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Talented pianist will perform in Estevan

A talented young musician from southeast Saskatchewan will perform in Estevan on May 26 at St. Paul’s United Church, starting at 2 p.m. Leah Macfarlane is a 17-year-old pianist and violinist who lives in Carnduff.
Leah Macfarlane
Leah Macfarlane will perform a piano recital on May 26 at St. Paul’s United Church in Estevan. Photo submitted

A talented young musician from southeast Saskatchewan will perform in Estevan on May 26 at St. Paul’s United Church, starting at 2 p.m.

Leah Macfarlane is a 17-year-old pianist and violinist who lives in Carnduff. She began playing through Music for Young Children at the age of four with Kari Mitchel as her instructor. She studied piano with Mitchel until 2016 when she began taking lessons from Larysa Arkhypova in Estevan.

With Arkhypova, she has completed her Grade 8 and 9 exams, and is taking her Grade 10 in June.

Macfarlane has been performing for as long as she can remember. She has competed in the Carnduff and District Music Festival for 10 years, and has entered the Estevan and District Music Festival for the past three years.

She won the Meritorious Piano Performance Award in the Carnduff festival in 2014, and from 2017-2019, and has won numerous other awards. She also won the Shirley Andrist Outstanding Piano Performance Award in 2018 and 2019 in the Estevan festival.

Macfarlane performed at the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) gold medal ceremony in 2018, and she gave a concert last June in Carnduff.

Along with performing as a soloist, Leah is also the accompanist for St. Andrew’s United Church in Carnduff, and has accompanied many other choirs and soloists.

She has also been playing the violin since 2013 with Oxbow’s Shirley Galloway. Macfarlane won the RCM Gold Medal for Grade 1 violin in 2014, and is taking her Grade 4 in June.

Besides playing piano and violin, Macfarlane spends her spare time playing volleyball, running and reading.