We are pleased to announce that we will once again be hosting the Saskatoon Academy of Music Festival from May 9th - 16th inclusive. The festival is a great opportunity for students to enjoy friendly competition, gain familiarity with public performance, benefit from the knowledge and expertise of the adjudicators that we bring in, and meet fellow musicians their age. We are also adding the option for adjudication only (non-competitive) performance in all categories this year!
Last year we ran the event in person, with the option for students to join us remotely via Zoom as necessary. Participants performed on stage in the Academy for our adjudicators and received their feedback in person, while the event was live streamed for family and friends to watch on our Facebook page throughout the week. We were able to keep group sizes quite small doing this, while still honouring the importance of live performance experiences for our students. We anticipate running our event the same way this year, barring public health orders that indicate we should do otherwise. Please note that the Festival runs 9:00am - 9:00pm daily, including during school/work hours.
Festival runs as our school recitals do; lesson fees for the week will cover students for one class entry. Those who are not participating in Festival will receive a lesson at an alternate time/date as determined between the student and the teacher (no lessons will be running during Festival week in order to provide a quiet environment for our participants). Students wishing to enter the festival will pay a $25.00 admin fee (this covers awards, adjudicator pay and per diems, and other staffing/admin hours associated with running such a large event) and receive one class entry as part of their lesson fees. Students wishing to enter more than one class can do so by paying an additional class fee of $25.00 per class entered. (Students who do hour-long lessons are entitled to two class entries).
Entry forms are available at the front desk - just speak to your teacher! Forms are due no later than Saturday, March 19th along with the admin entry fee of $25.00, and any additional class fees. Please note that this fee is NON-REFUNDABLE, as festival costs, schedule, and adjudicator hours are calculated and committed based on the number of entrants at the end of March.
To celebrate the conclusion of the Festival, overall winners will be invited to participate in a studio recording session with Rainy Day Recording Co. to create a digital Academy of Music student album!
We will have the festival schedule available for students in the first week of April so that families can make adequate scheduling arrangements. Thank-you for supporting our festival, and we hope to hear many of you perform!