After five months of waiting, Abbey Smith is finally getting the chance to represent Thompson in the Manitoba Band Association’s (MBA) senior provincial honour band.
According to the Grade 11 student from R.D. Parker Collegiate, she is a little nervous about this year’s concert, which is taking place Nov. 4 at the Jubilee Place concert hall in Winnipeg.
Even though auditions started back in June, Smith was accepted during the second round of selections, which gave her significantly less time to prepare.
However, this fact didn’t overshadow the sheer thrill of when she found out she made the cut back in early October.
“I was pretty excited,” she said. “I couldn’t sleep the night before, so I got up at like 6 a.m. to check online and I woke up my parents.”
For Smith, who’s been playing the French horn for the past four years, this is a great opportunity to expand her horizons past the band trips that she’s participated in as a member of the RDPC music program.
“This is an ensemble that is made up of the selected members of the province. Some of the elite players,” said RDPC music teacher Kevin Lewis. “So there’s an opportunity for interaction and exchange between students that isn’t as big a factor with the trips that we take.”
Lewis went on to say that the MBA’s senior provincial honour band is comprised of 55 to 60 Manitoba high school students, although most of them hail from larger southern cities like Winnipeg and Brandon. To Lewis, the fact that Smith was selected at all highlights her drive to rise above the obstacles that stand in her way as a northern student.
“For Abbey’s audition, she was going up against students who were studying with members of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra or U of M professors,” he said. “So it is something that the northern students have to work that much harder to achieve and we’re really proud of Abbey for having done that.”
Even though the School District of Mystery Lake only averages one or two students between the MBA’s junior, intermediate, and senior honour bands every year, Lewis said that every little bit helps in order to spread awareness about the music programs they have in the north.
“We’re really glad to see some representation of Thompson and the north in the band,” he said. “We’re excited to see what Abbey does with it and then, of course, the experience that she brings back and can share with the students up here in Thompson.”
The MBA’s provincial honour band program was established back in 1976.
