St. Mary School’s music department is basking in unprecedented glory after the senior high wind ensemble qualified for the National Festival of Gold after a gold-rated performance at a festival in New York City.
Performing at the WorldStrides Heritage Performance festival, both the senior high wind ensemble and the jazz band ranked among the best in the festival, with the wind ensemble’s performance being the climax of the trip.
The wind ensemble scored a gold rating, and was the second-best group in its division. The jazz band on the other hand was the best group in its category, but only earned a silver rating.
For conductor Oscar-Jose Garcia, the only result that mattered was the rating; final placement is ultimately window dressing, he said.
“I went there with the standard that I tell the kids all the time — I don’t care about the ranking, I only care about the rating,” he said.
As it works at festivals like this, all the groups perform their program of pieces for a group of judges. The performances are compared to a set standard, and each group is given a score. Scores 90 per cent and above are gold, while scores in the 85-89 per cent range are silver.
Once all the ratings are in, the groups are then ranked by overall score, Garcia said. That’s how the jazz band could win its division but only come out of the Big Apple with a silver, and is how a golden performance by the wind ensemble was only good enough for second overall.
That golden performance by the wind ensemble was nonetheless a major achievement, as only five per cent of bands in North America reach that level, Garcia said. By performing at that echelon, the band now has the opportunity to travel to San Francisco, Chicago or Washington, D.C. for the National Festival of Gold.
It’s a decision Garcia is happy to have to make, but at the same time it’s going to be a tough one.
“New York was very expensive,” he said. “It was very rewarding in the end, and everything turned out good, but it was still two years of fundraising to make it happen.”
Even getting to the New York festival took a lot of hard work and dedication. In order to qualify for the WorldStrides event, each band had to audition and be judged up to the standard the festival wants to maintain, Garcia said.
With their gold and silver performances, both groups have now automatically qualified for next year’s event. A performance below the silver level would have required another round of auditions.
Besides the musical aspect of the trip, Garcia said the entire adventure was well worth the effort.
“I thought the trip went excellent,” he said. “The kids were very well behaved.”
The 57 musicians and their supervisors all had a chance to explore downtown Manhattan, and take in sights both above and below ground. From Times Square to the New York subway system, and from Ellis Island to the Metropolitan Museum, it was a chance to soak up the culture of New York.
“I thought the kids did very well,” Garcia said. “They did us proud.”
