‘This is a reasonable way to proceed’
Central Kiwanis Music Festival returns this year
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It won’t be like the glory days when 500 or so musicians and performers from around the region gathered in Grand Falls-Windsor to display their talents, but the Central Kiwanis Music Festival is back this year, the first since 2019.
“It’s not the same as a real festival, but at least it gives the students and teachers something to work for,” said Grand Falls-Windsor Kiwanis Club spokesman Allan Bradley of the decision to take the 55th edition of the festival online from April 3 to 8.
Bradley, organizing committee chairman, toldCentral Wire, “We have been anxious to reinstate one of our more prominent events because it provides such a good opportunity for young people to showcase their musical talents. The music festival is our showcase project that’s for sure.”
This year’s festival won’t include bands or choirs, but about there are 70 participants registered to perform and be adjudicated via 130 sessions in piano, voice, musical theatre and choral speech.
“Of our 38 music teachers in the region, 13 are involved,” Bradley continued. “We’re really pleased with that.”
Many festivals around the province were cancelled again this year or have moved online.
The decision for a virtual festival was based on the need to start planning and organization this past winter when Covid-19 restrictions increased, Bradley noted.
“We thought when things got really good (with Covid numbers) before Christmas that we’d proceed with an in-person festival, but then things got really bad during and after Christmas and that’s when we decided to go virtual,” the chairman explained.
“This is a reasonable way to proceed, with participants submitting a recording of their performance to our online software which will then be adjudicated and feedback sent...,” explained Bradley.
The approach comes with a level of disappointment.
“While a virtual festival is a good way to go it really restricts the kind of festival you can have,” Bradley said. “Bands and choirs are really big for us in our regular festival. They come from all over the region, and that brings the numbers up. The thing is, we’d accommodate a choir or a band but they haven’t been meeting,” he said. “Covid has prevented them from getting together.”
Four new classes were added for this festival including: songs of Disney solo, jazz or pop standard solo, pop song solo and contemporary folk song solo.
The adjudicators, all Newfoundlanders, include Jacinta Mackey-Graham (musical theatre); Sarah Loveys (junior and senior voice and choral speech); and Evan Smith (junior and senior piano).
While some of the classes in the senior categories are competitive, the festival isn’t about winning or losing, Bradley noted.
“It’s about improving musicianship through thoughtful adjudication and performance experience…”
Organizers aren’t certain if the coveted Rose Bowl will be awarded.
“The way it’s structured it’s difficult to do virtually because the adjudicator picks something from the concert groups and get them to come back and perform it in a Rose Bowl competition and we’re not sure how to do that.”
Many other cash awards and plaques awards will be handed out.
“We’ve got about 38 music teachers in the region and they’re fabulous,” Bradley continued. “There’s a real lot of knowledge to transfer to our young people and the results are showcased in a Festival like this.”
In fact, the honorary patron (posthumous) of this year’s festival is Mike Race, a music teacher and long-standing contributor to the music scene in Central. He passed away on Oct. 17, 2021.
He taught music in the Bishop’s Falls school system until his retirement in 2012. In 1984, Race co-founded the Exploits Jazz Band and conducted the Grand FallsWindsor Concert Band for more than 30 years.