Staff
The Rainy River District Festival of the Performing Arts will wrap up its 2016 event with the annual “highlights” concert tomorrow night (May 10).
Slated for 6:30 p.m. at the Townshend Theatre, the concert will feature some of this year’s star performances from the three weeks the festival ran last month.
Four Rose Bowl winners also will be honoured, as well as other awards selected by the adjudicators.
“It’s a bit of a change,” Festival committee chair Dave Schwartz noted about the date of the concert.
“We are not going on the weekend this year because they were all booked up,” he explained.
“It’s also a little more expensive to have the theatre on the weekends so we’ve elected to go during the week.”
“We’re hoping we still get a great turnout,” he added.
Schwartz said this year’s Festival was another success.
“Things really went well,” he remarked, noting there were many outstanding performances in all divisions—piano, drama, vocal, and instrumental.
“I believe the Festival is an important part of our community,” Schwartz stressed.
“It allows participants to grow in many ways.”
And he added he’s thrilled to see so many different individuals and groups come together to make the Festival happen.
“They donated time, money, and service to the Festival,” Schwartz said.
They also are thankful for the volunteers, teachers, parents, and families, as well as the venues that open their doors for the Festival to use every year.
Schwartz also is appreciative of the adjudicators, Sarah Hall (vocal), Melanie Whyte (drama), Andrea Coyle (French drama), Jane Petroni (piano), and Nancy Nowosad (Instrumental), who offered praise, advice, and encouragement to the local performers.
Performers scheduled to appear during the “highlights” concert include Mika Kooistra, Mickenna Ryll, Tori Anne Toriseva, Christian Wiedenhoeft, Alexa Veldhuisen, Scott Jolicoeur, Piper Lidkea, Presley McQuaker, Mira Donaldson, Tirzah Carradice, Cassandra Armstrong, Katrina Klug and Grace Kooistra, Joelle Bruyere, Samuel Loewen, Katelyn Bruyere, and Jacob Gustafson.
Also slated to perform are Jordan Eldridge, Anika Beaudry, Callahan Wiedenhoeft, Alexis Latter, Caitlin Anderson, Morgan Beckett, Andrew Eldridge, Anna Schwartz, Evan Caul, Anne Jean, Emma Dykstra, Raymond Polz, Tianna Veldhuisen, Brianna Eldridge, and Hannah Veldhuisen.
There also will be performances from several groups, including the boys’ choir, Early Years class, and Grade 3 class from Robert Moore School, the Grade 2 class from St. Michael’s School, and the Grade 5 class from St. Francis School.
Also slated to perform is a readers’ theatre group (Zoey Bruyere, Olivia Handberg, Alexis Latter, Cadance Sinclair, and Rachel Ste. Croix) and the Fort Frances Youth Ensemble (Anna Schwartz, Katelyn and Joelle Bruyere, Brianna Eldridge, and Callahan and Christian Wiedenhoeft).
“I would like to invite the public to come out and see the amazing cross-section of talent that we have here in the Rainy River District,” Schwartz said.
Admission to the “highlights” concert is $5.
