The Cariboo Festival officially wrapped up another year of music and competition with its honours concert at the Cariboo Bethel Church Saturday.
Every year for the last few decades, the Cariboo Festival Society has been committed to giving the youth of the lakecity a chance to share their musical and performing arts talents with the community over the course of the month of May. This year saw the departure of several longtime volunteers and the inclusion of some fresh new faces.
First time Cariboo Festival President Juliana Lam felt that overall this year’s festival had been a fabulous affair. Lam herself is a pianist who, as a child, has competed at festivals and events like this and stepped up to help organize it after being asked last year.
This year adjudicators came from across B.C., Lam said, including Caroljoy Green from Prince George for Speech Arts, Maureen Hollins from Surrey for Piano, Sarona Mynhardt from Gibson for Vocal/Choral and Susan Aylard from Sorrento for Band/Instrumental. These talented women all lent their time to fairly judge the competition and provide feedback to the participants.
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Lam said that as far as the participation of youth went, numbers were easily in the hundreds this year. They had over 255 entries in their four categories made of 579 individuals, Lam said, broken down to 74 entries in Piano, 95 entries in Vocal/Choral (267 individuals), 35 in Band/Instrumental (172 individuals) and 51 entries in Speech Arts (66 individuals).
“We may have had the most Vocal/Choral entries in the history of the festival,” Lam said.
At the honours concert in late April, where the top participants got a chance to all perform together, Lam said it was wonderful to see everyone perform one last time, until next year or provincials.
“The kids involved seemed to be very excited for the evening,” Lam said. “Some kids (were) involved in more than one discipline, it was neat to see.”
Overall, Lam said there were little kinks to iron out when organizing the event and said she doesn’t see any major changes coming to future festivals.
Lam would like to thank all the members of the Cariboo Festival Committee and the volunteers who make the festival possible for their hard work and dedication. She’d also like to extend a thank you to those who attended the Honours Concert and donated.
Finally, she wanted to extend a big thank you to the participants of the festival for all their hard work and performances. Lam said that many of them are braver then she was at their age and that it was wonderful to see so many talented young people take to the stage.
“It brought back memories of myself when I was very young. I remembered the hours of work it took to perfect one piece of music and the nervousness I would feel before a recital or taking a Royal Conservatory Piano exam,” Lam said. “I was so proud of all the youngsters that got on stage and did not show one ounce of stage fright. I loved everyone’s enthusiasm and confidence.”
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Eight of these participants have been selected to move on to the Provincial Festival in Chilliwack from May 26-30. They are Lauryn Marklinger for Junior Piano, Georgia DiMarco the alternate for Musical Production, Cooper Amos for Intermediate Classical Voice, Bethany Nairn for Intermediate Strings, Olivia Rowse for Intermediate Strings, Isaac Shoults for Intermediate Musical Production, Eloise Hobi for Junior Classical Voice and Cassius Ford for Junior Musical Production.
The full list of award and bursaries winners for 2019 Cariboo Festival are as follows:
Piano
Lions First Year of Study – Heinrich Steyl
Woodland Jewellers Junior Piano – Ethan Prest
H.J. Martin – Lauryn Marklinger
Gail Carson Romantic Competition – Lauryn Marklinger
Sommer Ivory Keys – Bethany Nairn
Senior Piano Competition – Not Awarded in 2019
Carson Encouragement Awards – Adrien Zimmerman ($50) Markus Nelson, ($25), Elizabeth Van Immerzeel ($25)
Vocal/Choral
Primary Concert Class Award – Not Awarded in 2019
Junior A Scholarship – Eloise Hobi
Junior B Scholarship – Natasha Castro
Intermediate Scholarship – Cooper Amos
Senior Scholarship – Not Awarded in 2019
Primary Musical Theatre Award – Lara Hobi
Musical Production Junior A Scholarship – Cassius Ford
Musical Production Junior B Scholarship – Natasha Castro & Carrigan Watson
Musical Production Intermediate Scholarship – Cooper Amos
Musical Production Senior Scholarship – Sharon Hoffman
High Point School Choir – Angelkeys Coda
High Point Choir – Quintet Plus
Kiwanis Choral Directorship – Michelle Erlandson
Acorn Encouragement – Minke Englebrect
Panda Encouragement – Abigayle Kotyk
Angelkeys Expressiveness Award – Isaac Shoults, Maryclaire Snowball
Band & Instrumental
Rotary Best Band – Lake City Secondary Senior Concert Band
McDonald Challenge – Bethany Nairn
Instrumental Bursary – Olivia Rowse
Daybreak Rotary Bursary – Jaxen Voth
Guitar Seller Bursaries – Jamie Kranabetter, Luke Erlandson
Tuba John Encouragement Awards – Kate Neufeld, Lucia Johnston, Elizabeth Van Imerzeel, Scarlett Johnston
Old Time Fiddlers Ensemble Bursary – Cariboo Youth Fiddle Society
E.G. Woodland Bursary – Not Awarded in 2019
Speech Arts
Adjudicator’s Choice Most Promising Student – Luca Warnock
Best Overall in Speech Arts – Cindy Wu
Creativity Award – Finn Zirnhelt
Best Overall Secondary Drama – Cindy Wu
Best Overall Elementary Drama – Zachary Hirt
Best Overall in Elementary Choral Speech – Not Awarded in 2019
Best Overall in Public Speaking – Not Awarded in 2019
Original Poetry – Kiera Dyer
patrick.davies@wltribune.com
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