Students at Iqaluit's Inuksuk High School are celebrating the revival of their music program with singer Susan Aglukark, pizza and a $10,000 cheque today.

Born in Churchill, Manitoba, 28 years ago, Susan Aglukark moved around the Northwest Territories for the first twelve years of her life with her father (a Pentecostal minister), her mother and seven brothers and sisters. They eventually settled in Arviat, Northwest Territories, a community of 1,300 people on the northwest shore of Hudson Bay.

The Canadian singing star made a special appearance at the high school to present officials with a $10,000 cheque for the purchase of music instruments.

The cheque, and an accompanying pizza party, are courtesy of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Inuksuk has been without a music program for about 10 years.

This fall a music teacher was hired and the program was revived with money from the Baffin Divisional Education Council.

Inuksuk's new music teacher, Ryan MacLeod, is now building a program from scratch with the help of the new instruments.

The money went towards the purchase of 10-15 instruments. In total Inuksuk spent $40,000 on instruments this year, says Inuksuk co-principal Ken Sykes. The instruments arrived at the beginning of the school year.

Students can rent instruments from the South, but MacLeod says running a successful music program in the North often requires providing instruments for students.

"We have a wider variety of economic backgrounds here. For some students where food and shelter is a more pressing concern, it is the responsibility of the music society and of the school to provide an instrument," MacLeod says.

About 90 students, or a quarter of the school's population, are enrolled in music classes at Inuksuk. A single instrument is often shared between two or three students. MacLeod says that, ideally, each student should have his or her own instrument.

MacLeod says it is common for northern communities to rally behind music programs.

Music is often considered to be as important as subjects such as math or English, but it is a program that can give back to the community, he says.

For example, the music society will be able to use the school's instruments and students may perform at community events, MacLeod said.

"Musicians can go out and perform and allow people to experience different emotions," MacLeod said.

1. Who made a special appearance at the high school to present officials with a $10,000 cheque for the purchase of music instruments?