Iqaluit (May 12/03) - It might have been a little more unnerving had they believed they were performing in Newfoundland, but for a group of Iqaluit students it was close enough.

Appearing via a broadband Internet connection, the 24-member band from Iqaluit's Inuksuk high were the opening act at the Rotary Music Festival in St. John's at Holy Heart of Mary high school -- except they never left home to play it.

"We were so good, we actually made Colleen cry," said 15-year-old saxophone player Ashley Tufts.

Colleen Walsh, their conductor, could only hope her students weren't too distracted by the somewhat surreal experience.

"I know this technology is fascinating but you can't let that distract you from what we're here to do. We want to do the best that we can," she said.

The students performed a great concert - no one's instrument fell out of tune - but it was easy to explain why it was hard to keep their eyes on their music sheets. By simply looking up, they could see the full auditorium of 1,000 people watching them at the high school. They could also see themselves on the screen.

"The screen the students appeared on is probably twice as big as the one at Iqaluit's theatre. The idea is that we'll be using this to do more performances and to play with other bands," said Neil Burgess, manager of information services for the Nunavut government.

The event was the first time broadband conferencing had been used to broadcast a concert in Nunavut. Burgess said this trial run was part of a national project called MusicGrid. It is exploring ways to improve distance learning in remote schools across the country.

Grade 11 student Kevin Dunphy said he was still a little nervous even though the band could not really see the audience.

"I've been playing the trumpet since Grade 10. It was pretty cool. I've never really done anything like that before. In the morning I was more nervous because we were missing some of our band members," said Dunphy.