G.W. Graham school can add another trophy to its music shelf.
Last weekend, the school’s vocal jazz group, Treble Makers, won the High School Multi Mic Ensemble A in the 50th annual Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival at the University of Idaho.
The huge three-day festival sees 10,000 students of all ages (elementary to university) from the U.S. and western Canada compete in dozens of categories.
Music teacher, Janine Webster, was quite impressed with the win considering more than half of the group is in Grade 7 or 8, and they were competing with mostly senior high school students.
“Something like this, this is something they’ve never encountered,” says Webster. “This encourages them to keep going and to keep singing.”
Treble Makers is made up of 20 female singers, plus three instrumentalists — piano, bass, and drums. The drummer is the only boy in the group.
Of the group’s 20 singers, only 16 were able to make it to the festival, but clearly their voices were still strong. The kids performed Friday and were judged by four adjudicators on tonal quality, dynamics, blend, balance, diction, presentation, and more.
The Treble Makers were competing against about 15 other groups. Each group had to perform one swing song, one ballad, and one other of their choice.
The vocal group chose I Want You by Horace Silver as their swing song, Here, There and Everywhere by the Beatles for the ballad, and Latin song Something Latin for their free-choice piece.
“You want to have different songs and arrangers to show variety,” says Webster.
The adjudicators “loved their energy and sound (and thought) their choice off repertoire was great,” she adds.
When picking the songs, Webster first starts with finding the strength of the group. From there she chooses a song that’s challenging, but not too hard.
“It’s a stretch for them but not unreachable,” she says of the three songs.
After performing during the day on Friday, they found out that they had won later that afternoon. Part of winning means the group got to perform as part of the Winners’ Concert.
In addition to the hundreds of student performances at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, kids take part in workshops and clinics, plus there are performances by professional musicians.
Of the 10 years G.W. Graham has been around, this is the school’s fifth win at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. The senior jazz band has won twice (2011 and 2012), the junior jazz band won in 2015, and in addition to this year, the Treble Makers also won in 2012.
“They’re a great group of girls. They’re so much fun and have lots of energy,” she adds. “They love to sing — they’re singing all the time.”
“They get along really well, they’re like a family. You can see their confidence building as they go along.”
Like in past years, this year the school sent the junior and senior jazz bands to Idaho along with the Treble Makers. A total of 48 students hopped across the border for the festival.
“I thought all three groups performed really well. Some years you win and others you don’t. You never know what the competition is going to be like,” says Webster.
Regardless of winning or losing, she says Chilliwack should be pleased.
“Everybody should be really proud of these kids. They show how wonderful teenagers can be,” says Webster.