Up and coming talent of all ages are getting ready for The Lethbridge and District Music and Speech Arts Festival , March 11-23.

 

 Over 2,000 people will be performing throughout the next  two weeks at Sterndale Bennett Theatre,  Southminster United Church, St. Augustine’s  Hall and  Sanctuary and the casa Stephure Hall and community room and Owl Acoustic Lounge.

 

“We have bands, soloists, choirs, guitar and accordion ensembles,” said Lethbridge and District Music and Speech Arts Festival general manager Jaimee Jarvie.

“It‘s about the same number of performers  every year. We are growing every year since the last  post Covid festival,” Jarvie continued.

 

The festival features three concerts including Stars of the Festival at 2 p.m. March 23, the Musical Theatre Showcase concert on March 16 and  the opening concert at 7 p.m., March 13 all at Southminster United Church. The opening concert, focusing on instrumental acts,  features the LCI Gold Band, U of L Chinook guitar ensemble and the Con Brio Trio  (Anna Jeong, Alayna McNeil and Brenna Le May), who represented Lethbridge and area at the provincial festival last year and won a gold medal  in the Classical Guitar Solo category at the Canada West Performing Arts Festival last year.

The Windy City Accordions will be performing in the opening concert as well as Monday, March 11 at St. Augustine’s Church Sanctuary.

“We haven’t had accordions in the festival for decades,” Jarvie enthused.

 

 The Festival returns to the Owl Acoustic Lounge for a contemporary  vocals session on March 12 From 4-8 p.m.

“The kids get to perform with a live band,” Jarvie said.

“That’s one of the most popular categories with  15 kids. It’s a pretty fun night,” she said, adding while sessions are five dollars each or free with a program, admission is by donation for the Owl Acoustic Lounge show.

 

 

She noted speech arts and piano are the most popular categories this year.

“We have piano over both weeks,” she said.

 

The Stephure Hall at casa s a new venue this year. The Community band will be performing there on March 12

“One of the bands rehearses there, so we’re bringing the festival to them,” Jarvie said.

 

“We have a lot of  adult groups participating this year. A lot of them signed up because of the adjudicators,” She continued, noting adjudicators come from all over Alberta from Medicine Hat to  St. Albert.

“They’re pretty renowned. So People want to  work with them . We have really outstanding adjudicators,” she said.

 

Jarvie noted  she has performed in the Festival  since she was a kid and is excited to take the helm for her second year as executive director.

 

“I’ve started performing in the festival when I was five and have been involved in it  in so many capacities since then. So it is really cool to be the one leading it for the second year,” she said, noting 50 of her voice students are taking part in the festival.

 

“I just love the energy of the performers. It’s combination of nervous and excited. So I’m excited to sit and watch the performances. So many people have  put so much work into their performances,” she said.

Programs cost $20  which allows access to all shows. Individual sessions are five dollars to attend. Competitors and their accompanists as well as children under 12 attend for free.

— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor