Walk into Lewisporte Collegiate and you’ll hear it before you see anyone. More than half the students are in the music program, so the halls rarely go quiet.

At the centre of it all is Adam Baxter. He’s a MusicNL award-winning singer-songwriter, and the kind of teacher who learns every instrument himself so he can help any student who’s stuck. (He admits the tuba is still winning.)

Ty Russell arrived in Mr. Baxter’s class loving music and living with anxiety. He picked up saxophone and guitar, but the gap between playing and performing was wide, and anxiety made it wider. A performer himself, Mr. Baxter knows stage fright from the inside. But he also knows anxiety runs deeper than pre-show jitters. So along with coaching Ty through performances, he helped him find ways to manage it, in class and on stage.

For Ty, that support reached well beyond the band room. Anxiety stopped running the show. His marks picked up. So did his confidence. Now he’s aiming for a degree in classical guitar after graduation, and he’s in good company: some of Mr. Baxter’s former students are singing opera and working as session musicians.

Ty and his band, Vision, recently won the regional Battle of the Bands. The kid who used to dread the stage now can’t wait to get back on it – thanks to a teacher who taught him the notes, and the courage to get up there and play them.