Band

The Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts (CCAA) Band Department has been a vital and dynamic part of the Music Department for its past 30 years. We proudly carry our reputation of being fun-loving, dynamic and dedicated to music and each other.

Teachers, along with Guest Artists engage students in a variety of small and large ensembles which are level appropriate to students’ musical skills. For our youngest students in Grade 7-9 we have our Junior Winds as well as the TCDSB Honour Band. Our Grade 9-10 students form the Intermediate Concert Winds, and our senior students are part of the Wind Symphony.

Although most of our ensembles are grade specific, we encourage students to be part of as many groups as possible. This allows younger students with advanced musical skills to join the upper level ensembles. Our most popular ensemble is the Jazz Band, which is open to all grades and students from other arts areas. The Jazz Combo is a student-led self-driven ensemble who performs in many in and outside of school events.

We are excited to be able to collaborate with other departments in events like the school musical and integrated school performances. Our traditional pit orchestras always include senior students from the Band department who are able to play different instruments at an advanced level. Our Grade 11 students work along with the Dance Department to create a collaborative performance in the Spring.

Our biannual Music Trips to Canadian and International destinations have always been the highlight of the Band Department. Our next destination is Whistler, BC where we will take part in the Cantando Music Festival in April 2024.

Even through Covid, we ran online ensemble sectionals, organized online peer mentoring and online large group rehearsals. Students learned to record and edit their own music and performances using various editing software. Composition and creation of musical backdrops to film and video game segments was one of our favorite projects during this past school year. Video performances of solos, self duets, trios and quartets created many outstanding online performances, some of which were featured in our Carter Creates Online Arts Festival in early June. The collaborative, class based chamber ensembles achieved high standards with their online performances as well.

We are truly proud of our six different ensembles who entered the Kiwanis Virtual Music Festival and achieved a Platinum standing. Our Concert Winds and Senior Wind Symphony finished in 1st place with a Platinum standing and 98%.

We are thrilled to be performing and competing in person again. In 2023, our ensembles entered OBA and finished with a Gold standing as well as gaining special awards for our brass and woodwind sections in addition to the title: Outstanding Ensemble. Our Woodwind Quintet were chosen to represent Ontario at the Provincial Finals and earned a 2nd place standing.

Our Jazz Band and Jazz Combo brought us a 1st place finish at the OMFA finals. Congratulations!