The Campus View elementary music program is in the winner’s circle for the second time in a matter of months.
Lt.-Gov. Judith Guichon announced Campus View in her trio of 2018 winners for the 11-and-under category of the Sing Me a Song community music contest.
Campus View’s winning song, Where I Want to Be, was written by a pair of Grade 5 students, Isobel Murray and Lillian Cole, and performed by the 60-student choir.
“I did not change anything on the song,” said Campus View music teacher Jody Onuma. “You might not believe me. They did such a great job with the rhyming and chorus.”
Going into the project the class talked about how to write a song, such as using verses and constructing a chorus, Onuma said. The class shared ideas about what they liked about B.C. and the community.
Onuma did lay down the ukulele chords and bass string for those instruments to accompany the singing.
“We rehearsed the winning song and students who were interested in being part of our video came one day at lunch before spring break to record our video for the lieutenant governor’s contest,” she said.
For winning, the music program gets $1,000 and will perform their song at the Government House.
It’s the third contest won by a Campus View group in a little over a year, as Onuma co-ordinated the school’s out-of-school Orffestra band which won the national CBC Music Challenge in 2017. Campus View’s Orffestra also won the 2017 CBC Canadian Music Class Challenge and had their version of the Olympic theme broadcast during the 2018 Olympics.
Campus View is one of three winners for the 2018 Sing Me a Song contest. Fraser Valley Children’s Chorus (Cantabile Choir) won the under-18 category for The Heart of Beautiful B.C. and in the open category Qualicum Beach’s The Gardens Choir won for A Proud Canadian Province.
Entries were scored on musicality, spirit and originality by a panel of musicians, which included Louise Rose, music maker, piano and voice teacher at The Chwyl School of Contemporary Music at The Victoria Conservatory of Music, and Brian Wismath, music director of Vox Humana Chamber Choir, Linden Singers of Victoria, Victoria Choral Society and Victoria Conservatory of Music Chorale. All submissions had to have a minimum of eight voices, be original content and inspired by the theme of what British Columbia means to them.
