By paNOW

St. Mary school band hits high note in CBC competition

Dec 14, 2017 | 1:00 PM

Prince Albert’s St.Mary High can toot its own horn.

The school band rose above the pack to make the top 10 in CBC’s Canadian Music Class Challenge. Thousands of students from 500 music classes nationwide initially entered the mix

“It’s nice just to see our little school and our little city represented at a national level, so the validation is really exciting,” St. Mary music teacher Kayleigh Skomorowksi told paNOW.

She conducted the full ensemble of mainly Grade 10 and 11 students who performed the CBC Olympic theme music. Students were also involved in the videoing of the piece which they then submitted to the competition. 

Skomorowski figured the sheer number of students they had on stage made an impact.

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“We could have easily taken the best 10 students and put a clean and nice video together,” she said. “But I wanted to involve as many students as possible.”

The end result was a colourful mosaic of all the talent and energy on offer from the school’s budding musicians.

The band was clad in Canada jerseys as they showed off their national pride ahead of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games.

Student Jayden Bisskay, who plays the saxophone, said he excited about the national attention the band is getting.

“It’s really exciting to see our video up there and great to see we’re the only band in Saskatchewan to make the top 10,” Bisskay said and added playing with the band is a special time for him. “You have to listen and interact with people on a different level and you also get a chance to express your individuality.”

Fellow band member, clarinet player Jaejoon Kim, was full of smiles because he predicted the video and performance would do well.

“I already knew we’d make the top 10, so I wasn’t even surprised,” he said. “I expected it. I was only surprised we didn’t make number one.”

Kim said the CBC theme piece “was not overly difficult [to play]” and noted the music video that was sent to the CBC was their first take.

The national broadcaster will announce the overall winners in various categories on Friday. Each winning class wins a high tech classroom recording kit.

The St. Mary school bands will play their Christmas concert at Sacred Heart Cathedral Friday evening.

glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow