Gwyneth Zylstra, music and Grade 5 teacher, says the most important part of the Kiwanis Festival is the opportunity for students to be part of the wider music community.

"Far beyond the nuts and bolts of adjudication and marks and criticism is let’s be together, let’s create a venue for celebrating music in and around Peterborough," she says.

The annual event was held at All Saints Anglican Church in Peterborough.

The Chamber Ensemble is an audition-based choir for students in Grades 5 to 8. These students practise for 40 minutes per week during class, and are responsible to learn what they missed.

The Ensemble performed Make Me a Channel of Your Peace, featuring a descant by Grade 8 students Rachel Haagsma, Erin Dykstra, Emily Kloosterman, and Grace Goadsby.

The group also sang the traditional and spiritual song Somebody’s Knockin’ at Your Door.

The school’s Let Us Sing choir is open to anyone in Grades 2 to 8 and practise one lunch hour per week.

At the festival, the Let Us Sing choir performed I Will Sing the Wondrous Story and The Lord is My Shepherd. The adjudicator made special mention of soloist Cameron Walker, and fellow students Emily May and Rachel Hartley who joined him to form a trio during The Lord is My Shepherd.

Zystra’s Grade 5 choir participated in the festival’s French category. They sang He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands (in French) and Un Canadien errant.

"For us, as a school, far more important than how they sing is the way they represent the school and our Saviour while they are out there in the community," says Zylstra. "All three choirs just did a wonderful job of sitting respectfully and being attentive to the other choirs and the adjudicators."

The Chamber Ensemble will perform for the Grade 8 graduation at the end of the school year, but for the rest of the choirs most of the work for this year is done.