St. Bon's Takes Top Honours at the Heritage Music Festival in California
St. Bonaventure’s College has taken all top awards at the Heritage Music Festival in Anaheim, California. The Wind Ensemble, Senior Jazz Band, and Treble Choir, each won first place in their respective categories and were given gold standards and adjudicators’ awards. The Wind Ensemble was named Most Outstanding Band at the Festival. The Treble Choir was named Most Outstanding Choir at the Festival. Each of these two groups won Rose Bowls at the St. John’s Kiwanis Music Festival last month.
Altogether, St. Bonaventure’s College won eleven awards at the Heritage Music Festival in Anaheim, California, including a Maestro award for Grade Eight student Mikaela Etchegary for outstanding instrumentalist. The cumulative choir and band scores placed St. Bonaventure’s College at the top of all schools participating at the Festival. The school’s music department received the Festival Sweepstakes Award for coming closest to a perfect score of 300.
The Music Festival ran from April 2-5 and saw 1800 students competing in 82 performing ensembles from across the United States and Canada. “This is the largest Heritage Music Festival in the United States,” said Band Director Vincenza Etchegary. “We are thrilled to have represented our school and our province so well on the international stage. Adjudicators told us they weren’t expecting this caliber of performance from such a small school.”
“One of the things that really excited us was the adjudicators’ reaction to our young people’s commitment to the performing arts,” said Choir Director Kellie Walsh. “Adjudicator Joseph Modica was so moved that he commented, “If you’re committed to other aspects of your life like you’re committed to what you did here today, then our world is in good shape.” That speaks volumes about the power of music education.”
The St. Bon`s Wind Ensemble and Treble Choir were both invited to participate in the National Invitational Festival (Festival of Gold) to be held in Carnegie Hall in 2010.
For more information on St. Bonaventure’s College, please visit the school website at www.stbons.ca.
Text and photo submitted by Ms. Nina S. Beresford, President, St. Bonaventure’s College.
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