Two days before the inaugural Rotary Evening With the Stars, Andrew Boyd, 17, received a phone call that affected his life.
The voice at the other end told the Paul Kane student he was the St. Albert Rotary Music Festival’s 2012 recipient of the prestigious Rosebowl Award.
“I was initially stunned into silence,” says Boyd. “I just sort of said, ‘Thank you.’ ”
It was only a short while later that the full effect sank in and the nervousness surfaced. As part of the prize package, Boyd would perform his competition musical theatre piece, Confrontation from the Jekyll & Hyde musical during the celebratory evening at the Arden on April 18.
“For the competition I wasn’t nervous. It was a small audience and I was trying to get it done because the others were waiting their turn. At the Arden, I was there to get an award and I had to prove I deserved it.”
He had little to worry about. Judging by the audience’s thundering applause, the audience was carried away by a performance that imbued passion, theatricality and a powerful sense of the character’s desperation.
The variety show also acknowledged two other festival winners and presented a cornucopia of talent that ranged from amateur to professional in disciplines of band, dance, opera, classical piano, percussion, musical theatre and pop/rock.
Soprano Lauren Chalaturnyk received the Lyle Moore Scholarship and sang Svegliatevi nel core form Handel’s opera Giulio Cesare.
“Her voice is so amazing, so polished and trained, so confident,” said Evening With the Stars chair Lynda Moffat.
And Dylan Polczer, also a festival winner, is an autistic youth, who bridged the communication gap through music. He presented a controlled percussion performance that never missed a beat.
A special treat was the return of past festival winners turned professional. Contemporary dancer Andrew Murdock, a graduate of Juilliard School, performed a solo – I’m Still Here. His comedic take on a man with a body like putty was pure delight.
Janelle Gallant, on a revisit from a recording stint in Los Angeles, revved it up with the pop ballad The Start and a musical theatre piece This Is What It Is.
King’s College piano student David Fraser delivered a sensitive portrayal of Maurice Ravel’s cascading Sonatin while St. Albert Children’s Theatre offered two boisterous jewels from The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley.
Billed as the evening’s flash mob, about a dozen scattered Visionary Voices rose from theatre seats and slowly made their way onto the stage singing Halo.
Sturgeon Composite High School Jazz Band opened the show with two brassy numbers featuring saxophones and energetic Cuban rhythms. The other bookend was the colourful and vibrant Moon Over Parador, performed by the Art of Dance at the close.
The show, hosted by the indefatigable Colin MacLean, had a dual function: first as platform to show-off the community talent, and secondly to generate funds to continue offering scholarships and prizes. This year the festival awarded $12,000 in prize money.
“We came to realize before the festival started we were facing a financial challenge. Some major sponsorship dollars had moved. We did have challenges but it made everybody roll up their sleeves and work really hard,” said Moffat.
To fill the shortfall, Rotary mounted this variety show. Unfortunately, only about half the Arden seats were sold.
“For the next year, we have something good to build on. We put on a show that the crowd loved and will come back.
Anyone wishing to make a donation can send proceeds to Rotary Music Festival, Box 132, St. Albert, T8N 1N2.
