The 55th annual Estevan and District Music Festival came to an end Tuesday night with the vocal and speech arts highlights and awards program at St. Paul’s United Church.
Performers entertained the crowd with their singing and poetry abilities.
It started with Nate Wilhelm singing Dragons.
Then the speech arts began with the Grade 1 French class from Sacred Heart School/École Sacré Coeur, who entertained with performances of Sur la Route du Moulin and La Petit Chat Blanc, and Cameron Milbrandt had the audience laughing with No Boring Parts Allowed.
The musical theatre portion of the evening saw performances by Jeremy Littlefield (Close Every Door), Abby Renkas (Sister Suffragette) and a quintet of Estevan Comprehensive School students (Hello).
Speech arts performances resumed with Taylor Ellis and Gabby Ruf’s performance of Obedient by Shel Silverstein, and Faith Haberstock’s satirical look at Goldilocks.
Vocal performances came from Randi Milbrandt with Path to the Moon, Mariah Warriner with My Lagan Love, and the ECS Choir with While Winter Hymnal and Elijah Rocks.
Dozens of awards were handed out on Tuesday night. The recipients were:
| 904 b | Musical Th. | $50.00 | $50.00 | Abby Renkas |
| 103 | Vocal | $50.00 | Arlene Lafrentz (AME Musical Theatre 'A Musical') | |
| 105 | Vocal | $50.00 | Arlene Lafrentz (AME Musical Theatre Girl's Group) | |
| 904 a | Musical Th. | $50.00 | $150.00 | Arlene Lafrentz (Hello Ensemble ) |
| 4 | Speech | $50.00 | Cameron Milbrandt | |
| 16 | Speech | $50.00 | $100.00 | Cameron Milbrandt |
| 1 | Speech | $50.00 | $50.00 | Chelsea Madsen |
| 901 | Musical Th. | $50.00 | $50.00 | Daniel Mantei |
| 119 | Vocal | $250.00 | ECS Choir - Evanne Wilhelm | |
| 101 | Vocal | $100.00 | ECS Wired - Evanne Wilhelm | |
| 102 | Vocal | $50.00 | $400.00 | ECS Wired - Evanne Wilhelm |
| 6 | Speech | $25.00 | $25.00 | Ella Duke (Duet with Hailey Van De Woestyne) |
| 11 | Speech | $100.00 | Faith Haberstock | |
| 22 | Speech | $100.00 | Faith Haberstock | |
| 13 | Speech | $100.00 | $250.00 | Faith Haberstock (duet with Kaite Ostrander ) |
| 5 | Speech | $25.00 | $25.00 | Hailey Van De Woestyne (Duet with Ella Duke) |
| 903 | Musical Th. | $100.00 | $100.00 | Jeremy Littlefield |
| 13 | Speech | $50.00 | Katie Ostrander (duet with Faith Haberstock) | |
| 121 | Voc/Piano | $50.00 | $50.00 | Kaylee Carlson |
| 8 | Speech | $50.00 | $50.00 | Kegan Littlefield |
| 9 | Speech | $75.00 | $75.00 | Laura Swirski |
| 15 | Speech | $50.00 | Levi Stepp | |
| 115 | Vocal | $100.00 | Levi Stepp | |
| 118 | Vocal | $100.00 | Levi Stepp | |
| 120 | Vocal | $250.00 | Levi Stepp | |
| 905 | Musical Th. | $200.00 | $700.00 | Levi Stepp |
| 3 | Speech | $25.00 | $25.00 | Mahaley Fonstad |
| 116 | Vocal | $75.00 | Mariah Warriner | |
| 117 | Vocal | $50.00 | $125.00 | Mariah Warriner |
| 2 | Speech | $25.00 | $25.00 | Nash Hollingshead |
| 12 | Speech | $125.00 | no entries | |
| 7 | Speech | $75.00 | $75.00 | Prysm Gooding |
| 109 | Vocal | $50.00 | $50.00 | Rachel Duncan |
| 107 | Vocal | $75.00 | Randi Milbrandt | |
| 114 | Vocal | $50.00 | Randi Milbrandt | |
| 902 | Musical Th. | $50.00 | $175.00 | Randi Milbrandt |
| 113 | Vocal | $75.00 | $75.00 | Rebecca Duncan |
| 21 | Speech | $100.00 | Sacred Heart Grade 1 French | |
| 18 | Speech | $50.00 | Sacred Heart Grade 2 English | |
| 20 | Speech | $50.00 | Sacred Heart Grade 3 French | |
| 17 | Speech | $100.00 | $300.00 | Sacred Heart Grade 4 English |
| 110 | Vocal | $25.00 | $25.00 | Sarah Pyra |
| 112 | Vocal | $25.00 | $25.00 | Shiven Sangar |
| 19 | Speech | $75.00 | $75.00 | Spruce Ridge Grade 3 |
| 14 | Speech | $75.00 | $37.50 | Taylor Ellis (duet with Gabby Ruf) |
| 14 | $37.50 | Gabby Ruf (duet with Taylor Ellis) | ||
| 111 | Vocal | $50.00 | $50.00 | William Duncan |
| 10 | Speech | $50.00 | $50.00 | Yana Ponomarenko |
Levi Stepp and the ECS Wired choir were recommended to attend the Saskatchewan music festival by the adjudicators later this spring.
Stepp was also selected as the Murry GM Award recipient for outstanding performance in multiple disciplines. Kaylee Carlson was the runner-up.
This year marked the first time with the runner-up award. It was donated by Hall Funeral Service in memory of Dwight Thompson.
This week’s edition of Southeast Lifestyles will have a recap of the festival.
