The first scheduled discipline this year for the Kiwanis Battlefords Music Festival is vocal. Vocal classes are scheduled to run from April 16 – 18.
Diana Woolrich, this year’s vocal adjudicator, holds a bachelor of music degree in voice with great distinction from the University of Regina, where she also completed course work for a graduate degree in music theory and taught for some years as a sessional lecturer. Currently her time is divided between voice teaching, choral conducting, adjudicating and giving workshops.
Her singing students have regularly won awards in local and provincial festivals and examinations, and have on seven occasions been selected as provincial representatives for the National Youth Choir. Several have graduated from undergraduate and graduate university voice performance programs and are finding success as professional singers.
From 1988 until 1995, she was director of the junior choir of St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral in Regina. From 1996 until 2000, she was co-director of the annual Diocese of Qu’Appelle’s Bishop’s School for Choristers with her husband, Robin Swales. She served as children’s chorus master for Opera Saskatchewan’s 1993-94 production of La Bohème and for Opera Nuova of Edmonton’s Regina performance of their touring production of Hansel and Gretel in December 2000. In the fall of 1994, she became music director of the then newly-formed youth choir, JUVENTUS, which has won numerous trophies and awards in music festivals and gained second place in both the National Music Festival and in the CBC Amateur Choirs Competition.
Woolrich is a member of the Association of Canadian Choral Communities, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, the Saskatchewan Choral Federation and the Saskatchewan Registered Music Teachers’ Association.
In 2001 she was the recipient of the Saskatchewan Choral Federation's Pro Musica award. Woolrich has served as a member of the University of Regina Senate. Her a cappella choral composition for upper voices – Les Papillons – has been published by the Eboracum Choral Series in the UK.
There is still time for Battlefords area children and youth, 18 years old or under, to submit art images to be considered for use in the 2016 Battlefords Kiwanis Music festival program. The festival program cover contest deadline is March 1. Artwork should reflect musical themes and be presented on letter-sized paper in a vertical or portrait orientation. Pictures may be drawn in black ink, pencil, coloured pencil, marker, crayon or medium of choice but should have a white background.
Artists must print their full name, phone number, school and grade on the back of their entry. Entries may be mailed to Box 1301, North Battleford, S9A 3L8, or submitted to Kelly Waters at North Battleford Comprehensive High School, Jan Michael Bourgeois at John Paul II Collegiate or Margaret Sigouin at EMBM.
Selected pieces of artwork not chosen for the cover may also be featured within the pages of the program. Also look for festival venues to feature and display other entries. Although all musical themed ideas are welcome, typically those reflecting the festival’s disciplines – solo or group singing/speaking, piano, acoustic strings, band/orchestra – are chosen for use in the program.
If interested in volunteering at the festival, anything you have to offer in way of your time or talent is welcome. If your time is not available but you or your business would like to support the festival monetarily, consider sponsoring an award to be presented at the final gala event, sponsoring a session for a music discipline of your choice or being recognized as a patron or friend of the festival.
The current schedule, pending final programming, for the 2016 Battlefords Music Festival is: vocal, April 16 – 18; band, April 18 – 19; musical theatre, April 19; speech arts, April 20 – 21; strings, April 22; and piano, April 21 - 23.
“If I cannot fly, let me sing.” ― Stephen Sondheim
