars, volunteer work you have done outside of university – it takes all those things into consideration.”
Hubley admits she hasn’t really processed the win yet, but is thrilled to have been recognized for both her in-class and extracurricular accomplishments.
“It feels surreal for me to be recognized like this,” she said. “I don’t want to discredit the effort I put in, but, at the same time, my instruction and my extracurriculars outside of that, I was just doing it because I love it. I wasn’t doing it with a goal to be recognized, by any means.”
Hubley began playing the tuba – reluctantly at first – in Grade 6, but soon realized she had a real knack for it, which grew into a love for the peculiar instrument.
“What I love about the tuba is how versatile of an instrument it truly is,” she explained. “It is known in pop culture for sounding kind of goofy, and that’s what makes it really fun to play and listen to, but the tuba is also known for having beautiful lyrical and musical capabilities.”
Hubley had no idea playing the tuba would eventually take her into her post-secondary degree in the U of L’s Faculty of Fine Arts, which has also provided her with wonderful community volunteer opportunities.
“For whatever reason, pursuing a tuba degree just felt right, and it really worked out in my favour,” said Hubley, who credited her dad’s harmonica playing when she was young for inspiring her own love of music.
For Hubley, winning the Gold Medal is one of the highlights of her young life, but so was the memorable way she found out she had won.
“For most of May, I was visiting friends and family in Japan with my dad,” she said. “Our family friend was driving us to the train station one morning, and while I was in the car I was checking my emails and I saw the one saying I was the winner. That was really exciting. I started screaming in the car and scared everybody.
“Once we got to our destination, which was Kyoto, we spent the day celebrating.”
Upon graduating from the U of L, Hubley was immediately offered a position as a student recruitment officer with the U of L’s Calgary campus. Hubley is excited to move back closer to her hometown of Airdrie, and she looks forward to sharing her love of the tuba with Calgary-area residents.
She also hopes to teach a low brass clinic this fall in her old alma mater at George McDougall High.
“Now that I am moving to Calgary, I am planning on joining some local ensembles there and also teaching privately whenever I can,” she said.
