ERIN – The Erin Music Players Orchestra (TEMPO) band at Erin District High School (EDHS) was awarded the gold standard at the Golden Horseshoe Music Festival in Ancaster on March 2.
Twenty-two students in the TEMPO band from Grades 9 through 12 attended the annual non-competitive music festival, where judges rank each band based on their performance during the event.
Over 100 school bands participated, and judges gave each band one of four ratings: gold, silver, bronze, or participant.
Instruments played in the TEMPO band include flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, French horn, and percussion — and the band practices before school every Tuesday and Thursday morning.
“It’s early, but it’s worth it,” said band director and music teacher Cara Cameron, noting the students involved agree with her on that.
Students were given a chance to change the time once practices resumed after the pandemic, but they opted to keep meeting before school.
Grade 12 student Stella DiPasquale plays trumpet and said she “learns a lot” from practices, adding, they’re “a lot of fun.”
High school bands are important, Cameron said, because “you can take an average student with average ability, put them in a group together, and make something excellent.
“The whole is larger than the sum of its parts,” she said
If one person makes a mistake, she said, it goes unnoticed because “the rest of the band carries you.” That means beginners can be part of creating what Cameron calls “excellent music.”
This is especially important due to the social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cameron said.
Students get to collaborate and “work towards something until it’s excellent, not just good enough,” she explained, adding there aren’t many chances for people to do that.
Cameron is proud of her students, “who have done so well with so little time.”
She said the group is enthusiastic, committed and worked hard.
often meeting with friends to practice at lunchtime, outside of regular band practice.
When it came to the festival performance, Cameron said they “remembered everything they learned.”
One of the flutists couldn’t stop smiling because she knew they were doing so well, she said.
DiPasquale wasn’t surprised the group took gold. “During the performance we could all tell we were doing a great job,” she said.
“I think it was one of the best performances we have done.”
Another musician, Cameron said, is in Grade 9 and had only been in the band for four weeks when she performed at the festival.
“She was so excited to be there,” Cameron remarked.
DiPasquale’s favourite part of the festival was the “really fun” clinic after their performance which helped them learn how to improve their performance.
During the clinic one of the judges played with the band and spoke about their performance, offering advice the group hadn’t heard before, according to DiPasquale.
The clinic “definitely did help us with the next steps,” she added, and the band is applying what it learned during practices.
The TEMPO band’s gold standard qualifies it for “MusicFest Canada the Nationals,” the biggest educational music festival on the continent, in Niagara Falls May 15 to 20.
MusicFest Canada “has been around since before I was a high school student,” Cameron noted, reflecting on her own experience there as part of a sextet of singers.
She said the festival includes “high level” choirs, orchestras, stage bands and jazz bands.
DiPasquale said she’s “really excited” to go on the trip with the band and have the chance to perform together once again.
