June/July 2013 - Community Connections

Community Connections Page 13
June/July 2013
St. Jude’s Flûtenvol Wins
Gold at MusicFest Quebec
By Emily Lacelle, Tanya Jargaille, Eve
Prevost (students) and Celine Sevigny
(Music Teacher)
St. Jude Elementary, a
little school in Deux-
Montagnes, represented
by the recorder
ensemble Flûtenvol,
won a gold standard at
the annual Quebec MusicFest
, which took place at Vanier College
in Montreal from March 19 to 22.
St. Jude is a small, charming school
with 230 students, where life is good.
Flûtenvol, a group of 30 students
playing the recorder, is led by Mme
Céline Sévigny, who has been teaching
music at the school for 20 years. This
ensemble is composed of talented students
from Grades 4 to 6, who play different
types of recorders; soprano, alto,
tenor and bass. They participate in this
extra-curricular activity during their
lunch hour, once or twice per week.
St. Jude Marches for St.
Eustache Hospital
By Gordon Wetmore
Students and staff of St. Jude
Elementary School in Deux-Montagnes,
joined by members of the city’s
administration, parents and younger
children, marched a winding path from
the school to Veterans Hall April 4 to
raise money for the St. Eustache
Hospital’s foundation.
Among the walkers from the city were
Mayor Marc Lauzon, Denis Racicot,
Director of the Deux-Montagnes
Regional Police, his wife Johanne, and
Ms. Diane Lavalle from the hospital
foundation. When the money raised by
the students was combined with
During these practice sessions, many
elements of music are explored and perfected,
such as reading, phrasing,
rhythm, nuances, tempo, concentration
and endurance.
Here is the experience as seen by
three of the musicians:
This year, our practices were scheduled
every week, but leading up to the
main event, "MusicFest," we had back
to back rehearsals all week long!
Since the MusicFest took place at
Vanier College, the train was the way to
go, followed by a 20 minute walk.
Upon arrival we were guided to a room
reserved just for us. We organized ourselves
and practiced a few of the more
difficult parts to get warmed up and
soothe our nerves. Then it was time to
perform for the judges!
We played four songs in front of two
judges. When we were done, we knew
we could be proud of our hard work.
We gave it our all! We were very excited!
After our show, we got advice from a
judge, who taught us tricks to be even
better. She even gave advice to the music
teacher, but the whole time we were
wondering "what will we get?" At last,
the judge who helped us with our performance
broke the news ... GOLD!
Understandably, much screaming
and jumping up and down followed.
During lunch we enjoyed our
success and then we were invited to
pose for a group picture - the perfect
souvenir of our special day.
Finally we listened to a huge orchestra
with a lot of instruments. Then we
took the train back to school, where we
were greeted with a special message of
congratulations on the intercom, a lot of
cheers from students from kindergarten
to grade 6, and a party in our music
teacher’s French classroom.
Friday, March 22, was a great day for
our Flûtenvol group! It had been an
amazing day we will never forget!
We would like to thank our
principal, Mme Legault, and our amazing
music teacher, Mme Sévigny, for
helping us bring home the gold for St.
Jude!
A proud Madame Sévigny congratulated
her students “for their excellent
work, for their quality of sound
and for their wonderful discipline.
Pride in a job well-done was in evidence
at this event for this little school,
part of the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School
Board. The students of St. Jude of Deux
-Montagnes have left their mark at this
festival. Bravo to all these students.”
matching funds from the city, a total of
$1000.00 went to the hospital’s cause.
J u s t
before the
walkathon
s t a r t e d ,
M r s .
R a c i c o t
went to the
drivers of the police escort cars and
encouraged them to donate the loose
change in their pockets. The drivers
happily complied.
At Veterans Hall, the students
r e c e i v e d r e f r e s h m e n t s a n d
congratulations on their generous
initiative.