Three talented siblings represented the southeast well at the Provincial Music and Arts Festival in Brandon.

The best artists from 30 local festivals around the province, including the South East Manitoba Festival, competed in Brandon this past weekend. 12-year-old Malachi Hiebert, 11-year-old Jonah Hiebert, and 9-year-old Shiloh Hiebert walked away with top honours in their respecting strings categories.

Malachi plays level 10 violin and says he hopes to one day play music for a living.

"I first saw somebody just playing and I really wanted to play the violin because I was interested. I was like ‘that sounds great, I want to start playing that.’ I would like to maybe play with a symphony orchestra and maybe tour around the world."

Malachi’s brother Jonah plays the cello and shares his dream of playing with a symphony orchestra. Their little sister Shiloh plays level 8 violin and says she gets nervous before performing but then settles in as soon as she begins to play.

"Well for me music makes me really happy and I just forget about everything that isn’t happy."

The sibling’s mother Rebecca Hiebert says they have all worked hard all year long, practicing for hours every day so it is very exciting to see their hard work pay off on the provincial stage. She notes they all have a passion for music.

"We started off with everybody playing fiddle music and that kind of music has a way of drawing people together because you can play together with people at different levels so I think their passion for music started with that. We go to a lot of fiddle camps in the summer where they get to play with a lot of talented musicians and it is pretty exciting to be able to join in and play music with people that are a lot older than you."

Rebecca Hiebert says it is nerve-wracking and exciting to watch her children take the stage.