The deadline is approaching to register for the Norfolk Musical Arts Festival, a showcase of local talent for almost four decades.
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The 38th annual event will be held from Feb. 26 to March 1 at several Simcoe churches. The deadline to register is Jan. 15.
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Up to 1,000 participants, mostly from Norfolk but also traveling from surrounding communities and the GTA, will perform in both competitive and non-competitive disciplines, including art oratoire, bands, choirs, English speech arts, French immersion, French as a second language, guitar and ukulele, piano, strings, instrumental and voice. There are both competitive and non-competitive classes.
The festival is unique in its offering of speech arts competitions in which past participants have recited poems and Shakespearean soliloquies, and scenes from films and plays.
Festival chair Andy Blackwood said that was important to Linda Bonadeo-Boll, who founded the event in 1986.
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“Linda said not everyone can afford an instrument or lessons or have a place to play but everyone has a voice,” said Blackwood.
“The festival gives kids an opportunity to perform in public. It enhances their lives to be able to express themselves and allows for kids who don’t have an outlet at school to get up and sing, or get up and play and to be listened to by a professional adjudicator to help them get better.”
While most of the participants are between the ages of about six and 20, Blackwood said there are also some adults, many of whom enter the non-competitive classes.
Festival volunteers like to bring in new adjudicators each year who are professionals in the arts and offer young participants encouraging feedback on their performances and advice on how they can improve.
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“Sometimes after the adjudicator suggests something you see a difference immediately,” Blackwood said. “It’s like night and day. That motivates them to keep going.”
“We like watching them come back and see their improvement year after year.”
The festival, completely organized and operated by volunteers and funded through sponsorship, provides winning participants with awards, trophies and scholarships. Both the Rotary Cup for voice and speech arts and the Norfolk Musical Arts Festival Instrumental Cup come with a $1,000 prize.
Entrance for spectators to the festival is by donation.
“People who have never been really should come,” Blackwood said. “It’s such an enjoyable thing to watch kids perform — and they need an audience.
“It’s my favorite week of the year.”
Registration for the Norfolk Musical Arts Festival can be done at nmaf.ca
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