Organizers of the Moose Jaw Music Festival managed to pull off this year’s event with eight volunteers but don’t think they can do the same in 2023 without more community support.
This year’s festival took place from April 2 to 7 at Zion United Church and welcomed back audiences for the first time in two years. While solo performances were live, all performances for piano, strings and band were pre-recorded and submitted for adjudication.
While organizers were pleased to return to — mostly — live performances, they noted that a lack of volunteers hurt the festival in the end since they had to cancel the final Sunday concert.
“Our committee is completely tapped out!” Marcie Carswell, festival president, said on Facebook.
Carswell encouraged parents and music teachers to consider how important the festival is to them, their children and their students, and to think about how they can pitch in to support the event.
“We needed 28 volunteer spots for our limited live festival this year. Our committee members filled 57 per cent of those shifts with one left unfilled. In a normal year we would have had double that number of volunteer shifts to fill. Had we not made piano virtual, it would have been our undoing,” she continued.
“Unfortunately, we’ve said for years that this is not sustainable. Our group gets smaller and smaller. We have a committee of eight people. It takes well over 250 man hours just to organize the festival. With some of our members moving on after this festival, it leaves us wondering if we can put on a festival in 2023 of any kind.”
Moose Jaw has historically been a large festival that usually runs all piano, band and voice and musical theatre during one week with choral usually being a week or two prior that, Carswell said. Therefore, the festival needs that many volunteers to ensure those activities can happen.
Carswell encouraged residents interested in volunteering to contact the music festival by Facebook messenger or by email at [email protected]. Meanwhile, she thanked all volunteers, festival sponsors, patrons, scholarship donors and audience members who came to support the youths.
“Getting up on a stage and being vulnerable is a difficult undertaking but it sure gives kids a leg up in their future,” she added. “Thank you!”
Music festival winners
The following youths will represent Moose Jaw at provincial and Canada West competitions in the coming months. Provincials occur in Saskatoon from June 2 to 5 and Canada West occurs July 21 to 23.
Provincial reps in musical theatre: Arielle MacKinnon, Abby Dueck, Alyssa Hetherington, Abbey May, Emma Cherney, Ann-Marie Rouault-Chedid, Ella Wilson, Grace King, Drew Amell, Jaymeson Bateman, Elizabeth Deans and Esmeralda Breker.
Provincial reps in vocal: Arielle MacKinnon, Alicia Zarubin, Emma Cherney, Kolby Adams, Ann-Marie Rouault-Chedid, Jaymeson Bateman, Drew Amell, Natalie Warren, Elizabeth Deans.
Representing Moose Jaw at Canada West: Elizabeth Deans (vocal and musical theatre) Abbey May (vocal and musical theatre) Abby Dueck (musical theatre).
To qualify for these competitions, students had to provide a particular repertoire and receive a mark of 88 and then a recommendation from the adjudicator Casey Peden.
Scholarship winners
The following music students won scholarships:
Agcon Business and Tax Ltd. Scholarship $200
Recipient: Elizabeth Deans
Friendly City Optimist Club Scholarship $200
Recipient: Natalie Warren
Ethel Hall Memorial Scholarship $200
Recipient: Abby Dueck
Keith and Rosemary Schick Scholarship $300
Recipient: Ella Wilson
Grayson & Company Scholarship $300
Recipient: Kolby Adams
Maude Maguire Memorial Scholarship $300
Recipient: Rachel Bourgeois
Bing & Shirley Carswell Memorial Scholarship $400
Recipient: Aria Swanson
Penny Bratten Memorial Scholarship $450
Recipient: Abbey May
Golden West Radio Scholarship $500
Recipient: Ann-Marie Rouault-Chedid
Kelly Churko Memorial Scholarship $500
Recipient: Emma Cherney
