Cobram Secondary College’s concert band has won gold at the Victorian School Music Festival, held at the Hawthorn Arts Centre in Melbourne.
The ensemble competed against a number of other schools from across the state and met the “gold” standard criteria in its performance of its three selected pieces, King Tut’s Tomb, Childhood Hymn and Ancient Fires.
Year 11 student and band leader Sam Perryman said he was happy with the result, and proud of the group’s performance.
“I’m very proud of everyone that attended, so I feel very honoured to be in the same band,” he said.
“I was a little bit nervous about it all and that we do have a younger group, but we still performed to our best level.”
The group is made up of Year 7 to 12 students from CSC who rehearse together weekly, performing at events at school and in the community around Cobram and Barooga.
Fellow band member and clarinet player Caitlyn Knight said they were the first band at Cobram Secondary to attain the gold standard.
“The music program is not just about the concert, it’s about everyone doing it together,” she said, adding the group was told of the result on the bus ride home from the performance.
“On the bus on the way home I can assure you we all screamed, like full-on screaming, 30 kids on a bus screaming at once.
“I do hope they (other students) want to do it now because we did get gold.”
The Victorian School Music Festival involves school music groups performing on stage in a format that provides real-world stage performance skills and feedback on their performance and how they can improve.
It also allows teachers and conductors to help their students improve their musical skills, as well as the conductor’s own direction of the ensemble.
Head of music and band conductor Justin McLaren said he was proud of how the students performed, especially as they were judged on how they played and not against the other schools.
“They (the pieces the group performed) were challenging for the level of band that we’re at at the moment and particularly from two years of not being able to play properly,” he said.
Mr McLaren emphasised the opportunity was not a competition, but a festival that was an opportunity to perform on stage, listen to other bands of a similar level and hear feedback on their performance.
“It’s great for the students to go down and get some adjudication ... it’s also really great for the students to hear the music they play as well and to hear the other schools.”