The Coast's longest running festival opens this week with a host of community support and an estimated 126 performers, not including the members of various bands, ensembles and choirs. The Sunshine Coast Festival of the Performing Arts, for a long time simply called the Music Festival, opened its 32nd year on March 3, instead of the usual May time slot. It is not only a celebration of music, but a gruelling three week schedule of competition and performance involving 330 entries from participants aged four to 80. "Most of the participants are young," says festival president Sue Milne. "But we've had a large number of adults enter in the vocals category." The annual festival is an opportunity for each performer to be judged on his or her own merit, she explains. The volunteer-run event was founded in 1973 by Aletta Gilker and Mary Brooke to provide an opportunity for competition and judging on the Coast. "The most exciting thing about this festival is the magic of watching young musicians grow from beginners to professional class," says Milne. There are many winners and a collection of trophies and prizes are awarded (23 in the piano category alone). At least four top performers go on to provincial competition. Last year, four young people went this route: Dora Brooks, Stephen Beckmyer, Neal Andrews and Maija Lund. In 2004, the adjudicators' top choices included Andrews, Jeremy Williams on strings, Vaughn Jones and Charles Cottrell for vocals. The important thing is that each performer gets feed back from the adjudicators, who are usually invited from off Coast. This year, the festival has partnered with School District No. 46 because both have an interest in musical education. Consequently, some of the festival events will take place at the new Chatelech theatre. Other venues include the great acoustics of St. Hilda's Church, the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre as a comfortable spot for piano competition and the Raven's Cry Theatre for the final concert.
All the events are open to the public and admission is by donation. On Monday, March 7, the strings category will be front and centre at St. Hilda's, mostly during the day with some evening performances. Then on March 9, the newest category of event gets underway: electronic/acoustic music for those young people who haven't followed traditional music education and are more in tune with the pop music scene. Although there are few entrants so far, Milne hopes this category will build. Another dream of festival organizers is to expand into dance and drama. That's why audience is so important, Milne says. It gives the performers a sense of satisfaction. The Festival Highlights concert features the winners of strings, piano, vocals, brass, woodwind and percussion. This year, it will be held on Saturday, March 19, at 2 p.m. at the Raven's Cry. Tickets are $8 available at Sew Much More and Coast Books in Gibsons, Talewind Books in Sechelt and Sunny's Hair Boutique in Madeira Park.
The Festival Piano Encore Concert, sponsored by the Coast Recital Society, is on Saturday, April 2, also at the Raven's Cry, and will feature the piano winners. Detailed programs are available now that indicate where and when musicians will perform. They can be bought at the above outlets for $2 each.
