President’s Report

Festival 2005

Our talented local musicians, their supportive families and dedicated music teachers, along with our wonderful volunteers, generous community donors, corporate sponsors and enthusiastic audiences all contributed to the success of our 32nd Annual Music Festival. Five excellent professional adjudicators provided advice and encouragement to 125 performers in 286 solo categories, along with 27 musical ensembles having as many as 75 members from community groups and local schools. This year gifted Festival winners received over $4,000 in awards and 44 trophies. Festival 2005 award winners performed for appreciative audiences in the annual Festival Highlights Concert and Piano Encore Concert. Sponsorship of these concerts by Wilson Creek Marketplace IGA, and Coast Recital Society is greatly appreciated. We also thank Steve Sleep and his student volunteers for providing live coverage and repeat broadcasts of the Festival Highlights Concert to a wide audience on the Sunshine Coast through Coast Cable.

Community support for Festival continues to increase, as you can see from the report of our very capable Treasurer, Aline McNeill. This year we are very pleased to be able to initiate a new Awards Fund to support the establishment of new awards. Our Festival Board has recommended establishing an Awards Committee to review our current awards, and make recommendations with respect to the introduction of new awards. Vice-President Dorothy Fraser has agreed to Chair this Committee, and would welcome volunteers. Dorothy has spent countless hours keeping track of our many trophies, transporting them to Festival venues and making sure they go to the correct recipients. She is working on plans with another supportive Festival partner, the Sunshine Coast Arts Council, to establish a trophy case for public display of Festival awards here at the Arts Centre. Many thanks for all your efforts on behalf of Festival, Dorothy!

This year costs of producing our Festival Syllabus and Program were reduced by the many hours of volunteer effort contributed by Terry Andrews – thank you, Terry! We are also very grateful for the continuing support of Interfor, where Dorothy and I spent many fun hours photocopying Festival material. Thanks also to dedicated Festival volunteer Bob D’Arcy who contributes many hours as our webmaster. Our new partnership with School District 46 provided Festival with access to Chatelech Theatre at no cost. This year Chatelech Theatre hosted the PWB and Acoustic and Electronic sessions; future usage may be expanded since Chatelech Theatre now has a piano.

In November, our Percussion, Woodwinds and Brass (PWB) Discipline Chair Lyle Carter resigned due to the pressure of other commitments. The Board extends sincere thanks to Lyle for his contributions to Festival, and wishes him success in his musical endeavors. Board Membership Chair Joe Hatherill agreed to take the PWB Chair responsibility, and Patti Gunning kindly accepted the invitation to join the Board as Membership Chair. We are delighted to have Patti as a Festival Director – her experience teaching music in schools is a great asset! This year our Society membership increased from 25 to 40, and we encourage Festival supporters to become members. Our Discipline Chairs were very busy with more Festival entries this year. Many thanks to Margaret Webb and her Piano Co-Chair Angela Johnson; Kathleen Hovey and her Strings Co-Chair (and new mother!) Germaine Foofat; Shelley Dillon Vocal; Joe Hatherill PWB; Angela and Joe as Co-Chairs for Acoustic & Electronic Music. Special thanks as well to Betty Paterson for her capable coordination of volunteers for all of the Festival venues!!

We were very touched that the family of the late Peggy Burritt chose to designate Festival for donations in her name, and we will establish a Peggy Burritt commemorative vocal duet award. We would like to express condolences to our Festival colleague Lois Fishleigh on the recent death of her husband John. Board members are making a Festival contribution in his name.

At the conclusions of today’s business meeting, we will enjoy performances by our two very gifted provincial candidates, Virginia Hay-Roe (flute) and Neal Andrews (piano). Neal earned a runner-up award for his performance in the Intermediate Canadian Composition Piano Class. In addition, this year for the first time our Festival sent an entry to the Choral competition, Choralations Children’s Choir.

Thanks to our energetic Board members, supportive community members, donors and talented participants Festival 2005 was very successful. I look forward to working with you all in Festival 2006!