I have introduced the four adjudicators for this year's Kiwanis Battlefords Music Festival - band adjudicator Greg McLean, strings adjudicator Rudolf Sternadel, musical theatre adjudicator Kevin Powers and vocal adjudicator Garry Gable.
Speech arts adjudicator Heather Macnab from Maple Creek is an active mezzo-soprano, singing teacher, director, accompanist and adjudicator. Macnab holds three ARCT diplomas in singing and piano. Her continuing education lately has been in speech arts and drama and Alexander Technique. She was the winner of the gold medals signifying the highest mark in Alberta for both Grade 8 and 9 Royal Conservatory speech arts exams. Macnab has directed many full length musical productions including A Christmas Carol, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Honk!, The Music Man, Les Misérables School Edition, Cinderella, Seussical, The Pirates of Penzance, Oliver! and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Macnab performed the part of Mother Abbess with Medicine Hat Musical Theatre in The Sound of Music and has been a part of the Calgary Opera Chorus in La Boheme, Aïda, The Inventor and Lucia di Lammermoor. Macnab has been heard as an oratorio soloist and frequently performs in recital. She is the director and a member of the girl group, The Dazzlers. Macnab is an instructor at the Summer School for the Solo Voice in North Battleford, specializing in speech arts and musical theatre. She is a member of the Saskatchewan Registered Music Teachers' Association and the National Association of Teachers of Singing and enjoys being an adjudicator for the Saskatchewan Music Festival Association.
The Battlefords Kiwanis Music Festival Committee thanks all the children and youth who submitted beautiful and creative image ideas for the Battlefords Music Festival program cover contest. The cover winner is Grade 6 home-schooled student Joseph Bowen with his inspiring artwork, Music Grows. There is also much original artwork featured within the pages of the program. Opening the band section of the printed program is Kate Fransoo (Grade 5, EMBM), for strings Hao Tong Dong (Grade 7, Holy Family), for Musical Theatre Taylor Schwab (Grade 7, St. Vital), for voice Brenna LaFreniere (Grade 7, Holy Family), for Speech Arts Hannah Bowen (Grade 7, home school ), for piano Emily Simon (Grade 7, St. Vital), and for the awards section Joclyn Buziak (Grade 7, St. Vital).
Also filling in various open areas within the program pages are artwork of a piano Mia Sieben (Grade 5, EMBM), guitar/drum/triangle Rebekah Yeaman (Grade 5, EMBM), bass Brynne Nachtegaele (Grade 4, EMBM), musical notes Calle LaFreniere (Grade 4, Holy Family), singing girls Abby Polnicky (Grade 1, Holy Family), music Earene Posilero (Grade 6, Holy Family), treble clef Spencer Hepp ( Grade 7, St. Vital), flute cascade Caitlin Turcotte (Grade 6, Holy Family), keyboard/guitar/drum Bridgitte Campbell (Grade 5, EMBM), "music is the beat" Joshua Schonhofer (Grade 4, Ratushniak Elementary) and a musical heart by Jeanny Jung (Grade 7, EMBM).
We will also feature many of the submitted drawings at festival venues. Look for them at entrances and on the walls where festival activities are taking place. Make sure to take the time to view the range of creative images when you attend festival sessions.
The $7 printed festival program should be available at Sobeys by this weekend. Bring exact change if possible when purchasing programs as it keeps things simple and easy for the Sobeys staff who are accommodating program sales as a favour to the community and the festival. Keep your eyes open around town for posters summarizing the festival schedule's dates, disciplines, times, and locations.
There have been some adjustments to the schedule. Note the gala date has been moved ahead. The adjustedschedule for music disciplines for the 2014 Battlefords Music festival is: band March 25 - 26,strings March 27, musical theatre March 28 and 29, voice March 30 - April 1, speech arts April 2 - 3, piano April 5 - 7, with the celebratory gala Wednesday, April 9.
"Creativity takes courage."- Henri Matisse
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