With Choir and Senior Band
Last weekend, April 20-23, the small village of Whistler was overrun with teenagers. Over 2200 students from 45 schools gathered for the annual Con Brio Music Festival, including 35 students from John Knox, representing our Choir and Senior Band. Both ensembles performed very well and had great workshops with the adjudicators. Choir was awarded a Silver for their performance, and Sr Band got a Gold! I am so incredibly proud of all of our musicians!
Another festival highlight was performing in the Massed Choir of over 350 students and the Massed Band of over 900 students! In addition to their performances and workshop times, our students also had time in the audience – we watched two performances by other schools, and were treated to an amazing evening concert by vocal jazz group The Marois Vocal Project and the Naden Band of the Royal Canadian Navy.
Students also had free time to spend exploring the Village and hanging out with friends. Many students spent time working on homework assignments, some did an escape room, and one group went on a morning hike with Mr Wasik (they even saw a bear!).
This was a wonderful return to traveling for our music department, and I look forward to the next trip we can take!
~ Mrs Cara Lau
————-
Highlights & Takeaways from the Students:
Highlights:
- hanging out with friends in the Village
- awesome first workshop, the adjudicator was really encouraging, even though beforehand I thought the workshop would be boring
- the Gala Concert – the trumpet feature was insanely good!
- the vocal jazz performance at the Gala Concert
- massed band and massed choir! It was so powerful to be making music with so many other people!
Takeaways:
- look up more when playing
- breathe together to play together
- sometimes it’s okay to ignore the written dynamics and just play what you feel
- slow songs require fast fingers
- there are different types of piano [dynamics]
- always smile when singing
- focus more on diction and unified vowels when singing
