The St. Anne's Concert Band, under the direction of Mr. Josh Geddis, won a gold standing at the Music Fest Nationals Wednesday, May 13 at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music.
It's the first gold standing that the high school band from Clinton has ever been awarded at the national level.
In order to attend this festival, bands must qualify with a high standing at a regional competition.
The 56 members of the St. Anne's C.S.S. concert band performed three extremely difficult pieces in the national B300 class and received fantastic feedback from their adjudication panel.
The judges specifically enjoyed the piece "Songs of Karegnondi," which was commissioned by and composed specifically for the St. Anne’s Catholic Secondary School concert band.
The piece explores themes regarding the Great Storm of 1913.
After playing three pieces on stage at UofT, the band went into an intense one hour adjudication session which required band members to sightread a piece they had never played before.
They worked with Dr. Leah McGray, their adjudicating clinician, who is the director of instrumental studies for the Department of Music at Rhodes College and conductor of the Memphis, TN symphony orchestra.
The band closes out its performance season with "Songs of Karegnondi" at the Faces of the Fury event on Tuesday, May 26, 2015.
