Stewarton Academy's Senior Wind Ensemble picked up a gold award at the National Concert Band Festival held at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow on Sunday 8 November.

Under the direction of conductor, Alan Friel, the band played Encanto by Robert W Smith, Ballad for Benny by Philip Sparke and At Dawn They Slept by Jay Bocook in the School Bands category of the Scottish Regional Festival.

The Senior Wind Ensemble has worked very hard preparing for the festival, meeting for band practise at 8.00am two mornings a week and recently attending a demanding weekend of rehearsals. As a result they met the demanding criteria required to receive a gold award which covered details of tone, tuning, balance and dynamics as well as rhythmic accuracy, articulation and phrasing, and style and interpretation.  The top award given at the Festival is now the platinum award.

The Festival organisers stress that the Festival is non-competitive and that the adjudication is a measure of the band's success in achieving a particular level of performance and is not intended as a comparison between participating bands.

The Stewarton Academy Senior Wind Ensemble are now preparing for the Scottish Concert Band Festival which takes place on Sunday 6 December, also at the RSAMD, and the Stewarton Academy Christmas Concert which takes place in the school gym hall on Wednesday 16 December.

The Stewarton Learning Partnership Bands, which includes the primary bands, the Junior Wind Ensemble and the Senior Wind Ensemble, are funded through East Ayrshire Instrumental Services but this budget is supplemented by voluntary contributions from families and friends of the band through the Stewarton Bands Support Group. This extra funding enables a greater number of children to benefit from the benefit of this music experience. You can find out more about the group and how you can support the Stewarton school bands by visiting the SBSGroup website.