St. Albert Rotary Music Festival

Announcing the dates of the St. Albert Rotary Music Festival 2009

	Festival Dates	April 6 – 18, 2009 Excluding April April 10 and 12, 2009
	Grand Concert and Awards Presentation	April 22, 2009 Arden Theatre 7 PM

This annual showcase of talent is a rich learning experience as expert adjudicators encourage and inspire artistic as well as personal growth in a supportive environment. Students and teachers look forward to this unique opportunity and return each year.

The St. Albert Rotary Music Festival has celebrated 31 years in this community. With 1,000 entries a year, local participants have been successful at the provincial and national festivals as well. Indeed, the artistic careers begun in St. Albert are now contributing to the cultural life across the country and beyond.

Maryan Threndyle
Festival Secretary

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Message from Jackie Heitzman
Chair, Festival Committee 2008

The St. Albert Rotary Music Festival continues to be one of the premier Music Festivals in Alberta. The Rotary Club of St. Albert began sponsoring the festival in 1994 and takes pride in having it as our primary Community Services Project.

The financial commitment by the Rotary Club to the Festival provides fees and expenses for adjudicators, scholarships, entry fees to the provincial festival, administration, venue and piano rentals, advertising and accounting expenses. The entry fees collected from the participants account for about 50% of the annual budget. The balance of the monies required to host the festival comes from grants and donations.

The main purpose of the Music Festival is to give an opportunity to young musicians, dancers, singers and speakers to perform in front of an audience and to be heard by professional adjudicators who can give the students positive instruction. This encourages and enhances their learning experience.

Many professional musicians started by performing in a local festival such as ours.

The St. Albert Music Festival is a city-wide event involving hundreds of volunteers from the community, including every member of the Rotary Club. Congregations in St. Albert have been generous in their support in allowing us to use their churches as venues for performances. The St. Albert Gazette, Alan and Christine Murdock, Don’s Piano Warehouse and the Government of Alberta through the Community Initiatives Program are major sponsors whose ongoing support is sincerely appreciated. Other sponsors include Canadian Tire, TD Canada Trust and the Rotary District 5370 and we thank them very much as well.

We also extend our thanks to many local restaurants and businesses who have donated gifts in kind, and to a growing number of people who support the Music Festival through tax-deductible donations made to the St. Albert Rotary Music Festival Association.