The Estevan and District Music Festival wrapped up another successful season, highlighting musical and theatrical talent from across the region — and sending five students on to the provincial level.
“It went really well. We were very busy,” said Alisha Mann, president of the Estevan and District Music Festival. “We had six and a half days of performances with bands and instrumental strings, spoken word, vocal and musical theatre, and then the following week we had five days of piano entries.”
Mann said the festival consistently offers memorable moments, whether it’s polished performances or students reaching personal milestones.
“There always are [highlights],” she said. “We always have fantastic, musically skilled kids who come and play, and those are always wonderful to share. But then there’s also things like kids who have their very first performance at festival, or who are just so proud of themselves when they finish up a song they didn’t think they could, or recover after a slip-up in memory. So it’s always encouraging to see all the kids.”
While most disciplines had steady participation, there was a small dip in piano entries due to changes in local music instruction.
“We were down in numbers a little bit in piano, but that was just because of some teacher changes in the community. So then you see that student number drop a little bit too,” Mann explained. “But our other disciplines were pretty steady with how they’ve been in other years.”
The festival also received positive feedback from adjudicators, participants, and families.
“We heard lots of good comments,” said Mann. “One [adjudicator] was just quite happy to be in Estevan working with the students here. The students had a really good time working with the adjudicators. They were really hands-on and very interactive with the kids, instead of sometimes when we get someone who’s almost preachy — and the kids don’t get much out of that. So we were really lucky to have good adjudicators this year.”
During the awards concert, scholarships and bursaries were handed out based on adjudicator recommendations.
“They’re all selected by the adjudicators,” Mann said. “We have a list of what we offer based on what we get for donations from the community, and what we’d like to give to the kids. It’s usually based on age categories — younger kids don’t receive quite as much, the older kids a little bit more, because typically that correlates with their skill level.”
Five students earned the opportunity to compete at provincials. Four piano students — Hudsyn Hozhan, Kensie Aspinall, Jerome Kim, and Peyton Irwin — qualified, along with Lucas Schott in spoken word.
“I thought it was the first time we were sending somebody in spoken word, but I misspoke — it’s the first time we’ve sent somebody in about 20 years,” said Mann. “So that’s really exciting.”
Mann said the board may consider a few small changes next year, including adjusting the balance of the two award concerts, but otherwise, the format has proven to work well.
“I’m always learning,” she laughed. “Just when I think I know how to do all the jobs, there’s something that surprises me.”
The festival is volunteer-run, and Mann said the board is always looking for more people to get involved.
“We’ll be having a meeting in a couple of weeks to wrap up this year, and if anybody has input or anything they wanted to reflect to us, we’d love to hear that,” she said. “And of course, we’d love to have more volunteers out. If anybody else, after experiencing the festival this year, would like to get involved, we can definitely find a job for them.”
You can find all the winners on the EDMF Facebook page.