St. Mary School’s band program continues to rack up the accolades.
Competing at the Alberta Band Association Festival of Bands in Red Deer on May 16, the junior high concert band and senior high wind ensemble both earned the Superior award, which is the top honour possible, said band director Oscar Garcia.
“I thought the bands did very well to finish off this year,” he said. “They worked hard.”
Although both bands were judged at the top of the class, Garcia said the “coolest” part of the event was how the wind ensemble did during the sight-reading portion.
Bands are given five minutes to read a piece of music — in this case, Castlegate 1924 — before performing it, he said, and are judged on how well they play something they’ve never seen before.
“You have to play it as if it’s been a part of your repertoire the whole year,” Garcia said.
The wind ensemble was more than up to the challenge, being awarded a score of 1+, above the 1 that is considered the top score, Garcia said. The band’s performance also earned rave reviews from the audience.
“When we were done playing the sight-reading, the secretary for the adjudicator said ‘Wow. That’s the way it’s supposed to sound’” he said.
Doing a sight-reading piece was only one of three segments all bands are judged on; the other two are an on-stage performance and a clinic.
The provincial festival marked the end of the year for the band program, a year in which the two full bands earned six total golds. The concert band earned gold in St. Albert and Edmonton, while the wind ensemble took gold at the Alberta International Band Festival, as well as at festivals in Grande Prairie, Leduc and St. Albert.
“They had a good year,” Garcia said. “I can’t knock them. They worked hard.”
The final event for the year is the school’s grande finale concert on June 6 at the Cultural Arts Theatre.
Admission to the show is free, but there will be a silver collection. The show starts at 7:30 p.m.
The band program continues to fundraise to keep the program competitive, as well as to help fund the trip to San Francisco for the National Festival of Gold May 22-25, 2014.
The wind ensemble earned its berth in San Francisco with a gold-level performance at last year’s WorldStrides Heritage Performance festival in New York. Only the top five per cent of bands in North America score that high.
One way Garcia is recommending people can help is through buying Sobeys gift cards. The school gets 10 per cent of the proceeds, and since people need to eat, nobody comes out behind, he said.
Community fundraising allows the bands to maintain the high standard it’s set over the years, as well as continue representing the community far and wide.
“It’s not just a St. Mary school band,” Garcia said.
“It’s a Westlock band. We’re representing not just St. Mary, but we represent the town and the province when we compete internationally.”
