Be sure to not miss the registration deadline for this year's Battlefords Kiwanis Music Festival! The deadline for entries is this Saturday, Jan. 12. Entries may be delivered in person at the North Battleford City Kinsmen Band Hall from 1 - 4 p.m. on that date or mailed to P.O. Box 1301, North Battleford, S9A 3L8. Late entries will be accepted until Jan. 19, with a $25 late entry fee. Registration forms are available at Sobeys and the current syllabus can be found online.
Fees for solos, duets, and trios remain at $13 per entry and we continue to encourage multiple entries by offering the family rate of a 50 per cent discount after 10 solo entries by individual participants. Remember that the Battlefords Festival entry fees are still lower than those suggested in the provincial syllabus. It is our goal to encourage participation by keeping fees affordable.
The festival program cover contest deadline for children and youth from the Battlefords area is Jan. 25. Entries may be submitted at the band hall on festival registration day or given to Kelly Waters at St. Vital School or Agi McQuaid at EMBM. Artwork should reflect musical themes and be presented on 8 by 11 inch paper in a vertical or portrait orientation. Pictures may be drawn in black ink, pencil, coloured pencil, marker or crayon but should have a white background. Artists must print their full name, phone number, school and grade on the back of their entry.
Selected pieces of artwork 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 worthy entries. We are confident another amazing program cover contest entry will add unique musical flavour, resulting in a keepsake for performers and family members.
Frequently we hear discussions about the connections between music and the brain. According to Wikipedia, research in the area of cognitive neuroscience of music (there really is such a thing), considers how our brain responds to music whether we are composing, reading, performing or simply listening. "I think there's enough evidence to say that musical experience, musical exposure, musical training, all of those things change your brain," says Dr. Charles Limb, associate professor of otolaryngology and head and neck surgery at Johns Hopkins University. "It allows you to think in a way that you used to not think, and it also trains a lot of other cognitive facilities that have nothing to do with music."
According to a CNN article by Elizabeth Landau entitled, Music; it's in your head, changing your brain, neuroscientists believe there's basically one pleasure mechanism and music is one route into it. Therefore, whether a performer or a spectator, the Battlefords Music Festival has the potential to stimulate our brains while giving us great pleasure.
The festival is always in need of volunteers so don't be shy to ask, "How can I help?" Simply contact a committee member if you have any interest in any size of assistance. 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 schedule for music disciplines for the 2013 Battlefords Music Festival is: speech arts, March 4 - 6; band, March 7 - 9; voice, March 10 - 15; piano, March 16 - 19; strings, March 20 (Wed) and the gala, March 22.
"If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music." - Gustav Mahler
