Banff International Festival
of School Orchestras and Bands

St. Joseph's College,
Gregory Terrace,
Brisbane,
Queensland,
Australia.

About The Festival

Find Out More through one of the following links:

• The Gala Dinner at the Queensland Art Gallery.
• Read some background information on our bid to travel to Banff
• Visit the Festival Centre in Banff, Canada.
• Learn about our generous Sponsor

THE FESTIVAL

Banff International Festival of School Orchestras and Bands 31 March - 6 April 1999 The Banff Festival is a unique event developed specifically for talented young musicians. The Festival is held at the acclaimed Banff Center, one of the largest arts facilities in the world, and situated in the spectacular Canadian Rocky Mountains. Built on 17 hectares, with over 60 classrooms, studios and teaching theatres, the centrepiece of the Banff facility is its magnificent theatre complex of two theatres fully equipped with professional recording facilities.

A UNIQUE INVITATION

St Joseph's College Gregory Terrace was honoured to be the first Australian school invited to attend this important international festival. Eighty-seven of the school's finest musicians attended the Festival being held from 31 March to 6 April 1999. 'Banff' was designed to be a celebration of musical excellence, and combined a series of gala concerts with incomparable musical instruction. In addition to presenting a prepared program, each participating orchestra and band attended special sessions with internationally renowned clinicians, conductors and teachers from major orchestras and universities in North America and Europe. Cultural exchange and social interaction were important components of the Festival experience.

THE BENEFITS THE TOUR BROUGHT TO THE MUSICIANS

The Terrace Chamber Strings and Terrace Symphonic Wind Ensemble attended the Festival. For Terrace the benefits of this tour are twofold. Firstly, it gave opportunity for our Musicians to work with Clinicians of world class calibre and were able to perform in master class situations with some of the best know exponents of their instruments in the world. Secondly, Banff was a special opportunity to forge meaningful cultural links with individuals and schools from around the world. Australia is a multicultural country and undoubtedly gains greatly from such cultural interchange.

TERRACE MUSIC GROUPS TOURING TO BANFF

The music groups invited to Banff were the Terrace Chamber Strings and the Terrace Symphonic Wind Ensemble.

Terrace Chamber Strings comprises approximately 30 students (aged 10 to 17 years) whose instruments include violins, violas, cellos and double basses. Their repertoire includes Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, as well as modern Australian pieces mostly in the classical vein.

Terrace Symphonic Wind Ensemble is a large Concert Band of some 57 players (aged 13 to 17 years) and includes woodwind (flute, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, oboe and bass clarinet), brass (trumpet, trombone, euphonium, tuba, french horn), and percussion (bass drum, snare drum, timpani, xylophone, glockenspiel and other smaller untuned percussion). Symphonic Wind Ensemble plays a variety of music written for the concert and brass band. They are vibrant and play wonderful brass band music, popular works from many of the famous shows, as well as modern music.

The Terrace Big Band is also touring to Banff. These players are all part of the two above groups. The band plays mostly jazz standards, e.g. the swing charts of the forties, and have a vocalist (from year 12) whose repertoire includes Frank Sinatra standards such as "New York, New York".

Terrace also featured many smaller groups at Banff, including Saxophone Quartets, String Quartets, Flute Choir and Woodwind Ensembles.

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