Four individual performers and one choral group from Powell River finished among the top competitors in the 2016 Performing Arts BC Provincial Festival in Fort St. John.
Haley Spenst was runner-up in Junior Musical Theatre. Receiving honourable mentions were Sidney Spenst in Intermediate Vocal Variety, Maya Grace Laramee in Junior Strings, David Nadalini in Intermediate Speech Arts and Barberschnappers in Choral Class 101 for male choirs.
In addition, Eden Head and Abby Head performed in Dance.
“The girls both did very well in an extremely competitive category,” said Valerie Thompson, administrator for Powell River Festival of Performing Arts, adding that the local committee was “very proud of all the participants from our festival.”
Last May the provincial festival was hosted by Powell River; next year’s will be held in Kamloops.
Performing Arts BC is made up of more than 30 local festivals around BC, which each year see participants reaching standards to compete on a provincial level. Categories include piano, strings, vocal, speech arts, band and instrumental and dance.
Powell River’s 2017 festival will commence February 18 and run for two weeks, culminating in the Grand Concert.
“We are compiling a list of possible adjudicators for our festival and have begun working on changes to the syllabus,” said Thompson. “In the fall, regular planning meetings with committee members begin.”
