Hi all,
Thank you all so much for such an excellent and musical performance at the Kiwanis Festival this past week. I was most impressed with the band’s range of expression and cohesive playing with Amazing Grace as well as the great energy and ensemble accuracy with Windjammer. Of course, a big shout out to all of the solo performances throughout both pieces. Well done!
Here are the rehearsal notes for Tuesday, May 13.
1) Chorales-More Assorted 2) Warm-up Piece-Planes 3) Wicked (all sections plus mock performance) 4) Kent Steerwell/Mark Cuming various selections (Popcorn specifically) 5) Maiden Voyage (Fiona) 6) Postcard from Pittsburgh 7) I Am The Doctor 8) (if time) El Choclo
Jacob Caines’ adjudication was also very well done, in my opinion, and it was very satisfying to hear how the band responded to his musical direction and ideas for improvement and interpretation. I have attached a jpeg of his written comments along with a photo of our Gold Award certificate.
Jacob has also recommended our band to participate in the Provincial Music Festival which is a very nice honour for the Halifax Concert Band and a first for the HCB in its long tradition of participation in this Nova Scotia Kiwanis Music Festival Community Band class. The following is the text of the email I received from the festival’s Executive Director, Christine Mader…
/Hi Dave./
/I’ve just heard from the adjudicator for bands that he would like to recommend the Halifax Concert Band to the Provincial Music Festival. I’ve attached here the website for this Festival, and you can have a look at the rules and at the Syllabus:
fmfns.ca/. I am presuming the members would be considered amateurs./
/For bands, this is a virtual event, in that an audio recording must be made instead of taking the group to play live. Everything has to be the same as it was at the local festival event, and apparently, someone from the Kiwanis Festival has to certify that the recording meets the requirements (is done in one take, for example) of the provincial festival. /
/The deadline for entries is coming up fast: May 16 (next Friday) so there is not much time to create the recording./
/It’s very nice, though, to be recommended and I hope the magnitude of the task of preparing to register does not prevent you from going forward. Kiwanis pays for the band’s registration fee./
/Please let me know as soon as possible if you want to proceed./
/Christine/
In consultation with the HCB Band Executive, I have informed Christine and the Kiwanis Festival that we will regrettably not be able to put together the required elements to be able to participate virtually with this year‘s provincial festival. The logistics and timings proved to be too challenging and we also have a number of our band personnel away this week so any recorded performance would not reflect our best musical efforts. I also indicated to Christine that we really do appreciate the recognition and the support of the Halifax Kiwanis Festival and that it has been a pleasure to work with the Halifax Kiwanis Music Festival on this year‘s community band class. Also, thank you Becky, for your consultations and help with this.
Nice work, everyone!!
Thanks and see you Tuesday. Dave
