Estevan and District Tunes Competition observed a return to the pre-pandemic participation level and substantial guidance from the local community.
ESTEVAN — The Estevan and District Music Competition wrapped up its 60th version with the Piano Awards and Highlights Live performance on March 26. It was preceded by the Band, Instrumental, Strings, Vocal, Spoken Phrase and Musical Theatre Awards and Highlights Live performance on March 24.
The calendar year noticed a return to the pre-pandemic participation degree with 482 entries, and important assist from the community with around $11,000 in awards and scholarships dispersed between neighborhood young abilities.
Pageant president Alisha Mann mentioned they were being up by about 80 entries in comparison to previous year, and they have witnessed a great deal of terrific regional expertise.
“All the things went actually easily,” Mann stated. “We have been delighted to see entry quantities up this calendar year again, and lots of members in the festival. We failed to have a full bunch of cancellations for volunteers or individuals. That was seriously excellent. And it’s just really wonderful to see so much music going on in the town.”
The festival ran from March 10-23, with learners from the southeast demonstrating their musical techniques in various disciplines and classes while staying adjudicated. This year the competition included an electric guitar discipline and quite a few new classes.
“We added a number of new courses to our local addendum. … We run on the provincial curriculum, their syllabus, and then if we feel that locally we want to increase other classes that are not tackled with the provincial syllabus, then we can do that,” Mann defined.
“So, we additional courses for the electric guitar. We added far more lessons for classical guitar. And we added some various piano courses as nicely for recognizing pop music as it is finding to be a common thing for the little ones. They want to engage in that alternatively of classical new music all the time. And then we brought in a sing and enjoy course in which you can accompany yourself and do a vocal functionality, and we had one particular entry in that as effectively. It was nice to see those classes utilized.”
Mann mentioned adjudicators ended up also impressed with the pupils and were being also great in offering feedback and advice for the children.
“We had good adjudicators this calendar year. And they have been actually beneficial with the college students, pretty happy with how the competition was operate here and the level of effectiveness from the young ones as well. Specifically the piano adjudicator stated she was extremely impressed with the stage of piano ability remaining taught in the Estevan neighborhood. That was really pleasant to hear, a sort of a feather in the cap for all the piano lecturers, that they are carrying out a truly fantastic occupation with their students,” Mann explained.
Competition organizers extra that in purchase to develop into a district winner and contend at the provincial amount, performers have to enter into designated provincial classes at their community pageant and get a mark of 87 or increased. The Estevan and district pageant is allowed to send out two district winners from each course.
“This calendar year we are delighted to announce a few district winners: Kensie Aspinall, Hudsyn Hozjan and Jennika Linthicum. Every has certified to compete in two provincial lessons in June in Saskatoon,” mentioned Margaret Duncan with the festival.
“This 12 months is a high amount for us for provincials,” Mann observed. “It truly is truly excellent that we are capable to ship representation from our neighborhood to the provincial party.”
Two pupils had been also acknowledged with prestigious neighborhood awards. Jacob Pyra grew to become the 2024 Murray GM multi-self-discipline award receiver, coming into eight solo and a few duet classes in 4 different disciplines, and Sarah Kimball is the Dwight Thompson Memorial runner-up award receiver for getting into 6 solos in two disciplines.
The neighborhood customarily stepped forward to assure the good results of the pageant.
“We usually have outstanding help from the community. We have a large number of donors and sponsors for our occasion, and also for the scholarships that we award to the young ones. So it was a lot of do the job to get that all structured and put together but we have a volunteer who does a fantastic task,” Mann stated. “We have been in a position to give out over $11,000 in scholarships this yr, and which is all from neighborhood donations from organizations and folks.”
The festival is brought with each other in about two months and normally takes a lot of function from several dedicated volunteers, but generally arrives as a wonderful celebration of new music in the neighborhood.