The 2016 Kootenay Festival of the Arts in Nelson was a huge success. Over 400 talented young performers from Nelson, Castlegar, Trail, Rossland, Grand Forks, New Denver and as far away as Kamloops and Washington state were adjudicated in their respected disciplines.
The second Highlight Concert held at the Capitol Theatre April 16, featured performers in strings, woodwinds, piano, choral, speech arts and voice. Awards were given and performers chosen by adjudicators were nominated to represent the Kootenays at the provincials hosted by Performing Arts BC, the association of 34 regional festivals that each year hosts the provincial finals in the artistic disciplines of music, voice, dance, and speech arts.
The mandate of Performing Arts BC is to educate, inspire, and stimulate young performers to recognize, develop, and encourage emerging professional talent; and to cultivate a life-long passion for the arts.
Performing Arts BC is a unique event in the artistic world and affords emerging young performers of this province the opportunity to study and mentor with outstanding professionals in a nurturing environment. The festival has opened doors to the broader artistic community for thousands of talented young individuals and has enabled a great many of them to achieve their goals of a performing career in dance, music, and theatre.
The festival brings together emerging young artists for a week of workshops, performances, seminars, and master classes with some of North America’s finest adjudicators, and is the largest event of its kind in Canada.
The provincial finals are held in a different host city each year and this year will be held in Fort St. John from May 31 to June 5.
Kootenay Festival of the Arts award winners
Nominated to compete at the provincials
Junior A Piano: Suki Simington
Junior B Strings: Fiona Burkholder
Intermediate Strings: Tibo Kölmel
Intermediate Classical Guitar: Rebecca Xie
Junior Classical Voice: Brian Chan
Intermediate Classical Voice: Maggie Chan
Senior Classical Voice: Emma Chart
Junior Musical Theatre: Max Thomson
Intermediate Musical Theatre: Sebastian Bodine
Nominated to attend as alternates
Intermediate Strings: Emmi Matern
Intermediate Classical Voice: Adrian Palek
Junior Musical Theatre: Isabel McAleer,
Intermediate Musical Theatre: Reece Boulanger
Nominated as Observers
Piano: Jaydn Stallings, Simon Kramar
Strings: Shenoa Stoltz, Sakura Azzopardi, Tamius Elder
Classical Voice: Jennifer Walsh