Blizzardless: Strung Out to Dry

Sharing a bus with the artistically talented Composition Rock Band, smooth playing jazz musicians and the immature Grade 10 boys in Intermediate Rock Band, the journey last Wednesday to the Greater Victoria Festival of Performing Arts was anything but soothing; the back of the bus was too rowdy. Who said band trips were boring?  After months of intense preparation and gruelling hours of practice, the String Ensemble – we’re working on a name - performed music from across a wide range of genres starting with two Baroque movements of Tartini’s Sonata, Purcell’s Music for a While and thrilled all the retirees in the audience with a rousing rendition of Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day. Despite being of a more mature age, the adjudicator, Norman Nelson, an esteemed violinist and conductor of the Sooke Philharmonic Orchestra, was very receptive to our young rock talent and gave us pointers to make our already fringy music even more edgy.  With our outstanding performance conducted by Mrs. MacIssac, the String Ensemble achieved a mark of 90 – a Gold standing. We now await an invitation for a return to the Honours Performance at the University of Victoria eagerly, if not for the chance to stun more OAPs, then for Dairy Queen, which we were unable to indulge in last time.  Good luck to all the Brentwood musicians in their future performances: may they experience all the joys that music festivals bring, mostly in the form of Blizzards. Stephanie C, Allard ’16, Violinist & Pianist, Photos by Kabir B, Rogers ‘15