The 61st Carnduff and District Music and Arts Festival was one of the events that went almost as scheduled right before the changes began. And while the highlights concert and the awards night were cancelled last minute, young artists had a full week to demonstrate their talents.
Pamela Dmytriw, who is the president of the music festival committee, said that everything this year fell into place and went really great. The festival started on March 8 with strings and guitar performances. Since they ended up having a little extra time the adjudicator also held a workshop for the participants. Piano performances went March 9-11. Instrumental and band took place on March 11 in Oxbow. And Speech arts, vocal performances and musical theatre happened on March 12.
Dmytriw noted that participation was a little lower this year as they lost a few seniors. The committee had 275 entries as opposed to the usual average of 315.
“We were down a little bit, but we still had most of our sessions and in our art contest, we had 190 entries this year. That was really good too,” said Dmytriw.
The art contest had four categories, including colour, black and white, painting and other, which takes in mixed media, sculpture and any other types of art. Dmytriw said that colour category saw the most entries.
“A lot of kids love to use colour in their pieces and create art that way… A lot of kids were also very excited to be able to paint this year because they’ve never been allowed prior to this. It was a nice change for them,” said Dmytriw.
One of the pianists Leah Macfarlane was recommended in all of her classes for provincials (which later were cancelled) including senior piano for Chopin, Bach, Beethoven, French music, and 21st Century/Canadian.
“It is a great honour to have her perform with us and hear her play,” said Dmytriw.
Since the final events of the festival were cancelled, to celebrate local talents the committee decided to post all of their award recipients on their Facebook page.
“None of the children know what awards they have received. We always invite them to the highlights concert to receive their award and perform, but they don’t know what they are getting until they get there,” said Dmytriw.
This year the awards will be given to the teachers so they could disperse them to their students later in time. Dmytriw noted that there have been conversations about probably inviting those students that did receive awards to come to perform at a later date and do a silver collection fundraiser for the music festival.
For each day there was a specific adjudicator, who outlined their most meritorious performances. There was one for each adjudicator and the art competition. The meritorious recipients for the 2020 festival were:
• Katelyne Carson, Oxbow (art) received Carnduff Lions, Best in Show, Art Competition, $75 Scholarship;
• Leah Macfarlane, Carnduff (piano, Chopin Ballade) received Carnduff & District Music & Arts Festival Meritorious Performance Piano - $100 scholarship, plaque and medallion;
• Sinnead Barnes, Oxbow (speech arts, “Why I chose to join the air cadet program”) received Carnduff and District Music and Arts Festival Meritorious Performance Speech Arts, Vocal and Musical Theatre - $100 scholarship, plaque and medallion;
• Mary Lee McNeil, Alameda (trumpet, Trumpet Tune) received Carnduff and District Music and Arts Festival Meritorious Performance Instrumental - $100 scholarship, plaque & medallion;
• Sarah Kimball and Donna Turk, Windhorst and Forget (fiddle, Pelican Reel) received Carnduff and District Music and Arts Festival Meritorious Performance Strings and Guitar $100 scholarship, plaque and medallion.
Dmytriw also said that the community support was once again fantastic and they had great attendance.
“People came and took the opportunity to enjoy the performances,” said Dmytriw.
“Our 2020 Festival was a huge success. We were treated to such wonderful performances in every discipline and we are so thankful that we were able to enjoy this week of celebration and growth for participants. We are thankful for everyone who makes that happen and would be lost without our sponsors and patrons, volunteers, teachers and board members. Our festival is something to be very proud of and I am so glad that we have this amazing opportunity in our area for our youth,” said Dmytriw.
