The concert band from John McGregor Secondary School (JMSS) is celebrating after a remarkable showing at MusicFest Canada Nationals.
The band earned a Gold Standard at the competition in Niagara Falls on May 11.
"It's a concert band of about 30 kids, and they went from scratch three years ago, not knowing how to play their instruments, to winning gold on the national stage," said teacher and band director Curtis Clarke.
He gives all the credit to the students for putting in a lot of hard work.
"When I started at the school three years ago, no one knew how to play any instruments, and we just rolled it out the first year," said Clarke. "Everyone kind of picked from a list what you want to play, and then we put the work in. There were lots of squawks and squeaks, and all sorts of sounds like that, but then every year they progressed a little bit."
At nationals, the band performed two contrasting pieces for adjudicators and had to sight-read a brand new piece with no preparation.
It's also the first concert band from JMSS to go to a competition.
"So went to MusicFest Windsor Regional competition, and they scored a silver plus ranking. Then they were invited to attend this big national festival, which is Canada's largest school student festival," Clarke said.
MusicFest Canada features more than 8,000 student performers from across Canada.
So what's next for the Concert Band?
"Everyone done at MusicFest Canada is done by levels and experience levels. So now the next thing is to dig in again and see if we can move up to the next level in the competition and see what happens," said Clarke.
