Some 1,500 participants booked for Carbonear Kiwanis Music Festival

By Olivia Bradbury / Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Spring is in the air and so is the sound of music in Carbonear as the town gears up to host the annual Kiwanis Music Festival involving students from schools throughout the Western Avalon. This year’s event ran from March 30 to April 4 and was staged at the Princess Sheila Nageira Theatre, Bethany United Church, Salvation Army Citadel, Carbonear Academy, and Carbonear Collegiate.
“This is our fifty-second festival,” said Lynn Burke Evely, who has been a member of the Carbonear Kiwanis Club for about five years, and president of the Carbonear Kiwanis Music Festival for two years. “It’s still going strong despite the fact that there are other festivals in the province that have unfortunately folded due to low participation or other reasons.”
Burke Evely said the festival has received a lot of community support, which has helped it continue.
“We have a committee of Kiwanians who are focused every year, of course, on developing and carrying out all the elements of the music festival,” she said. “This year we’re happy to say that there seems to be a bit of a resurgence in participation. We’re up in the numbers of our participants over last year, and there seems to be more interest in some of the choirs and the bands from the schools in particular who are returning who may have had to take a break from participation for various reasons over the last few years.”
This year the festival has about 1,500 participants. There are 10 schools participating with primary choirs, junior high choirs, high school choirs, recorder groups, concert bands, rock bands, combination rock bands and glee clubs, and so on.
“Depending on what the music program looks like in the school, we have a class that would suit whatever that program is,” Burke Evely said. “So anybody who’s involved in music within the school can certainly have an opportunity to participate.”
Students of all grades participate in the festival.
In addition to students, the festival will see community groups perform. This year this includes four choirs — two youth choirs and two adult choirs — as well as five family music groups.
The family music class is popular and non-competitive.
“It offers families an opportunity to participate in the festival and make music together and showcase their talents in that way,” said Burke Evely.
Individual participants are also a big part of the festival.
“They would be school age because the class starts at six and under and would go up to high school,” said Burke Evely. “I think the highest age that we would see participants would be 18. So there are a number of private music schools and music teachers in the area who would be instructing students in voice and piano, and instruments such as violin and cello and guitar, trumpet, the whole gambit of different instruments that kids would be playing. And, of course, there’s the choral component, as well, which would be the choirs.”
The competition’s categories are comprised of various classes. Participants are assigned to a class based on age, experience, and type of music. Selections are made for first, second, and third place each competitive class. March 30th will focus on musical theatre. Classes in vocal, piano, and instrumental will be performed from March 31 to April 2, with instrumental continuing into April 4 and concluding the regular classes. The Rose Bowl Competition will be held on April 4th.
“That’s a little bit of a different competition than regular classes because you qualify to be recommended to compete for the Rose Bowl, which is like the big award of the festival if you participate in some of the senior classes in a specialty area,” Burke Evely explained. “It requires you to participate in a concert group class, where the participants of that class would perform three or more selections within a period of time, and they’d be chosen to participate for further competition in the Rose Bowl if they win that particular concert group class.”
The festival will have four adjudicators: Jill Dawe, Dr. Douglas Dunmore, Leslee Heys, and Melanie Jardine. Dawe is a trumpet player and music teacher in St. John’s who teaches middle school instrumental, choral and classroom music. She also has a private studio of young trumpeters, is a founding member of Saltwater Brass, and has been second trumpet in the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra since 2018. Dunsmore began his career in Saskatchewan working with singers and choirs, and later moved to St. John’s where he became Director of Choral Activities at the MUN School of Music. He has served as an officer of prominent choral organizations, as a guest clinician, conductor, adjudicator, and juror in various Canadian provinces, and has participated in international choral festivals. His work in the musical community has been recognized by ArtsNL, and he was recently appointed to the Order of Canada. Heys is a multi-faceted musician, and pianist for the award-winning choral ensembles Shallaway and Lady Cove, and a sought-after pianist and adjudicator. In the past year, her original works and arrangements have been performed by the likes of the Texas All-State Honor Choir, Amadeus Choir, Unisong, the University of Florida and University of Toronto, Shallaway, Lady Cove, and Newman Sound. Jardine has performed with the Canadian Opera Company and, since moving back to Newfoundland, with Opera on the Avalon, Best Kind Productions, Atlantic Light Theatre, Theatre St. John’s, and Terra Bruce Productions. She adjudicates at Kiwanis and Rotary Music Festivals throughout the province and has also been a Vocal Facilitator for the Growing the Voices: Festival 500 program, So You Always Wanted to Sing.
On April 9 and 10, the Carbonear Kiwanis Music Festival’s grand concerts will be held at the Princess Sheila Nageira Theatre. The concerts will showcase a variety of performers who competed in and possibly won awards in the festival, including the Rose Bowl competitors.
“It’s quite an awesome show to attend because it showcases all the talent in the area. Different ages, different types of music, different categories of music, all that stuff,” said Burke Evely.
The grand concerts are also where the festival’s awards are presented.
“At the end of the festival, we have thirteen thousand dollars’ worth of special awards that are given, and they are given to the best performances or the adjudicators’ choice as to who is deserving of a particular award within certain categories,” said Burke Evely.
Most of the awards are sponsored by local businesses, or have been given perpetually in memory or honour of someone in the community who supported the festival or was passionate about music.
Programs for the Carbonear Kiwanis Music Festival can be purchased at Bartlett’s Irving in Bay Roberts and Music Plus in Carbonear. Tickets to the festival events will be available for purchase at the door, and will cost five dollars for classes or ten dollars for concerts. A recording of the festival will also be available to watch via Eastlink at a later date.