A local band is making some noise on the national level, St. Annes’ Concert Band secured silver standing at MusicFest Nationals last week (May 17/18).
The national competition hosted around 7000 students in 250 ensembles in Niagara Falls.
While prior to the pandemic, the group had 54 students and 5 national competitions under their belt, this year the group started the school year with 16 students, topping out at 27 before competition.
Josh Geddis – Music teacher & Band Director at St. Annes Catholic Secondary School in Clinton says that art teaches valuable lessons, and isn’t about winning awards,
With only one fifth year student having any competition experience under their belt, and several grade nine students that had only been playing for 6-8 months – national competition is a definite achievement.
Standings in musical competitions are awarded on a rubric structure, with gold being awarded to nearly perfect performances, silver to excellent performances with minor areas for improvement, and bronze to very good performances.
Geddis says that rebuilding this year following a lack of music instruction over the last few years due to the pandemic felt a lot like establishing the program did,
He also said that the success is all due to the commitment of the students
Likening the experience to sports, Geddis says that in hockey, most high school students have been playing their entire lives, when many music students have never picked up an instrument before, and just learn to lace their skates in their 9th grade year.
Written by: B. Shakyaver
