St. Paul’s United Church was filled with the sounds of talent, last Tuesday night. The 2016 Estevan and District Music Festival highlights and awards for vocal speech and band took place. Musicians from elementary to high school and beyond performed for a full crowd and a panel of adjudicators. There were poems recited, songs sung, solos and duets and even a singing and dancing number performed that evening.
“It was an exciting event to see. It’s always good to see the students excel at their talent,” said festival president Pam Dechief.
This is the festival’s 51st year, with performers being judged by adjudicators from across the province, and awarded scholarships to those who whose exceptional talents were recognized. All the awards and scholarships they entail were sponsored by local individuals, families and businesses. This year the festival gave out over $10,000 in scholarship money to performers and over 83 awards. These numbers will increase with the piano entires being heard later this month, in a separate concert.
Adjudicators recommended four of the young acts be promoted to the provincial festival. These included: singing by the Estevan Comprehensive School choir, Parker McKelkie’s saxophone performance, Abbie Brokenshire’s vocal peformance and a solo guitar performance by Hannah Whitman.
“This year we’ve got a few more entires than las year, with 650 entires,” said Dechief. “We’re always encouraging students to enter the festival to showcase their talent.”
Dechief noted she has seen a great deal of growth in all the performers, having seen the fruits of their labor, as they practiced over the course of the year for the festival, with their school music teachers or private music teachers. She added that as the festival approaches, the students’ work scrupulously to polish their performances for the adjudicators.
In addition to the students, there are some adults who perform in choral groups, family music and band acts, and students under seven years old, who participate in a non-competitive category class, noted Dechief
“Many of the students start performing in the festival when they’re young children, at about six, seven or eight years old. They start taking lessons with their music teachers in the fall,” said Dechief. “We still see people performing when they’re 17 and 18 years old. Lots of them stick with it.”
