This year's edition of the Estevan and District Music Festival is well underway with vocalists and speech arts participants currently being assessed by adjudicator Sarah Hall of Brandon, Man.
The festival's adjudication process began March 6 when Greg McLean of Swift Current started appraising the musical expertise of band students. McLean was joined by Chris Jacklin of Regina on March 7 for the second day of adjudications and the two then wrapped up their work on March 8.
On Sunday, Hall began her work in assessing the vocalists and the speech artists and she is slated to complete this work by Saturday. This will then lead to the final category involving pianists who will be adjudicated by Eleanor Epp from Minnedosa, Man. Her work begins March 17 and will continue through to March 23.
The final awards night and festival highlight concert will be staged at ECS March 26.
Various venues were used, or are currently being used, for the adjudications beginning on the morning of March 6 when band students were placed under the careful scrutiny of McLean at Weldon School in Bienfait. He then moved over to the Estevan Comprehnsive School for the remainder of the work as did Jacklin.
The vocal and speech arts appraisals were carried out at St. Paul's United Church and the piano students were scheduled for Trinity Lutheran Church.
This year's adjudicators arrived with impressive credentials, beginning with McLean who has just recently completed an interim posting as director of bands at the University of Regina after a 35-year career as an instrumental director at high schools including 21 years at Swift Current Comprehensive High School.
McLean received his music degrees from Brandon University, University of Calgary (graduate program) and University of Manitoba (master of conducting).
Adjudicator Hall holds a master's degree in vocal pedagogy and musicology from the New England Conservatory of Music and a bachelor's degree in voice performance from Westchester University of Pennsylvania. She has appeared on stage as a choral singer and vocalist across the United States and Canada including Manitoba the state of Delaware and cities such as Philadelphia and Boston.
Epp, who grew up in Manitoba, studied piano in Brandon and after graduating as a registered nurse, moved to Saskatchewan where she pursued her ARCT certification in piano and pedagogy with Kathleen Lorenz-Gable, along with organ lessons from Agnes Jeshke. She has enjoyed a 15-year career as an adjudicator and festival co-ordinator as well as her work with the Saskatchewan Music Festival Association. She once again resides in Manitoba where she continues to teach piano and theory.
Pam Dechief is president of the Estevan and District Music Festival committee this year and noted that the entries are down a bit compared with last year's numbers. She said there are slightly more than 600 participants in this year's festival whereas last year there were just over 700. She said this was not alarming since it simply represented a levelling off of entries following a couple of record-setting years when entries far exceeded expectations.
The students who receive top marks from the adjudicators will find themselves eligible for one or more of a number of bursaries and awards, with a total value of over $20,000. The winners of those awards will be named during the finale event, the festival highlights concert which begins at 7 p.m. on March 26 in the ECS Cafetorium.
