Sask Valley Music Festival Wraps Up Another Year

Local Journalism Initiative
·5 min read

Saskatchewan Music Festival Association (SMFA) is one of the over 12,000 sport, culture and recreation groups funded by Saskatchewan Lotteries. Every lottery ticket purchased in Saskatchewan, helps support a wealth of organizations and the logo of Sask Lotteries is found on the promotional material for events and organizations who have benefitted. This support includes District Music Festivals across the province who are enriching their communities with performing arts. Since 1908, the SMFA has grown with the province. The SMFA’s mandate requires it to collaborate closely with the many people who come together to keep the festival movement alive and well in Saskatchewan, including music and spoken word students; teachers; parents and extended family; volunteers; donors/supporters, and audience members. Communities across the province embrace the festival concept for both music and dance because it provides educational growth and entertainment that brings the whole community together.

SMFA works closely with the other music organizations across Saskatchewan to ensure they are developing relevant programs. Accessibility to programs and recognizing changing demographic circumstances within the province is a high priority. The need for a culturally aware society is increasingly important, and entrance to SMFA festivals is open to all ages, all ethnic groups, and people of all religions. The broad-based volunteer component of SMFA which helps to monitor and adapt to the changes in society, allows the organization to operate at the grass roots level.

Festivals provide communities the ability to acknowledge and support the endeavours of their young people and encourage them to set goals and highlight their abilities. Participating in a music festival develops confidence and provides the opportunity to receive constructive adjudication from professional musicians. Not every participant needs to be marked, however. Participants in District Festivals may enter any class on the syllabus for “adjudication only” and receive the constructive feedback from the adjudicators or enter into the non-competitive classes. The SMFA hires over 170 qualified professional musicians to serve as adjudicators each year.

District Festival Competitions are held annually in 47 locations throughout the province beginning in February and ending in May. Scholarships and awards are available locally at each District Festival and it is the adjudicators at the various festivals who recommend select winners to the provincial finals.

The Provincial Finals Competition is held the first weekend in June of each year, during which the selected district winners compete provincially for scholarships and awards. All scholarship winners are selected by the adjudicator. If the standard attained is not of sufficient merit, the scholarship will not be given. This year the Finals are being held in Saskatoon at the University of Saskatchewan May 30 – June 2.

Corporate sponsors for the Saskatchewan Music Festival Association include the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, SaskTel, University of Saskatchewan, University of Regina, Sask Lotteries, Regina Symphony Orchestra, Canadian Music Festival Adjudicators’ Association, Sask Music, and U of S College of Arts and Science.

Music students from a vast area take lessons from teachers within the Sask Valley Music Festival district and represent their home communities of Beardy's & Okemasis' Cree Nation, Blaine Lake, Cudworth, Duck Lake, Hafford, Hague, Laird, Martensville, Neuanlage, One Arrow Cree Nation, Osler, Rosthern, Saint Isidore-de-Bellevue, Wakaw, Waldheim and Warman. The first festival ever held in the district was in May 1940, in the town of Laird. Primarily involved were school choruses, but it soon expanded to other disciplines in the years following and now covers piano and instrumentals, vocals including musical theatre, and spoken word along with choral and band. In 1962, the Rosthern Festival became associated with the Saskatchewan Association of Music Festivals and was first held under the Sask Valley name at Rosthern Junior College in 1963.

The Sask Valley Music Festival was held in Rosthern from March 13 – 20, 2024. Piano & Strings were adjudicated March 13-15, Vocal, Speech Arts, Choral and Musical Theatre on March 18 & 19, and Band competitions wrapped things up on March 20. The Awards Concert was held in the Rosthern Mennonite Church on Friday, March 22, 2024, and it was here that 51 scholarships and awards were given out and the names of those recommended to participate in the Provincial Finals. As everything else, entries into Music Festivals dropped significantly during the pandemic and it has taken a while to recover. Each year’s festival has had more entrants than the year previous, and finally this year the number of entrants is close to what they experienced pre-pandemic. Competitors recommended for advancement to the finals must enter and compete in at least two solo classes in the same discipline at their District Festival and obtain a mark of 87 or higher. Recommended in piano were Jaron Ens, Natalie Reban, Eli Ens, and Lochlan Lester. In Vocals, Zoe Ostapak, Monica Steinke, and Emma Gillingham were recommended. Recommended to advance in Musical Theatre were Cheyenne Venne, Monica Steinke, and Emma Gillingham, while Stefan Jones was recommended to compete in Spoken Word.

Financial supporters of the Sask Valley Music Festival include many individuals and small businesses throughout the district and include Walter Agencies Ltd. (Rosthern); Good Habits (Rosthern); Marvin’s Gardens (Waldheim); Terry’s Auto Repair (Waldheim); David Jahnke, Barrister & Solicitor (Waldheim); Team Fuel (Laird); Granger Drugs (Waldheim); Block's Agencies (Waldheim); Darka Contracting Ltd. (Hague); My Mutual Insurance (Waldheim); Friesen’s Bigway Foods (Rosthern); Waldheim Auto Service (Waldheim); Valley Sports & Hardware (Rosthern); Laird Manufacturing Corporation (Laird); Don Unger & Carol McFadden (Waldheim); Greg Bobbitt & Linda Rudachyk (Rosthern); Doug Bienia Veterinary Services Professional Corp. (Hague); SaskTel; Rebecca Isaak (Laird); Valley Ford Sales (Hague); RJC High School (Rosthern); Carmen Corner Meats, Don & Louella Friesen (Waldheim); Linda & Gerry Swab (Rosthern); Dr. Troy Kirkpatrick Dental (Rosthern); Rosthern Recreation (TIP Grant) (Rosthern); Prairie Padgett Tax & Accounting Ltd. (Rosthern); Waldheim Parks & Rec Board (TIP Grant) (Waldheim); Sask Valley Pharmacy & Rosthern Pharmacy (Rosthern).

Carol Baldwin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Wakaw Recorder

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