Bow Valley music students shine at provincial competition

Drawing hundreds of young musicians to Edmonton from May 27-30, the Alberta Provincial Music Festival saw top performances from eight Canmore, Banff and Cochrane-based performers.

“A lot of hard work goes into music study,” said Cathy Robinson, secretary of the Bow Valley Music Festival. “It is very gratifying to see that they are having these kinds of results.”

Canmore’s Vasylisa Nikolenko placed second in the piano concerto category and third in the 17 and under piano solo. Also taking home a top spot was Canmore’s Rowan Dial who came third in the Grade 10 piano solo category, while Claire McDonald from Cochrane finished third in the musical theatre ballad category.

“I walked away with a big confidence boost just to use it as motivation to keep going,” said Dial, who played for the fourth time at provincials.

The Grade 10 student performed Shimmer by Heather Schmidt and Frédéric Chopin’s Nocturne Op. 3 No. 2 in A-flat major.

“I'd underestimated the level of competition I would have this year, but now I kind of have a feel for what I will be up against next year even more so, and I know what I need to work on,” Dial added.

Nikolenko says she loves that provincials allow her to perform and continue working on her stage presence.“Every year I'm more inspired to grow next year,” said the Grade 11 student, who also made her fourth appearance at provincials.

Also attending the festival was Canmore’s Maeve Anderson and Trillian Klinkhammer (piano), Banff’s Sonora Inageda and Helena Mink on strings and Cochrane’s Juliet McDonald and Olivia Sine (voice).

“Considering our small regional festival producing three really good results, we're very pleased,” said Robinson.

The road to provincials starts at the annual Bow Valley Music Festival where students are given performance experience and the opportunity to advance to the annual province-wide competition.

“We celebrate no matter how many go forward into provincials. We celebrate all of our young musicians at our own festival and it's an opportunity for them to listen to one another and get to know one another and grow as a music community,” Robinson said.

Robinson has often seen provincials launch students into greater pursuits, with some going on to pursue music as a profession.