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HIGH SILVER AND HIGH SPIRITS. the Terrace Community Band proved
they could cook with the best of them at the national band competition at

Sports
Community News
Arts & Entertainment

a al eatures

MusicF est ’91 in Vancouver on the Victoria Day weekend. The group finished with
a High Silver medal in the 600 category for bands.

Second in nationals
for Community Band

by Nancy Orr

WILL CHICAGO BE NEXT FOR THE
TERRACE COMMUNITY BAND?

Flying in on Cloud 9, the band
members returned to Terrace on
Victoria Day after a spectacular
week at the national competition,
MusicFest ’91, at the Vancouver
Trade and Convention Centre.

The group competed at the
highest level — the 600 category
— with bands from across Canada

and the United States, eaming an

outstanding Silver. "The only thing
higher is the Gold, and you have
to be perfect for that," said con-
ductor Jim Ryan. "The usual cate-
gories of bronze, silver and gold
are further divided into low,
medium and high... and we were
rated high silver,

"It is the most exhilarating day of
my life," he said. "One of the
adjudicators remarked that this
group seemed to have something
special, and he was right on,"
Ryan continued. "All the members
were in top form."

There were five adjudicators: Dr.
Al Wright, professor emeritus from
Purdue University; Dr. Dennis
Prime of the Alberta College Con-

servatory; Richard Crain from
Houston, Texas; Dale Lonis of the
University of Missouri; and Dr.
Glenn Price from the University of
Calgary. Gerald King from the
University of Victoria, who has
adjudicated in Terrace, was
assigned to monitor and concen-
irate on the conductor’s perform-
ance. "He wasn’t too happy with
my facial expressions," said Ryan.
"I said Iwas happy as long as I
Stayed on the podium!”

Although they did not play until
Sunday at 1:30, the 32 band mem-
bers went down early enough to be
able to attend workshops and listen
to other groups.

One of the competitions involved
sight reading. They were given
five minutes to look over the
music and then play it. "Not
unusual for us," joked a band
member.

The tapes of the music and the
adjudicators’ comments were

replayed at the regular band prac-
tice on Tuesday.

"This group has a very sophisti-
cated approach to music," said
Richard Crain. "There are some

“very fine individual players —

French horn (Ann Flueter), saxo-
phone (Karen Armold-Smith), first
trumpet (David Bowering) with
special mention to the flute (Reah
Raye).

Even the positioning of the in-
struments within the band came in
for comment. One of the adjudica-
tors could be heard in an aside
while waiting for warm-up, *
very well tumed-out group, but
still a couple of white socks —
just like the kids,"

Just to keep the band members
on their foes, it was recommended
that they should be invited to the
world class symposium of music
held every year in Evanston,
Illinois, a suburb of Chicago,

Arts & Entertainment

Starting on page B12

It all began with the Pacific
Northwest Music Festival

"Participation in MusicFest °91 by so many groups from the

j Northwest has been made possible by the hard work of many

individuals," said Marilyn Kerr, Northwest regional
coordinator for the MusicFest board. "The people who
originated our music festival here in Terrace must be very
proud of these accomplishments."

After many years of work, MusicFest, the national music
competition, decided to make the Pacific Northwest Music
Festival one of their qualifying competitions. More than 40
groups from northern B.C., from Mackenzie to Prince
Rupert, converged on Terrace in April for the qualifying
rounds. All groups have to qualify at the provincial level
before they move on to the nationals, and formerly they had
to travel to Kamloops to try for qualification.

The cost in time and money usually made it impossible for
large groups to compete in the provincials or to continue on
to the nationals.

"We took over the entire Skeena school for three days this
spring," said Kerr. "We could not believe how smoothly
everything ran, thanks to the hard work of the volunteers
and the cooperation of the school staff. We were very happy
that the Friday was a non-instructional day and we did not
interrupt the school.

Kerr has written to the board of School District 88 thanking
them for the use of the school and requesting that in ordering
non-instructional days in future years they bear in mind the
festival competition dates and attempt to coordinate the two
if at all possible.

"Each group enters its own level (for example, the bands —
range in categories from 100 to 600), and the emphasis is on
learning and growing rather than competition," she said.

The national festival, MusicFest, alternates annually
between eastern and western locations. Next year it will be
held in Halifax,