NORTHFIELD — The notes bounced off the music room walls on a Thursday afternoon as the students in the Pioneer Valley Regional School band imagined they were seated on the stage of the MacMillan Theatre at the University of Toronto instead of sitting in the school’s band room.
That image will become a reality next month when 49 band members travel to Canada for the Heritage Music Festival to compete against three or four other high school concert bands across the nation with the goal of returning home with a silver or gold award and certainly as a stronger community of musicians.
“These trips are really fun and allow us to bond as a band,” flute player Karissa Perkins said. “I see the band as a family. We are all close friends.”
Pioneer Band Director Nathan Holesovsky said the band takes a trip every two years and even though the ensemble received awards for its musicality during its last trip to Nashville, Tenn., students like senior bass clarinet and drum major Julia Wallace hope the band can boost its scores.
“This is an opportunity to show other bands our skills,” she said. “Last time we got a gold in marching and a silver overall and I hope we can improve our scores.”
“It gives us a shared goal,” Holesovsky added. “We want to keep improving from the time before.”
Although the main purpose of the trip is to strengthen the camaraderie among all band members and to receive feedback from professional concert musicians, the students are looking forward to exploring the area and will even give a public marching performance in the Grand Hall of the Ontario Science Centre.
Holesovsky said the activities planned for the group is a reward for the students’ hard work throughout the past few months in preparation for the competition.
“We are going to tour the city, see Niagra Falls from the Canadian side and go into the CN Tower along with other activities,” he said.
Holesovsky said the band will perform three compositions and one marching band piece for adjudicators during the three-day trip and only started preparing for the festival in December as most of the fall semester is mostly spent learning the marching band formations and scores to perform at football games.
“These kids in band are really special and are very involved students and are doing all this work for me. Many are in the top of their class, they have jobs, two-thirds are involved in athletics and they are all involved in the student life of Pioneer,” he said. “Our time is very valuable and we try to get as much accomplished in the time we have.”
The band will depart on April 28 and return on May 1. Holesovsky is proud of the band’s accomplishments so far and said with continued practice — including one Saturday session — the students will be ready to take the stage.
“The students want to increase their concert band score and want to be more unified in their overall sound, balance and presentation of each song,” he said. “They are doing really well.”