Festivals provide opportunities to shine
The Saskatoon Music Festival, held annually in May, and the Saskatchewan Festival, held in June, are the pathways for aspiring musicians to advance into higher levels of competition.
The major winners in the Saskatoon festival included instrumentalist Hannah Lissel-decorby, pianist Matthew Praskas and vocalist Briana Penner, each capturing $1,500 Kinsmen Club of Saskatoon scholarships as the outstanding artists in their categories.
Three others won special awards in the instrumental division: Fraser Krips, $800 to go with the Kiwanis Club and Ruth Taylor Memorial scholarships; Stephen Davis, $600 with the Grace Tannahill scholarship; and Amos Friesen, $300 with a Kinsmen scholarship.
Solveig Deason was runner-up in piano, taking the $600 Ruth Taylor prize, and Angela Gjurichanin, the runner-up in voice, taking the $600 Grace Tannahill prize.
There were multiple scholarship winners in all divisions.
In piano, they were Solveig Deason, Jerry Hu, Esther Zhu, Thomas Hu, Hannah Meginbir, Nathan Tran, April Shi, Eleanor Chen, Meixi Yao, Vivian Mark and Enham Zhao.
Scholarship winners in the voice category included Brianna Penner, Annika Tupper, Kennedy Siba, Zachary St. Louis, Emma Gillingham, Aliah Nelson, Olivia Guselle, Rosette Caina, Grace Braaten, Danielle Sanche, Brooklyn Morrison, Mary Kirkpatrick and Madison Hiebert.
Other multiple winners were Rebecca Carlson, Royce Hermanson, Hunter Heckman and Asaya Dinh in brass; Meaghan Dormuth, Annika Tupper and Emma Gillingham in musical theatre; Krips and Micah Bergen in percussion; Lissel-decorby in strings; and Bonnie Yang and Aleks Geldart in woodwinds.
The provincial finals were held at the University of Saskatchewan June 1-3.
Saskatoon didn’t capture any placings for the national festival in Sackville, N.B. The honours went to soprano Mckenzie Warriner of Estevan in voice; Kate Gray of Regina in piano; alto saxophonist James Griffith of Lloydminster in woodwinds; trumpeter Abby Fuller of Regina in brass; Jasmine Tsui of Regina in percussion; FIEARRO String Quartet, consisting of Eleanor Hector, Melka Sonntag, Mayson Sonntag and Jonathan Craig Penner, all of Regina, in chamber group; and Louren Sazon of Moose Jaw in musical theatre. Choirs do not travel and the Campbell Chamber Choir of Regina will be judged by tapes in the choral division.
But Saskatoon captured the top two awards in the senior division of the grand awards concert as well as two of the prizes in the intermediate division.
Krips, the Saskatoon percussionist, won the $1,000 grand prize and the Sister Boyle Gold trophy among the seniors. Thomas Hu of Saskatoon was runner-up with the $750 scholarship and Wallis Memorial award. Dominic Ghiglione of Regina took the $500 prize and the Blanche Squires bronze award.
In the intermediate division, Jerry Hu of Saskatoon won the $750 scholarship and Gloria Nickel gold award; Griffith took the $500 scholarship and Joanne Messer silver trophy; and Kennedy Siba of Saskatoon took the $300 scholarship and Betty Tydeman Memorial trophy.
Saskatoon performers won their share of provincial championships.
Piano award winners included Jerry Hu in Haydn and Mozart, in Chopin and a Jackson scholarship; Thomas Hu in senior Chopin and Canadian music; Solveig Deason in senior Bach; Aice Li in senior French music; and Alanna Liu in intermediate Canadian music.
Vocal winners were Annika Tupper in senior Grade B female; Jayden Burrows in senior Grade B male; Kennedy Siba in intermediate female; Zackary St. Louis in intermediate male; Olivia Guselle in senior oratorio; Danielle Sanche in senior operatic; and Mikalia Mahnke in intermediate concert. Guselle teamed up with Deason to win the lieder voice and lieder piano.
Other Saskatoon winners were Lissel-decorby in senior string concert; Amos Friesen in senior cello; Shion Tamashiro in intermediate violin; Brianna Ai in intermediate classical guitar; and Krips in senior percussion.