Meadow Lake Music Festival rocking the community this week

“Just to get kids to learn to perform and get in front of people, that is huge, and it’s a life skill,” Senn said. “Whether or not they ever become professional musicians or singers, that doesn’t matter. For them to be able to go on stage and perform to their best ability, it’s a great life skill.”

This marks the 46th anniversary of the annual event that brings the community together to celebrate music and award students’ successes.

There are roughly 115 entries in this year’s competition, on par with last year. From that amount, over 100 entries are registered for piano performance alone.

“We had some parents who played [piano] duets with their children,” Senn said, adding that both the parent and child are learning the skill. “It’s great [to see].”

Senn said as a piano teacher herself, she encourages parents to take lessons along with their kids, to build a love of music in the family.

Senn said no choirs are participating in the competition this year, as none registered.

“We used to see choirs all the time [in years past],” she said. “[Lately,] We haven’t seen [any] in a few years. It’s hard to coordinate. We used to see a lot of school choirs. We haven’t seen much of that in the last few years.”

Two adjudicators are coming in to judge the music competitions at the event: one judge for piano and voice, and the other for band, strings, and the associated instruments like brass and woodwinds.

Senn encourages anyone interested in taking in one of the performances during the festival to drop in as admission is by donation.

Schedules are available on the Meadow Lake and District Music Festival’s Facebook Page. Performances are at the Evangelical Free Church of Meadow Lake and Carpenter High School.

The awards show at the end of the festival will happen at 7 p.m., April 25 in the theatre at Carpenter High School.

“Everybody is welcome to come,” Senn said. “It’s a showcase of many of the top people…There are [many] awards; we give away over $2,000 [in cash prizes]. That all goes back to the community. On the final concert night, we have some vocals, strings, and piano [performances]. We have a little bit of everything. It’s a really good night…We’re giving away even more money this year than we have in the past.”

Some new awards have been added including Most Promising Piano Player and Most Promising Vocalist.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @meadowlakenow

by Angela Brown

Meadow Lake Music Festival rocking the community this week

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