Small Charlottetown school's band 'shocked' to reach finals in national competition

A "small but mighty" school band in Charlottetown has surprised even themselves by making it to the finals of CBC's Canadian Music Class Challenge competition.

Immanuel Christian School has only about 150 students, and only nine in the band, but its performance of k-os's Crabbuckit struck a chord with the judges.

They are one of 10 schools from across the country in the grade 7-10 instrumental category competing for top prize of $3,000 in new instruments.

Sadly they didn't come out on top when the winners were announced Tuesday; a fiddle group from Nanaimo took the honours for its rendition of Hymn to Freedom.

But making it to the top 10 was a thrill. 

"We're just so shocked, we're stunned, we're so thankful," music teacher Emily Doiron said in an interview with Mainstreet P.E.I. host Matt Rainnie.

"It was such an incredible boost of morale to this group of kids, you know. I think sometimes with a small school, they think, 'Oh, well, the bigger schools can do it better or they have more instruments or things like that.' But for them to see, no, like, we worked hard and each person played so well and that the judges obviously were able to see that. And I think that was such a big encouragement for them."

Doiron said they entered the competition as a way to do something unique given there were no traditional concerts happening due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The students were really involved in the process, so it was a lot of fun.— Emily Doiron

They were given a list of Canadian songs to choose from and decided on Crabbuckit. The students immediately began to pick it up, Doiron said.

"That was a really exciting process for me as a teacher to be able to see the students think, 'Oh, I hear that part and I could play this on my instrument.' And we really learned by ear together. The students were really involved in the process, so it was a lot of fun."

The band plays with only nine instruments — three flutes, two clarinets, an alto saxophone, a trombone, and two percussionists.

'Unique challenge'

"We are small but mighty, we like to say. But it does offer a really unique challenge. Because we're only nine students, you can hear every single one of us," Doiron said.

She said the competition provided the students with a way to help deal with the pandemic.

"With all this going on, I think some of them feel kind of heavy hearted and stressed or whatever that might be. And I think the music room is a great place where we can come in and let that go through music and express ourselves."

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