May 25, 2015
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The Huron Heights Public School students have been busy preparing for the spring music festivals and final Spring Music Night.
Students from Grades 4-8 represented the school very well in both the Grey County Kiwanis Festival of Music in Owen Sound and the Midwestern Rotary Music Festival in Walkerton.
The choir includes students from Grades 4-8 and rehearses one nutrition break per week. The singers have accomplished quite a lot considering they squeeze in 25 minutes of rehearsal each week.
This group travelled to both Owen Sound and Walkerton to perform this spring. The performance in Owen Sound earned the choir a silver standing and the performance in Walkerton earned the choir two gold standings! The gold-medal choir was invited to, and did, perform at the Festival Highlights Concert, Saturday, May 2.
The choir was awarded the Choir Trophy sponsored by the Walkerton Rotary Club, and two monetary scholarships donated by the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) and the Hanover Rotary Club. The Walkerton Rotary Trophy is awarded to the choir earning the highest mark for all choirs entered in the festival. Congratulations to this group!
A special thank you to Lynn Broughton, a community member who expertly accompanies the choir in all rehearsals and performances.
The Huron Heights concert band includes students from Grades 6-8 and rehearses every Tuesday after school. This group also travels to both the Owen Sound and Walkerton festivals.
The band received a gold standing for its performance in Walkerton. The performance in Owen Sound was awarded a “solid silver” as the adjudicator put it. It must have been solid as Huron Heights was the third-ranking band of all elementary bands that performed in Owen Sound.
The concert band was awarded the 92.3 Dock Award and a monetary scholarship sponsored by this donor. Congratulations to this group for the hard work every Tuesday after school!
Every September, a new crop of musicians begins its journey on a wind instrument of his/her choice. Once February arrives, this group is ready to try its talents on regular band score music. The beginning band is made up of Grade 6 beginners and meets one nutrition break per week to work on easy band score music. The group of 25 performers set out for Walkerton and gave its best performance of the season so far with a rendition of the test piece.
The beginning band was awarded a silver standing for its performance! Congratulations to this hard-working group for a very successful first performance. A special thank you to four Grade 7 students who also donated their nutrition breaks to help our beginner group: Hannah Gratto, Brenna Calcutt, Kaeleigh Auer and Ellie Thompson.
In addition to the extra-curricular groups, the Grades 7-8 classes each prepared a band selection to perform in the Walkerton music festival. Both the Grade 7 ensemble and Grade 8 ensemble groups were awarded a gold standing and were treated to a short workshop with the adjudicator!
Huron Heights also had some inspired individuals who undertook the daunting task of preparing a solo or duet performance for the Walkerton music festival. These students work with music instructor and choir and band director, Shelley Van Veghel, while preparing their performance but a lot of work is done at home on their own as well.
Each of these performers was also able to work with the Walkerton adjudicator for a brief time after the performance.
Ruby Hall-Elwood and Etienne Joulin were both recognized for outstanding performances and both received monetary scholarships. Ruby received the Patt Lowry and Keith Mayhew scholarships and Etienne received the Leo Al’s Construction scholarship.
Congratulations to all students on your hard work and excellent contributions to the music program at Huron Heights Public School!
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