Honour Band tuned up for today’s concert

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This article was published 10/02/2024 (586 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What do you get when you combine talented musicians from junior and senior high schools from more than 25 schools and bring them together for an annual concert?

The Westman Honour Band is the answer.

This afternoon’s concert at the Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium (WMCA) will be the 23rd edition of the Westman Honour Band, which was paused for two years in 2021 and 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The curtain rises for the musicians at 3 p.m. and admission is by donation.

This will be a first for Natalie Wozney and her clarinet. She’s in Grade 9 and is part of the band program at Elton Collegiate. She is one of about 150 students who’s been rehearsing and preparing for the concert.

Musicians were divided into groups according to their instrument and given coaching sessions with professionals — either professors or students from Brandon University.

Wozney and other students in junior high rehearsed at BU’s school of music and the senior high school students rehearsed at the WMCA, but both groups will play in the auditorium on Saturday.

“It’s definitely different, not what I pictured,” Wozney said. “There are a lot more people and clarinets than I thought there was going to be — there are more than a dozen. But I love it. You get to meet new people who have similar interests as you and you get to make lots of new friends.”

Wozney and her clarinet will be joined by other musicians with their instruments: bass clarinets, flutes, oboes, bassoons; alto, tenor and baritone saxophones; trumpets, French horns, trombones, string bass, percussion instruments, tubas and euphoniums.

The euphonium is a brass instrument which is “basically a small tuba,” said Melita Grade 12 student Gabriel Atchison. He will be one of three musicians playing a euphonium during the performance.

“I was always attracted to the brass instruments, and I liked the sound it made with the valves and whatnot. And we’re a low brass piece, like with the tubas and trombones.

“So, we have a lot of background parts that kind of carry the band and create the bass. But once in a while we get a little bit of the spotlight and can show off our talents,” said Atchison.

Wozney, Atchison and the other students were nominated by band directors in each of their schools to be part of the Westman Honour Band, said event co-ordinator Erin Dodds.

“And from there, we were able to select the band from the nominations,” Dodds said. Generally, we try to keep it as instrumentation-balanced as possible, so you’re able to hear all the different instruments. We don’t want too many of one or another. We try to keep it as balanced as we can.”

About two months ago, each student was given the list of songs they would be performing, so they were able to practise in their spare time.

The junior high school students will perform five pieces, and the seniors have four selections.

Wozney’s second favourite in the repertoire, she said, is called “After the Rain,” because “it sounds just like after the rain has finished.”

But what she’s most looking forward to is the theme from a popular movie. “We’re doing ‘Ghostbusters,’ so that’s my favourite piece. We’re all playing and then about halfway through we stop, and everyone yells ‘Ghostbusters,’” Wozney said as she laughed.

Among the list of songs that the seniors will perform is “Flight of the Thunderbird,” which Atchison said is a fun piece to play. “We have one called ‘Sundance,’ which has more of a country feel to it, and a popular song called ‘Three Folk Miniatures,’ a commonly played Canadian piece,” Atchison said.

Both Wozney and Atchison said they are looking forward to being part of the big performance, which is exactly what Meaghan Graham, band director at Vincent Massey High School, said is the overall goal.

“Some of the kids that come from rural programs, this is the biggest band that they’ll play in — in their entire life. I think it’s a great experience for kids to come together from all over the region to play together and make music,” Graham said.

“And it teaches them so many skills, not just music, but it teaches them patience, teamwork, discipline, motivation. There are so many powerful things that the arts teach. It’s not just about the music, it’s about so much more.”

The concert will begin with the Brandon University Symphonic Band, followed by the junior high school students and then the musicians from the senior high schools in Westman.

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

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