The Sunshine Coast Festival of the Performing Arts is not your usual music festival, even though it is the Coast’s longest running musical event, now in its 43rd year. It’s a chance for budding performers to demonstrate their talents in front of an audience. A big part of the annual competition for the mostly young participants is the constructive critique they receive from adjudicators, experts in their field, who come from off the Coast to give impartial help.
Though performing in front of a judge makes the novices quake in their shoes, they bravely sign up. The three-week music and dance festival opened on April 11 with piano on the agenda, and the first day saw about 50 students, many from the seven to nine age range, test their abilities on the grand piano at the Arts Centre.
By 7 p.m. the junior pianists had given way to teenagers, who upped the bar for performance. Festival president Sue Carson told the audience that it had been a long day for the organizers and particularly for the piano adjudicator, Rita Attrot, who nonetheless took the time following each section to give her critique, often one-on-one with the student.
Grade 11 student Emily Picard played a lovely lyrical piece, Etude in A Flat Major, by a little known composer, Giuseppe Concone, while Galen Wilson performed a Carl Czerny Etude. Brison Geue chose a dramatic piece, Johann Friedrich Burgmuller’s The Storm, which he played at the speed of a dynamo.
Attrot called them exciting, noting that etudes (studies) aren’t usually deemed great performance pieces.
“You made them sound exciting,” she said of the three amateurs. “I can tell you’re committed,” she said, and she spent some time showing students how to let the melody shine through or working with their interpretations.
Woodwinds and brass instruments follow the piano performances, closing the first week with the Piano Encore concert at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 17 at the Arts Centre. The following week, April 18-22, is designated for bowed strings and dance while the third week hears vocal and choral music. The festival shares their Boston-based adjudicator, Patrick M’Gonigle, of folk instrumental with the Victoria Festival. Plucked strings category and electronic music sees the return of a former Coast musician, Steve Karagianis, as adjudicator.
The Festival Highlights concert is at the Raven’s Cry Theatre, Sechelt, at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 1 with admission by donation.
New this year is a category for Speech and Dramatic Arts. There’s no age limit and the material offered could be any speech or dramatic work whether poetry, prose, scripted or self-written. All participants will present on Wednesday, April 20 at 9 a.m. at the Arts Centre, Sechelt. Though it will be a small group for this first year, it is well worth attending to watch.
In fact, audience is welcome at all the sessions with a donation at the door. Though president Carson thanked a host of sponsors – the Sunshine Coast Credit Union, BC Ferries, Harbour Air and Driftwood Inn for transporting and accommodating the adjudicators – money is required for bursaries and awards for the students. More about the non-profit society’s goals, venues, times and a list of performers can be found at www.coastfestival.com.
