The St. Albert Rotary Music Festival wound down a successful season with Encore, a night of sparkling entertainment that combined a variety concert with award presentations.
The festivities took place at the Arden Theatre on Tuesday, March 29, giving the festival’s “best of the best” an opportunity to express their creativity, said festival chair Mark Moran.
Divided into two parts, the evening featured 19 performances followed by the presentation of 69 awards, scholarships, and bursaries valued at more than $9,000.
Mayor Cathy Heron attended Encore as a presenter, and the casual atmosphere prompted her to reflect on her youth in St. Albert and her appreciation for young, emerging talent.
“This is a shining example of how the music community comes together to create something truly inspiring. Also inspiring are the volunteers who donated 1,500 hours. This festival would not exist without you,” said Heron.
The Sturgeon Composite Guitar Ensemble — a group of seven guitarists — opened the entertainment with Enrique Granados’s Spanish Dance No. 2. By gently strumming and plucking their instruments in synchronization, they captured the essence of a romantic Latin dance with a melancholy vibe.
Young pianist Ruel Simpson brought everyone back to the present with the familiar James Bond Theme, while Jasper Mei, also a pianist, nimbly skipped across the keys playing Christopher Norton’s one-minute Trumpet Blues.
The title “Little Girl with the Big Voice” belonged to Jehdeiah Edrad, a young performer with a commanding stage presence and soaring vocals. Accompanied on piano by Innovations Music instructor Lilia Krieger, Edrad belted Part of Your World, a hit from The Little Mermaid.
Pianist Abigail Swenson performed her original composition Reflections, accompanied by her mother Michelle on clarinet. Gentle and soothing, the piece evoked the serenity of nature.
Pianist Julianna Kully played Little Nocturne, a contemporary reflective lullaby by Jakub Metelka, while Emma Allen performed Colours of the Wind, a gentle piece that built to an emotion-packed crescendo.
Soprano Clara Knoefel, accompanied by Krieger, sang Simple Gifts, a folk song about love. Knoefel’s multi-layered voice, rich with emotion and operatic grace, quickly won over the audience, as evidenced by their loud applause.
Fiddler Ava Mihalcheon energized the crowd with the foot-stomping traditional piece Mississippi Sawyer, while Kaitlyn Zhang tackled Dmitri Kabalevsky’s fast-paced Rondo Toccata, a piece reminiscent of a Keystone Cops chase from the silent film era.
Jenna Shirley Chang’s nimble fingers danced lightly over the keys in Ravel’s romantic Toccata, and Emmanuel Fraser performed Debussy’s spritely Golliwog’s Cakewalk, a whimsical piece about toys coming to life.
Two sibling duos challenged themselves with Mozart’s technically demanding masterpieces. Angela and Mattias Haydo performed the beautifully synchronized No. 1 from Twelve Duets for Violin and Viola.
Immediately afterward, Xueqian Li and Xueqing Li performed Mozart’s Sonata in D for Four Hands, a three-movement work that had the pianists’ hands flying across the keys in seamless tandem.
The performance portion of the evening concluded with vocalist Ava Korek delivering a self-accompanied arrangement of Smokey Robinson Jr.’s Who’s Lovin’ You, followed by Naomi Brown’s rendition of Harry Warren’s major hit At Last.
After a brief intermission, the award presentations began.
Naomi Brown, a Grade 11 student at St. Francis Xavier High School, took home the prestigious Jackie Heitzman Rose Bowl Trophy. Throughout the festival and at Encore, Brown displayed a soaring voice and immense richness of tone.
“I went into it without any expectations. I was mostly looking to get experience. I was very appreciative and happy to receive the award, but I was also shocked and confused — I felt there were others who deserved it more than I did,” said Brown.
Ava Korek, an 18-year-old MacEwan University student in the Faculty of Arts, received the Lyle Moore Scholarship Award. The recipient of six festival and competition awards, Korek plans to pursue a career in music.
Clara Knoefel, a Grade 9 student at ESSMY, earned the Marsha Stanton Award for most festival entries. A multi-award-winning performer, Knoefel sings in a variety of styles, including classical, contemporary pop, and musical theatre.
A complete Encore program and full list of award recipients is available at stalbertmusicfestival.com.
