Now that all adjudicators have been individually introduced over the last several weeks, here is a summary of all six.
The first musical discipline scheduled this year is piano entries. Audrey Watson was born in Saskatoon and raised in Vonda. Watson is active in the Saskatchewan Valley Music Festival, having completed two terms as president. She is a member of the Saskatoon branch of the Saskatchewan Registered Music Teachers’ Association and currently serves as president of the rovincial organization. She is pianist, organist and co-music director of St. Odilon R.C. Church. Watson maintains an active studio in Rosthern where she teaches piano, theory, harmony and history. She is married to husband, George and they have three grown children.
Band instruments adjudicator, Terry Heckman, has been the principal trumpet of the Saskatoon Symphony since the fall of 1991. He is also a member of the Saskatchewan Brass quintet, and is the bandmaster of the Saskatoon Brass Band. He is an established teacher, clinician and band adjudicator of brass instruments and bands throughout the prairies. He runs a private trumpet studio, and has been an instructor for the University of Saskatchewan Music Department and the Saskatchewan Band Association, and an adjudicator at various music festivals. Heckman holds a Bachelor of Music (Education) from the University of Victoria and a Licentiate in Music (Performance) from McGill University. He has been a member of the Regina Symphony Orchestra and the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra and earlier played in the Youth Orchestras of Calgary and Victoria.
Anna Marie Bekolay, strings adjudicator, is a versatile performer, enjoying opportunities to perform a variety of music from opera to blues, folk to rock ‘n roll, and early music to modern choral music. In short, Bekolay loves playing, singing and writing in many genres of music. Her current projects include Troubadours du Bois, an early music ensemble that explores 14th to 16th century music involving voices, recorders, strings and percussion; Celtic group Back of the Bus, Gillian Snider’s project that combines klezmer, jazz, and country; and the Bass Invaders, a bass-driven Chilean folk-rock group where Bekolay sings and plays electric violin. She also performs solo for weddings and social gatherings while running a very music studio teaching voice, violin, recorder, and fiddle. Bekolay makes her home in Saskatoon with her husband, Kevin Buzinski.
Joy McFarlane-Burton of Saskatoon is musical theatre adjudicator. She holds a Royal Conservatory of Music Associate diploma in singing performance, and studied vocal pedagogy at the University of Saskatchewan. McFarlane-Burton is also a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and is a registered music teacher. McFarlane-Burton was the chair of the Federation of Canadian Music Festivals ad hoc committee for the inclusion of musical theatre as a discipline in the National Music Festival. As a result of her work on this committee, the first national musical theatre competition was held in Kelowna in 2014. McFarlane-Burton has performed in several leading roles in community theatre productions – Laurie (Oklahoma!), Nellie (South Pacific), Fiona (Brigadoon), Dolly (Hello Dolly). She has enjoyed performing in the supporting roles as well – Sister Berthe (Sound of Music), the Strawberry-seller (Oliver!), Mrs. McAfee (Bye Birdie), and Fruma-Sarah (Fiddler on the Roof). Joy has also performed in the Chorus with the Saskatoon Opera Association productions. McFarlane-Burton enjoys teaching singing and exploring Musical Theatre repertoire with her students from across west central Saskatchewan.
Jeri Ryba, who obtained a Bachelor of Education in Music from the University of Lethbridge and an ARCT Performer’s Diploma in Voice, from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto is this year’s vocal adjudicator. Ryba is currently teaching private voice lessons in Moose Jaw. Her students have earned more than 25 silver medals from the Royal Conservatory of Music and have been provincial festival winners. Many of her students have continued their musical studies after high school, attending university and music schools in many places, including Toronto, Italy, New York. She is currently the president of the Moose Jaw Music Festival Association. Ryba, her husband Greg, and six-year-old son Rundle enjoy supporting the WHL Moose Jaw Warriors, where she sings the National Anthem for the home games.
Representing the discipline of speech arts is Doug Virgil Riley. Riley began coaching professional singers over 30 years ago in a variety of styles and genres from Royal Conservatory repertoire, classical, opera, show tunes, art songs, jazz, blues and country, to pop. Riley holds a Master’s of Music Degree and is a singer and actor who has directed and performed in operatic and music theatre roles throughout Canada. He has acted in over 100 film, stage, television, musical theatre productions and commercials while participating in various CD recordings. As a member of Yorkton Community Theatre, Mr. Riley has starred in Hello Dolly (2001), as Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady (2004), as Buffalo Bill in Annie Get Your Gun (2005), and as Tevye in Fiddler On the Roof (2006).
Look for programs being sold at Sobeys for $7 each. The finalized schedule for this year’s festival is: piano March 16 - 18 (Monday to Wednesday), band March 19 (Thursday), strings March 19 - 20 (Thursday and Friday), musical theatre March 22 (Sunday), voice March 23 - 25 (Monday to Wednesday) and speech arts March 26 - 27 (Thursday to Friday). The gala will be at the Dekker Centre. The gala date is Wednesday, April 1 at 7 p.m. Admission will be $10 a seat for adults with free admission for performers, award recipients, award donors and youth 18 and under.
“I think it's healthy for a person to be nervous. It means you care, that you work hard and want to give a great performance. You just have to channel that nervous energy into the show.” — Beyonce
