This year's Battlefords Kiwanis Music Festival has come to a successful end. The Gala April 15 at Third Avenue United Church highlighted the entire Festival and celebrated our community's young musical performers receiving awards and scholarships.
From my perspective, one of the biggest highlights of the eight day vocal portion was the afternoon of ensemble choral speaking March 30. St. Vital School's gymnasium was jam-packed with classes of participating students along with friends and family who came to cheer them on. Classes of students within St. Vital School who wished to be part of the audience had to scrounge up chairs from various corners of the school in order to find a place to sit in the only empty spot left, the very back of the gym! The audience was entertained by two singing games groups from Maidstone's Ratushniak Elementary and eight groups of choral speaking who came from Battleford Central School, Bready School, and the hosting school, St. Vital Catholic School.
A special bravo to the St. Vital Grade 8's who poignantly portrayed the silent struggle in the hearts and minds of bullies, victims and bystanders in a serious student-created piece entitled, Before It's Too Late. In this thought-provoking collective piece, driven by the creative vision of student Robyn Starycki, students considered the complex roles of a bully, a victim, and a bystander with three students enacting the roles. Small groups of students behind them spoke aloud thoughts within the head of each character. In this structure, the audience could see the actions of the characters and hear the silent struggle in their hearts and minds. The stated goal for the piece was not to offer a simple solution, as this is a complex issue, but to offer hope: hope that bullies grow to understand, hope that victims realize they are not alone and hope that bystanders have the courage to stand up for what is right. They challenged audience members to do something, before it's too late. Some audience members were moved to tears by this piece.
Choral speaking is a fun and powerful means for exploring language arts material or any topic-relevant material. Perhaps next year we can fill a whole day showcasing student classroom work!
We are incredibly lucky to have blossoming and accomplished strings students in our community. What a privilege to have them share their skills an entire day in public for all of us to view and enjoy.
The piano segment, as always, showcased incredible student talent and superior local piano instruction. It is a joy to watch young students grow each year into more skilled intermediate students and then highly accomplished senior performers.
This last week, much of the same was demonstrated during the band segment. Again, the calibre of talent, commitment and guiding instruction makes one proud to be associated with music education in the Battlefords. Bob Mossing, the band adjudicator from Regina, repeatedly commented on the high standards being set for the younger students by the senior students and how lucky they were to see modeling of where they could reasonably expect themselves to be musically with continued practice in both solo and ensemble formats. As he said often, it takes guts to get up and perform; anyone who walks in four feet tall should leave feeling eight feet tall with pride.
So don't miss out on the Gala or you'll be kicking yourself later! Treat yourself to performances of excellence - performances from aspiring beginners with many future Festival performances ahead to seasoned seniors soon heading to college or university. Celebrate the generosity of local sponsors supporting awards and scholarships to encourage musical dedication in our community. Say 'thank you' to the many volunteers who gave their time to work as door stewards, secretaries, Committee members, furniture movers, etc. Enjoy a community event and applaud the efforts of young Battlefords musicians.
