Calgary Music Selection

The Alberta International Band Festival encourages you to select musical literature that you believe will best showcase your ensemble at the grade level you have registered them for. Unlike other music festivals, we don't have a set performance list. (As our Grade 1 bands are having to perform earlier than in past years, they may choose to play pieces at the 1/2 level rather than a full Grade 1.)

For both concert band and jazz ensemble performances, you should consider the overall performance. You have a set performance time that you must stay within (including allowing time for your band to get on and off the stage, and time for adjudicators to provide comments between pieces.)

We recommend you play two musical selections, but many groups opt to perform a warm-up piece or march that you have the option of including as part of your adjudication or not. The pieces selected should be in contrasting styles. For example, a good concert band program might include a traditional march and then a more contemporary original concert band work. A jazz program might include a swing tune, a ballad, and a funk tune.

The total number of pieces you choose to perform should be based on the following time allocations:

  • Total stage time for Grade 1 to 6 Concert Bands is limited to a maximum of 30 minutes including set-up, performance, and departure.

If you are looking for ideas for performance pieces, there are a variety of resources you can access:

  • Talk to more experienced teachers in your community including other teachers within your own area. they are often more than willing to share ideas and experience.
  • Talk to your music store representative. Both St. John's Music and Long & McQuade have music specialists who stay up to date on the new repertoire that is out there, as well as some of the tried and true "classics". they might have some great suggestions that would be ideal for your ensemble.
  • The Alberta Band Association has put together a syllabus for their festival. You can find the one for 2017 and past years at ABA Syllabus.
  • Teaching Through Performance books (available at most music stores). However, be aware that these are American books and the performance level they indicate a piece is at may not always be accurate.

Pieces selected should be original works for concert band and/or jazz and. While there is a definitely place for pop music, movie music and Broadway musical selections in the musical world, they are often not the best choices for festival performance literature.

Concert Band Festival: A reminder that you are required to submit two conductor's scores for each piece you perform for adjudication (not including the one that you will be using yourself).

Jazz Band Festival: A reminder that you are required to submit three conductor's scores for each piece you perform for adjudication (not including the one that you will be using yourself).

AIBF does not condone the use of photocopied scores. Please order your scores early to avoid problems at Festival time.