Encore! set the Arden Theatre buzzing Wednesday night as youth across the St. Albert and area performed a concert and accepted scholarships earned at the St. Albert Rotary Music Festival.
Any and all competitive egos were pushed aside as a packed house applauded loudly for the many scholarship, bursary and award recipients tapped to perform.
In total, more than $11,000 was distributed to worthy pianists, string and brass-woodwind musicians as well as musical theatre performers, soloists, choral groups and bands.
During the concert, violinist Cassidy Nouanethong, 14, played Pablo Sarasate’s Malagueña, an exotic work demanding a virtuosic performance. With left hand cradling the violin and right hand sliding the bow gently across the strings, Nouanethong successfully captured the emotion and technical elements with equal ease.
The École Secondaire St. Marguerite d’Youville student, who also plays piano, deservedly received the Rose Bowl, the festival’s most prestigious award.
Backstage after receiving the Rose Bowl, Nouanethong said, “I feel honoured, surprised and really thankful for the Rotary Music Festival’s support of my career. Their help has inspired me and given me a chance to show people my talent and let me express emotion in a different way other than words.”
A top-tier musician, she also took home the St. Albert Rotary Club Scholarship for Intermediate Strings, and a Don Vaugeois Rotary Piano Scholarship as well as a recommendation to perform at provincials.
Sofiya Chvojka is another performer and multiple musical theatre award recipient. In addition to receiving the Christene Murdock Memorial Scholarship and three provincial recommendations, the G.H. Primeau Grade 6 student also earned the Marsha Stanton Award.
Named for a former St. Albert music teacher, it is one of the festival’s most distinguished awards as it requires recipients to enter a large and varied amount of classes.
As a special treat, Victoria-based Scott Stanton, Marsha Stanton’s son, and founder of Current Swell, one of Canada’s most successful rock bands, was on hand to present the award.
Although she did not perform, University of Alberta vocalist Dacia Gramlick was in high spirits accepting her $1,000 Lyle Moore Scholarship.
But it was the performances that revealed not only a sense of diversity among the festival’s 700-odd entries, but also the high-calibre technique and dedication young artists apply.
Senior pianist Vivian Tao, now in her 12th year studying keyboard, played Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 28, 1st Movement, a technically difficult work that requires precise articulation. In this pastoral work, the Victoria School of Performing Arts student effectively brings out the beauty, harmony and power of nature. As her fingers skimmed the keys, notes floated across the stage, at times calm, at times turbulent.
Gabriel Lappa, recipient of the Elsie and Bill Filipchuk Musical Theatre Bursary, gave a performance that fittingly describes that old saw, “The show must go on.” From The Scarlet Pimpernel, he sang Where’s The Girl, a romantic choice well suited to his baritone voice. It was only later when Lappa was to receive his award that it was revealed he was ill and had returned home.
Pop country singer-songwriter Hailey Benedict created a mashup of The Beatles’ While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Nina Simone’s Feeling Good while junior pianist Elena Begovic played Turkish Bazaar with its flowing exotic vibe.
At the close, Sturgeon Composite High School Jazz Band ramped up the funk factor with Charlie Mingus and Sy Johnson’s Nostalgia in Times Square, a vibrant chart that gave students an opportunity to solo.
All in all, Encore! attracted a pool of talent that deserves to be singled out for their hard work.
