The École Port Elgin Saugeen Central School Senior Concert Band came home to a warm welcome on Friday, May 13 after winning silver at MusicFest Canada national competition in Ottawa.

Hub Staff

A bus returning to École Port Elgin Saugeen Central School (ÉPESC) from Ottawa on Friday, May 13 received a very warm welcome with balloons, cheers and applause, as members of the school’s Senior Concert Band were bringing home silver from the MusicFest Canada national competition. “There were 38 [bands] in our category,” said Matthew Patterson, the school’s music teacher in a May 16 interview, adding that the school was up against high school bands as well as community bands in the competition's B200 division.

“They held nothing back,” said the glowing Patterson of his students. “I wouldn’t have changed a single note, a single sound. They played everything as perfect as I could have asked them to play.”

Patterson, who is in his third year at ÉPESC, leads a total of eight extracurricular music ensembles. “I just told them, listen, it’s like the Olympics guys, when you go to the Olympics, you get that moment, you don’t care about playing it safe, you go for it... I said we’re not playing it safe, we’re going for it, so we did, and I mean it was awesome,” he said.

The band won gold at the Georgian Bay Regional MusicFest competition in Collingwood in March which secured them a spot at the Nationals for two years. “Reason being you don’t know where Nationals is going to be so if you win and it’s out in [British Columbia], you have two months to come up with the funds,” said Patterson, “So they extend the invitation for an extra year.”

The bus departed for Ottawa early Wednesday morning, May 11 and the band performed that night. Following the competition, they spent some time seeing the area's sites including the Canadian War Museum, the Museum of History, a concert performed at the University of Michigan and they took in the Canadian Tulip Festival and fireworks display. “I wanted to reward them... so that was their little treat, their moment,” said Patterson.

In addition to the silver award, the band’s euphonium player, Cydney Morris, a Grade 8 student at ÉPESC received the individual Honour Award.

In the three years that Patterson has taught music at ÉPESC, he has taken the Senior Concert Band to the Nationals twice. Last year they won gold. “The goal is eventually to take two bands [to Nationals],” said Patterson. “I would like the Intermediate Band to have that experience as well.”

Members of the ÉPESC Senior Concert Band are: Piccolo - Rowan Stephenson; Flute - Alex Bromaroff, Grace Daneluk, Ashley Hilbers, Mia Hill, Kaleigh Novakowich; Amy Oliveira; Rowan Stephenson, Paige Thorne, Noah Waldmann, Olivia Weigand; 1st Clarinet - Philly Baumberger, Madison McDonald, Taylor Ribey, Amelia Willson; 2nd Clarinet - Delaney Bingham-Brooks, Aurora Jacobi, Maddie Mensher; Bass Clarinet - Natalie Brown, Renee Brown; Alto Saxophone - Givan Bosnac, Madeleine Leger, Connor McNeill, Gracienne Swarbrick, Ethan Walsh; Tenor Saxophone - Matthew Martin, Zaid Rafiq; Baritone Saxophone - Hunter Barnard, Madi McNeill; French Horn - Samuel Elyea, Samara Quanz; 1st Trumpet - Francesca Alpajaro, Curtis Harron, Anna Nicholson; 2nd Trumpet - Taylor McMillan, Lily Van Geel; Trombone - Patrick Fenton, Michael Marques; Baritone - Corey Ribey; Euphonium - Cydney Morris, Eleanor Smith; Tuba - Isaac Bester; Percussion - Curtis Vandenberg (Set), Blake Shields (Set), Quinn Fowler (Aux.), Rachel Schuster (Aux.), Khushi Shah (Bells)

Cydney Morris (left), winner of the individual Honour Award at MusicFest Canada national competition May 11, with Matthew Patterson, music teacher at ÉPESC.

École Port Elgin Saugeen Central School Senior Concert Band won silver at the MusicFest Canada national competition on May 11 in Ottawa. The band performed three pieces: John Edmondson’s Bunker Hill March, Newfoundland Folk Song, an arrangement by Jim Duff and one of the band’s favourite pieces, The Journey of Invention, the composer for which, David Marlatt, Patterson met at the Ontario Music Educators’ Association conference in November and when he told him they were performing his piece as their final piece at MusicFest, he pulled out a score, wrote "Have fun at Nationals" on it and signed it for Patterson and the band.