A pair of Vancouver Island youth music programs earned top honours in the CBC’s annual Canadian Music Class Challenge, winning a cache of instruments valued at $3,000 for their respective classrooms.
Students from the music program at Arbutus Global Middle School won the junior vocals category for their performance of J’endtends le Moulin (I Hear the Windmill), an 18th Century French folk song.
Nanaimo’s Cross Canada Fiddle performed the traditional Newfoundland folk song I’s the B’y, winning in the primary instrumental (kindergarten to Grade 3) category.
Students in several Greater Victoria school programs were runners-up in 11 categories, including Campus View Elementary School, McKenzie Elementary, Cloverdale Traditional School, and Blossoming at the Farm, a learning community on the Saanich Peninsula.
The Canadian Music Class Challenge attracts more than 500 entries from across the country each year. The contest is open to eligible music classes, clubs and after-school programs, who must record a video performance of a Canadian song to enter. The winners were chosen from a pool of more than 50,000 students registered in upwards of 1,100 classes from every province and territory.
