The 37 annual Nechako Valley Speech, Arts and Music Festival is now underway.
Taking place in Vanderhoof from March 11- 17, performers from around the Nechako Lakes will take part in this year’s festivities. Piano, voice and speech performances will be judged by three credited adjudicators, Leon Potter (speech) Leanne Regehr (piano) and Kevin Zakresky (voice).
Vocalists will go first on March 11 at the Vanderhoof Christian Fellowship Church (EMC) starting at 9:30 a.m. and again starting at 1 p.m. A Vocalist workshop will take place in the NVSS band room from 3:15 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. and vocalist will again sing at 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. at EMC.
Speech arts will start Friday, March 13 at 1:30 p.m. at EMC and a speech workshop will take place Saturday March 14 at 9:30 a.m at EMC.
Piano performances start Monday, March 16 at 9 a.m. at EMC and again at 3:30 p.m. A piano workshop will be hosted Tuesday, March 17 from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at EMC with more performances throughout the day.
Sarah Thiessen, 9, will be playing piano and is going to be performing two poems. She has performed in front of a crowd before but said she can still be a bit nervous.
“Im kinda nervous because I’m in front of lots of people but it’s still really fun,” she said.
Sarah will perform the poem Sick, by memory, and her and Claire Yoder will be reading another poem together, called The Spider and The Fly.
“If theres two people its not as scary,” she said. On piano Sarah will play Calico Cat, Starlight Star Bright and Playful Puppy. Last year she performed in the Arts Festival and won a speech award. This year she is excited to hopefully win again.
Josiah Thiessen, 11, is going to be playing Jolly Marchers and Brown Bag Boogie on Piano. He will also be performing a poem called The Listeners.
He performed in last year’s festival and for a couple of years him and his younger siblings Samuel Thiessen, 8, and Sarah Thiessen, 9, performed a poem at a festival in Terrace in which all three of them won a cash award.
“Last year was my first year doing piano in a festival but I like it. It’s fun to be able to present a piece, something you’ve practised really hard, and after your done they tell you whats good and what you can work on,” he said.
Penelope Roberge, 9, will be playing three songs from the suzuki piano repertoire, Little Playmates, Chant Arabe and Go tell Aunt Rhody.
She played in the festival last year and received a certificate of participation. “I like playing different songs and all the sounds that the piano makes,” she said.
For full timed schedules visit www.http://www.musicfestivalweb.com/nechako/program.aspx and click program.