Tyler Evans-Knott, 23, a member of Curve Lake First Nation near Peterborough, Ont., has wanted to be a professional orchestral musician for a long time. 

A big step toward that goal was finding the right school to study music at — and getting in. 

Then one day an email came while he was sitting on the couch watching TV. He called his mom over to check it out.

"I knew she was gonna be really surprised and happy," he said. 

That may have been an understatement.

"He just kind of had a little smirk on h…