It was an exciting start to the week for an Okotoks school choir.

The Ecole Okotoks Junior High School competed at the Alberta Provincial Music Festival in Edmonton and came away with top honours. And Sam Shumka, music director at the school, says his group sang their hearts out.

"They're just a remarkable group of kids and I couldn't be prouder of them," Shumka says. "Winning is the icing on the cake. But the way those kids sang, if they walked out singing like that and we didn't take the win, I would have been just as happy with them."

The students enjoyed some time at West Edmonton Mall before the competition and Shumka says that they were ready to showcase their best at the festival. The choir performed two selections to impress the adjudicators.

"We sang a version of 'God be in my head," from the Sarum primer, which is the first English prayer that they've discovered," Shumka says. "And we also sang a song by Eric Whitacre. We got in touch with Eric Whitacre beforehand to let him know we were singing one of his songs at the performing arts festival and he's just thrilled to bits with what the kids have done."

He says that the students were thrilled with their big win at the festival, but it took awhile before the full impact of their accomplishment settled in.

"It for sure hit them when it was announced at the festival," Shumka says. "But it didn't really hit them until they were halfway passed Red Deer, and then they wouldn't stop singing. They're really excited and now that they've had some chance to reflect on it and take a listen to the CD, they're still in disbelief that it was them singing."

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