Strings adjudicator is a versatile performer

In the past couple of weeks I introduced this year’s piano adjudicator for the Kiwanis Battlefords Music Festival, Amy Watson, band adjudicator Terry Heckman and Joy McFarlane-Burton for musical theatre. If indulging in the skillful beauty of stringed instruments is of interest, mark March 20 on your calendar as this day is dedicated to showcasing local budding strings musicians.

Anna Marie Bekolay, this year’s strings adjudicator, is a versatile performer, enjoying opportunities to perform a variety of music from opera to blues, folk to rock and roll and early music to modern choral music. In short, Anna loves playing, singing and writing in many genres of music. Her current projects include Troubadours du Bois, an early music ensemble that explores 14th to 16th century music involving voices, recorders, strings and percussion. A Celtic group, Back of the Bus, is Gillian Snider’s project that combines klezmer, jazz and country. The Bass Invaders  is a bass-driven Chilean folk rock group where Bekolay sings and plays electric violin. Bekolay also performs solo for weddings and social gatherings of all sorts, where she gets to further apply her classical training.

Bekolay began her musical training at the age of six. She studied with many wonderful teachers over the years. Her violin teachers include: Sr. Emmelienne Paradis, Marla Cole, Professor Robert Klose and Lahni Russell. Her voice teachers include: Gaye-Lynn Kern, Dr. Donna Slusar, and Sheila Scott, as well as many choral conductors. Bekolay holds a Bachelor of Music in Music Education, Orff Level 1, an ARCT in Voice Performance for which she won the gold medal for the highest mark in the country in 2006, and Grade 10 Violin RCM. In addition to performing and recording, Bekolay runs a busy music studio teaching voice, violin, recorder and fiddle. Bekolay makes her home in Saskatoon with her husband, Kevin Buzinski.

The current tentative schedule, pending final programming, for the 2015 Battlefords Music Festival is: piano March 16 – 18; band March 19 – 20, strings March 20, musical theatre March 21 – 22, voice March 23 – 25, speech arts March 26 –27 and gala April 1 at the Dekker Centre. Admission will be $10 a seat for adults with free admission for performers, award recipients, award donors and youth 18 and under. Tickets will be available for purchase at the door the night of the gala.

“A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?” — Albert Einstein