Squamish's "other" music festival - the one that offers high-level vocal and instrumental education to hundreds of young Sea to Sky Corridor musicians - this year will offer "bookend" concerts featuring guest professionals offering up inspiring piano and vocal performances.
Since 2001, the Howe Sound Music Festival has served as a celebration of young corridor performing artists, many of whom have gone on to further their education and pursued careers in the field, festival executive director Colleen Koop said.
For this year's festival, which runs from April 6 to 13, Koop decided to open and close the series of adjudicated competitions and workshops with shows featuring the musicians who will also serve as adjudicators for the festival.
"I really want to show our students the importance of how far you can take your music," said Koop, a long-time piano and vocal performer and instructor. "These are performers who have been around and they've got so much to show the students.
"What I did in the beginning is hired adjudicators who are still performing. It really shows the credibility of what they're teaching students that they can back up what they're saying with what they can do."
The opening concert, on Sunday, April 6 at 4 p.m. at St. John's Anglican Church, features renowned 小蓝视频 pianists Ross Salvosa and Scott Meek in a show titled, "Two to Tango." The duo will perform tango music in a format that's designed to be both entertaining and instructive, Koop said.
"These are two young, dynamic pianists who can really show the youngsters something new," she said.
The closing concert on Saturday, April 12, at 7:30 p.m. at St. John's, is titled "Three's Company." Featuring accomplished vocalists Joani Bye and Jan Warren and classically trained pianist Dave Pickell, the concert will showcase "some fun and upbeat '80s-and-beyond music," Koop said.
The three performers "all started from the same spot that the kids are at right now, and look what they've done," she said.
In between the two concerts, vocal-choral clinician Sandra Meister will lead an elementary school choral workshop at Garibaldi Highlands Elementary School (GHE) with grade-school choirs from GHE, Brackendale, Mamquam and Valleycliffe and a visiting group from Kamloops - more than 200 singers in all.
"The idea is just to create an opportunity to be exposed to choral singing to create the spark that choral music is fun; singing is fun," Koop said.
There will also be an adult choral festival, and the adjudicated piano portion of the event will take place at Our Lady of the Mountains Catholic Church in Whistler.
Not all of those performing as part of the adjudicated vocal and piano competitions are youngsters - some are adults who have chosen to further their music education or simply pursue music as a hobby, Koop said.
On Sunday, April 13, the Highlights Concert will feature those singled out by adjudicators as "gold"-level performers during the festival.
The festival is presented by the Howe Sound Performing Arts Association. Tickets for the opening and closing concerts are $20 for adults, $10 for students, with a limited number of discounted tickets available to festival participants and their families, Koop said. For more information, visit www.howesoundarts.ca
