Playing O Canada on Parliament Hill, and later winning four gold ratings at the national music festival, were two of the many highlights of the trip to Ottawa and Montreal for the Weyburn Junior High's Honour Band, and their director Scott Adelman.

The Honour Band was one of 122 bands from across Canada who merited an invitation to MusicFest in Montreal, with 32 bands in the same category as the junior high.

Weyburn has had a representative at this festival only once before, when the Comp School sent their concert band in 1999, held in Toronto that year; they came away with a silver rating.

Explaining how the bands were rated, Adelman said the gold rating is the highest level that can be achieved, but that it is not set up like an Olympic competition where in an event there's only one winner of gold, one of silver and so on.

"It's possible that all 32 bands could have a gold rating, if they all played well enough. Does it happen? No. The goal of the festival is achieve the highest national rating, which is gold, so in a sense we were competing against ourselves," said Adelman, adding that earning four gold ratings means this band can stack up to any band program in Canada in any size community.

He also noted that not just any band can attend MusicFest, as they have to earn their invitation to go, which this band did by earning three As at the Optimist Festival in Regina earlier this spring.

Three of the gold ratings in Montreal were earned when the band played for a group of three adjudicators. In this performance, they had to play three contrasting pieces. For the fourth gold rating, for the sight-reading component, they were given a piece of music they had never seen before and were given five minutes to look it over. In this time they could not play any parts of it but they could finger the notes on their instruments, and then the band had one chance to perform the piece from start to finish with no rehearsal.

The rating denotes a "superior performance in all facets," said Adelman, which includes tone quality, dynamics, balance, blend, articulation, style and interpretation.

Asked what some of the highlights of the trip were for him, Adelman said performing the national anthem both inside and outside the Parliament buildings will remain as one of the main highlights for him.

"I can't think of a better place to play O Canada than in the capital of our country. And of course the honour of this trip was to perform in front of a national audience at MusicFest Canada," he said. "I really felt we gelled as a group and we really got to know each other."

For Grade 9 band student Jade Ivan, who plays bass clarinet, playing O Canada in the rotunda of the Parliament buildings was also a highlight, along with playing at an elementary school in Montreal prior to the MusicFest performance.

She said the kids were so impressed by their playing they asked for the autographs of the band members afterwards.

"It was kind of neat to see we could make someone so happy by our playing," said Jade, adding she also enjoyed the many other activities held at MusicFest, such as the music workshops held by professional musicians.

For percussionist Luk Bell, the workshops and concerts were also a highlight, with three or four stages they could choose between.

"I went to three different classes. You get a lot out of it going to hear them and you see a lot of things," he said. Bell earned an individual award for outstanding performance, and he admitted this honour was also a personal highlight.

Asked if they were nervous, Luk replied, "I wasn't nervous, it was mostly afterwards, waiting for the results. That was pretty amazing when we got gold."

"All I remember is we were playing the first song, the French Canadian Suite," added Jade, saying she felt like she was in a "zone" with her playing, not really thinking about the audience who was listening to them.

In addition to the music, the students were able to see the National War Memorial and Rideau Hall, the residence of the Governor General, in Ottawa, and in Montreal they attended an Expos ball game, toured in Old Montreal where they saw old architecture and cobblestone streets, and saw the Stewart Museum of Canadian History.

Adelman added the students not only benefitted from the educational and cultural standpoints of seeing these things, but also from overcoming obstacles as a group, both before the trip with a short window of time to fund-raise and the attempt to get the blessing of the school board for their trip, and during the trip.

He noted the kids and parents raised about $28,000 in a three-week period for the trip, which showed the community embraced the opportunity even though the school board did not officially sanction it, despite repeated requests. He said it was ironic that when the Comp band went to MusicFest, the community accepted the opportunity as one to celebrate, and there was never any question about the validity of MusicFest as a national music program by the Music Auxiliary or the board as there was this time.

During the trip, one student had an allergic reaction that had to be dealt with, and on the way back, the bus broke down a half-hour outside of Winnipeg. A school bus company drove the group to Virden where they picked up another bus which took them all the way back home to Weyburn.

The end result of the trip, said Adelman, was well worth all of the effort to get it off the ground.

"We never imagined we could achieve what we had, and how great we could be. This was an exceptional year," said Adelman, adding this is the highest achievement any band under his direction has ever been able to reach.