As Powell River musicians, dancers and public speakers prepare to dazzle audiences with their best performances, organizers of a performing arts festival are shifting focus of the longstanding event from awards to education.
“There is a big difference with this festival to the 70 that went before it,” said Rotarian Jan Gisborne, a member of the volunteer organizing committee for Powell River Festival of Performing Arts.
The Rotary Clubs of Powell River have again formed an organizing committee to put on the festival and with the help of community volunteers and adjudicators from around the province, the festival will take place over two weeks from Saturday, February 21, to the Grand Concert on Saturday, March 7.
Gisborne explained that the organizing committee has opted to provide master classes and cease awarding trophies and medals to festival winners.
Rotary took over running the festival in 2003 and over the years has made small changes to improve the festival and make it more fair for competitors.
“Some things have worked well, and we have refined others to make a better festival, but our focus has always been, and this is stated in the syllabus, on providing performers with the best possible support for their artistic development,” Gisborne said. “We’re now expanding on that because we want to increase the value and skill development opportunities for participants.”
In 2004, when City of Powell River was named one of Canada’s cultural capitals, the festival organizers used a $5,000 grant from the federal government to pay for master classes.
“We kept the adjudicator after their session was over and did master classes,” she said, which provided more education and opportunities for participants. “But they are expensive. Over the years we have tried to find a way to work master classes in.”
With Powell River’s relative isolation, it is harder for local students to find different teachers who might help the student become a well-rounded musician, she added. “There may be the odd person who goes to Vancouver or the island for a special lesson, but it is rare,” Gisborne said.
When the organizing committee is looking for adjudicators they specifically seek out artists who may be able to provide local students with a different perspective. “We try to get really well-rounded and enthusiastic adjudicators,” she added.
To pay for that change of focus, the organizing committee has eliminated all trophies and medals for the festival, an expense that cost several thousand dollars per year, and put that money into paying adjudicators for the additional classes. Close to $7,000 for medals and trophies was spent last year, and the cost increases every year though entrance fees have not kept pace, she said.
It costs solo competitors $12 to enter the festival, while duets are charged $20 and trios and quartets cost $25. The most expensive entry fee is for choirs and bands with 17 or more performers, but that cost is only $45.
School District 47 pays the entrance fees for its students competing in speech arts, something unique for Powell River, she said.
The committee has been reluctant to raise fees because it might effect how many categories a competitor could enter, she added.
In addition to rising maintenance costs for trophies and the challenges the awards created each year for the organizing committee, fairness—a principle central to Rotary—was increasingly becoming an issue. The discussion has been ongoing for the past few years, but the committee asked how fair it was that some disciples, like piano, had several trophies available to be won while others, like dance, had none. The committee decided to examine how it could better provide support for artistic development, something master classes would accomplish, she said.
All competitors will be given a certificate of participation this year.
Master classes will be available for all members of the public, not just competitors, and they will be free of charge, said Gisborne.
It is expected the classes will run three hours each after a discipline’s competition wraps up, she said.
Band and instrumental, choral, strings, dance and speech arts will all have master classes.
“We’re hoping to fill the audience,” she added, explaining that classes will be geared for a general audience and all skill levels. “We’re hoping the kids will come and learn more.”
Besides solving the ongoing challenges of awarding medals and trophies, the master classes will also serve as a way to give Powell River a leg up in the provincial competition in May. Powell River is hosting the event and Gisborne said the organizing committee has already started preparations.
“We’re hoping that this is a good time to make that change,” she said.
The only competition that will happen at Powell River Festival of Performing Arts is participants vying for a place in the Grand Concert and a place in provincials. “This model is really more in line with other festivals,” she said. “For the vast majority of kids, it’s the experience and feedback, the adjudication, that is important.”
For more information about Powell River’s festival readers can visit, http://bit.ly/1zEcJwl. Powell River hosts the provincial festival from May 26 to 30.
Provincial festival coming here in May
Powell River Festival of Performing Arts is the regional host for the 2015 Performing Arts BC Festival. The Rotary Clubs of Powell River form the organizing committee along with other volunteers from the local festival.
About 200 volunteers are required for the provincial event so additional people are being recruited to assist.
Approximately 450 delegates and observers will attend and will be accompanied by family members who take advantage of the amenities in the host community. A heightened awareness of the arts in the area takes place, with competitions and concerts presented during the week of the festival.
Planning for provincial festival, which takes place May 26 to 30, has been underway for months and is accelerating at this time.
Performing Arts BC is the umbrella organization for 34 regional performing arts festivals throughout BC, including Powell River. Over 32,000 young musicians, dancers and dramatic artists, ranging in age from five to 28, participate each year in one of these regional festivals.
The provincial festival is the eagerly anticipated pinnacle of BC’s festival circuit. Hosted by a different community each year, only the most promising young performers from each regional festival are recommended to the provincial festival where they compete and participate in adjudicated sessions, master classes, coaching, workshops and technique classes with some of North America’s finest adjudicators. Students of classical voice, musical theatre, piano, strings, woodwinds, brass, guitar, chamber music, speech arts, ballet, modern dance and stage dance take part. The very best performers in various music disciplines are then recommended to move on to the National Music Festival.
Readers who would like to volunteer to help can send their information to [email protected].
