THE BATTLEFORDS ‑ The 90th Battlefords Kiwanis Music Festival comes to a celebratory close Tuesday, April 5 at the Dekker Centre with the festival gala. The gala features adjudicator-chosen highlights from all music disciplines (voice, piano, strings, speech arts, choirs and bands) and age categories (junior 12 and under, intermediate 16 and under, senior 17 and over). Expect a wide range of performances from Bach to Fats Waller to German Lieder to musical theatre.
The numerous awards tallying over $7,000 will be announced and distributed thanks to generous sponsors. To be eligible for scholarships and awards, participants must be 19 years or under and have lived in the Battlefords and district for a minimum of six months prior to the festival or be furthering their education elsewhere, but still supported by parents living in the Battlefords district. If you are fortunate to receive an award, be sure to send a thank you to the sponsor of that award.
The festival committee salutes and thanks all organizations, businesses, service clubs, individuals and those donating in memory of loved ones for their support of local music education. The cost of hosting the festival is around $20,000 each year; it couldn’t be done without them.
Tickets to the gala are $10 with no charge to teachers, volunteers, participants and sponsors.
This gala celebration will also honour and celebrate the life of Junice Headley who recently passed. Junice was a supporter of the Battlefords area festival most of her 90 years as a participant, accompanist, volunteer, sponsor and teacher. She never missed festival week. Her enthusiasm for supporting local youth in music will be missed by everyone connected to the festival.
As was stated in a News-Optimist interview from 2014, she would probably have been a schoolteacher if she hadn't become a music teacher, but was glad she was able to pursue a career as a music teacher because she enjoyed working with students in a one-on-one relationship. Her farm home was the location of Headley's studio, a room that saw hundreds of junior and adult students pass through in thousands of hours of lessons.
"I always felt I didn't really want to give up teaching because there was still something I could show people how to do, and so I went just with the adults. They were charming." She added, with a smile, "I didn't work them as hard as the other students."
Many of her students have gone on to become schoolteachers, music teachers, accompanists, organists and choir leaders. Some have gone on to pursue careers in fields such as law, medicine and other professions requiring good study habits as students and discipline in achieving their goals.
Good luck to all local youth going on to participate in the provincial music festival held this year in Saskatoon June 2 - 5. Festival participants who were nominated or recommended by an adjudicator for provincial competition are granted this opportunity. For participants to qualify for recommendation to the provincial festival, where they compete with performers from all over the province from 47 districts, they must compete in specified classes to be recommended with a piece of a specified degree of difficulty. They must be in at least two classes at the festival, and receive a minimum mark from the adjudicator of 87.
Best wishes to young people graduating from high school this year going on to pursue various careers, some in the field of music.
Looking ahead to next season, do keep in mind that we are always looking for parents and community-minded music lovers to step forward and say, “How can I help?” If you might be willing to assist, even in a small way with of the 2023 Battlefords Kiwanis Music Festival, simply share your interest with any committee member.
The festival cannot function without the many volunteers working as door stewards and secretaries. Setting up and tearing down is much less of a burden with many hands helping.
The dates for the 2023 festival are March 13 to 25.
Hats off to all the brilliant performers who displayed their skills and talent during this year’s festival. Please keep practising and contributing to our community with your gifts. We look forward to seeing and hearing you next year. Perhaps we will see brothers, Jay and Rhett Cawood, perform another duet on the Dekker Centre’s grand piano. Eric Cawood, longtime music teacher at St. Vital School, is most certainly proud of his boys.
“In hindsight, if I could go back in time and relay a message to my younger self, I would tell him to work on his time keeping, and that the job of a drummer is not to be the one that gets noticed the most on stage, or to be the fastest, or the loudest. Above all, it is to be the timekeeper.” - drummer for The Foo Fighters (1972 – 2022)
