By Kelly Waters
Battlefords Music Festival Committee
Band sessions for this year鈥檚 Kiwanis Battlefords Music Festival are scheduled to run Monday, April 18 and Tuesday, April 19. This year鈥檚 band adjudicator, Lenora Bells, has been involved with music since an early age as she began playing trombone at the age of 10. She received a Bachelor of Music in Music Education and Masters of Education from the University of Saskatchewan and was a musician within many ensembles, including a trombone quartet that qualified for the Canadian National Music Festival Awards. While teaching from the K to Grade 12 levels in rural and urban schools she has conducted and directed bands, choirs and school musicals every year. She is a sessional lecturer at the University of Saskatchewan and contributor to the Saskatchewan Arts Curriculum while continuing to lead presentations in the music, dance, drama and art education throughout Alberta and Saskatchewan. She a board member of the University of Saskatchewan Alumni, Saskatchewan Music Educators, the chairperson for Provincial Honour Groups and a volunteer chairperson for provincial winter games.
If you missed my introduction last week to this year鈥檚 vocal adjudicator, Dianna Woolrich, she holds a Bachelor of Music degree in voice with great distinction from the University of Regina, where she also completed course work for a graduate degree in music theory and taught for some years as a sessional lecturer. Currently her time is divided between voice teaching, choral conducting, adjudicating and giving workshops. Her singing students have regularly won awards in local and provincial festivals and examinations, and have on seven occasions been selected as provincial representatives for the National Youth Choir. Several have graduated from undergraduate and graduate university voice performance programmes and are finding success as professional singers. Vocal classes are scheduled to run from April 16 鈥� 18.
With the looming deadline of March 1 for the 2016 festival program cover contest, it鈥檚 last call for Battlefords area children and youth 18 years old or under to submit art images for considered use. Artwork should reflect musical themes and be presented on 8 陆 by 11 paper in a vertical or portrait orientation. Pictures may be drawn in black ink, pencil, coloured pencil, marker, crayon or medium of choice but should have a white background.聽 Artists must print their full name, phone number, school and grade on the back of their entry. Entries may be mailed to P.O. Box 1301, North Battleford, S9A 3L8, or submitted to Kelly Waters at North Battleford Comprehensive High School, Jan Michael Bourgeois at John Paul II Collegiate or Margaret Sigouin at EMBM. Selected pieces of artwork that are not chosen for the cover may also be featured within the pages of the program. Also look for festival venues to feature and display other entries. Although all musical themed ideas are welcome, typically those reflecting the festival鈥檚 disciplines are chosen for use in the program (solo or group singing/speaking, piano, acoustic strings, band/orchestra).
If interested in volunteering at the festival, anything you have to offer in way of your time or talent is welcome! If your time is not available but you or your business would like to support the festival monetarily, consider sponsoring an award to be presented at the final gala event, or sponsoring a session for a music discipline of your choice, or being recognized as a patron or friend of the festival.
The current聽festival schedule, pending final programming, for the 2016 Battlefords Music Festival is:聽
Vocal April 16 - 18 (Saturday - Monday), Band April 18 - 19聽(Monday - Tuesday), Musical Theatre April 19 (Tuesday), Speech Arts April 20 - 21 (Wednesday - Thursday), Strings April聽22 (Friday), and Piano April 21 - 23 (Thursday - Saturday).
鈥淚 saw the sax line-up that he had behind him and I thought, I'm going to learn the saxophone and when I grow up, I'm going to play in his band. So I sort of persuaded my dad to get me a kind of a plastic saxophone on the hire purchase plan.鈥� 鈥� David Bowie
