It's been gone for nearly two decades, but this fall, the sounds of band music can once again be heard at Humboldt Collegiate Institute (HCI).
HCI's own band program got going on September 20, when director Kate Wickenhauser was hired to run it.
Wickenhauser is currently the director for the bands at St. Augustine and St. Dominic schools in Humboldt as well; bands that just got going again last year.
"I was just thrilled when I heard they were starting (a program at HCI)," Wickenhauser said.
Some of her students were asking at the end of last year if they'd be able to play in high school, because they'd already played for a year and liked it. They were sad, she said, when she told them HCI had no band program.
"The excitement sort of dropped a bit," she smiled, "but hopefully we can bolster that back up."
So far, 14 Grade 9 students have signed up for band at HCI. They play fl ute, clarinet, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, french horn, trumpet and percussion.
"It's a nice arrangement.. a nice group," Wickenhauser told the Journal in a quick interview last week. "They're lovely kids," she added.
Wickenhauser actually taught most of the band members last year when they attended elementary school. The others come from the band program at Humboldt Public School (HPS).
All the members have at least one year of band under their belt already; those who attended HPS have more, as the program has been running at that school for years, and recently expanded to include Grade 5 students as well as those in Graes 6 to 8.
"This is a wonderful opportunity for the kids who have started (to play band instruments) ... so they can continue to play," Wickenhauser stated.
It will also be nice for the community, she feels, to have this band available to play at events and provide entertainment.
"We should make it to the point where (the band) is quite profi cient," Wickenhauser said. "It won't be a beginner band for much longer."
Wickenhauser believes that the band will become very skilled within a short time period, if the program continues and keeps growing.
"Especially if kids of this kind," she said, referring to her present students, "already with some musical ability keep coming."
The band is completely made up of Grade 9 students for one simple reason: it's a credit course for that grade only.
According to Wickenhauser, Grade 10 to 12 students already familiar with instruments can come and play with the band - rehearsals are held at noon hours on Mondays and Wednesdays - but they are not able to take the class for credit.
The idea, Wickenhauser said, is to build the program from Grade 9 up."Which is a smart way to do it," she smiled.
Next year, the program will be open as a credit course to Grade 9 and 10 students, and so on. When today's Grade 9 students are in Grade 12, it will be open to all four grades.
At the moment, more students would be nice, Wickenhauser admitted, so that each instrument wouldn't be so isolated and any mistakes would be easily masked by the sound of more instruments.
"Mistakes... are not so obvious with a bigger group," she said. Still, she feels her students will do well in their fi rst year of high school band.
"They're good players," she said. "They can hold their parts on their own."
Most of those enrolled in band this year were the leaders of their sections in the past, Wickenahuser said, and they have confi dence in their musical ability already.
Not all those she taught in band last year in the two local Catholic elementary schools have signed up for band at HCI, Wickenhauser noted. That, she feels, is not because of a lack of interest from the students, but because band started so late in the year.
"They are already committed (to other things)," she said.
The band had had just one rehearsal prior to last week, but they had already started working on a blues song, and Wickenhauser was preparing to present them with a march.
Most of Wickenhauser's time since September 20 has been spent getting things organized so the program can run - ordering music, stands and instruments, and that sort of thing. Right now, she smiled, she has just chairs, some instruments, some borrowed music and students. That's about it.
"The rest is coming," she smiled.
The band will run all year at HCI and does not compete with noon-hour rehearsals for the choir, another program which had new life breathed into it in the past few years.
Adding band to the arts programming is "an opportunity for kids to be more well-rounded," Wickenhauser feels.
The last time HCI ran a band program was around 15 to 16 years ago, Wickenhauser believes. There was a community band after that, but even that program ended years ago.
Having this program at HCI means that students will have more opportunities to play an instrument, Wickenhauser noted. Previously, instruction in any instrument in the community was pretty limited - most private instructors focus only on piano and voice.
A band, especially at the high school level, gives young people who do better playing in a large group an opportunity to do so.
For right now, the band does have a practice area that they are not taking from anyone else. They use Sutherland Theatre.
However, Wickenhauser is not sure where the program will be located next year, when HCI moves into its new facility near the Uniplex. There is a stage area in the plans, she said, but she has not been informed where her class will be taught.
