Music has helped 17-year-old Jak van den Heuvel get through some tough times.
It’s lifted him up when he has been down, and given him a focus.
“I found that music and art really helped when I was going through periods of struggle,” he said.
And this month, through his role as arts prefect at Mount Hutt College, it was music which helped to raise more than $2000 for the I Am Hope charity.
Jak worked with the school’s art committee to put on an arts evening.
It included performances by students and teachers, including bands, soloists and dancers.
“Being able to combine art, music and performance to raise awareness and money for a mental health charity was really a full circle and emotionally rewarding experience for me,” Jak said.
“We raised $2050 for the I am Hope Charity.”
The funds would roughly provide 13 to 14 private counselling sessions for youth nationwide needing support, he said.
Jak, a Year 13 student, is himself a natural musician.
He added bass guitar to his musical repertoire three years ago when he and his friends decided to form a band. No-one had a bass at home to practise on.
Luckily for Jak, his brother Sam used to play. It was in the attic.
“I climbed up and dusted it off, and have been ‘borrowing’ it ever since.”
The band was a two month flash-in-the-pan, but it gave Jak a passion for the bass guitar.
‘‘And that was a silver lining,” he said.
Jak and his bass guitar had a guest spot at last year’s Mount Hutt College Haka competition.
‘‘I had a blast. I got to write the bass tabs for the cover, so I was playing something I had composed, and overall I felt like a niche rockstar.”
Jak ultimate bass performance would be to play MacArthur Park Suite by Donna Summer.
“It’s 17 minutes of a disco breakup song, which is such a punk rock concept,” he said.
His other musical talents include, at the age of six taking up the violin before returning it to the wardrobe.
‘‘I did eventually get the hang of it,” he said.
“I think Mozart is lucky I gave up.”
And, in preparation for a live performance of three original songs for his Year 11 music class, Jak taught himself to play piano.
“Now and then, I’ll find myself humming one of the tunes I wrote,” he said.
Plus he can sing. Jak will sing in the high school’s production of So, There Was This Plane… in August.
However, despite his talent, music is not where he sees his future.
Rather, to further his education Jak has applied to study nursing in Dunedin or Auckland next year.
‘‘My goal is to become an intensive care nurse,’’ he said.
“When I was seven, my dad was in the Christchurch ICU for 11 weeks, and the idea of being able to give back to a sector which has given me so much is really inspiring to me.”
‘‘I want to be there on people’s worst days to make sure that they’re not alone with whatever they are going through.”
