Jane McLaren, registrar 1602 Walton Street Cornwall, ON, K6H 1W2 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Welcome to our 65^th year.

The Kinsmen Club of Cornwall wish to invite you to celebrate 65 years of supporting and encouraging music and the arts in the Cornwall area!  This is our 64th year of the Kinsmen Music Festival and we are celebrating by offering you some great opportunities at this year’s festival, April 2 – 7, 2019.

Registration forms can be found ONLINE at https://www.cornwallkin.com/index.php/events/music-festival and then in the sidebar to the right.

Once again this year the Kinsmen Music Festival will promote a workshop style festival and performance experience in which the talents of each participant are celebrated and enhanced. At the request of our adjudicators, there will be no written notes.  In lieu of this the adjudicator will have increased time to workshop with the participants increasing opportunity for experiential learning. Parents and/or teachers will be permitted to videotape the workshop segment so that they can review the learning and work on the skills shared at the festival.  We encourage teachers to share this information with participants so that they can take advantage of this learning opportunity!  In order to better facilitate the workshop style memorization will is optional but encouraged.

This year the Kinsmen Music Festival is pleased to bring back our piano bursaries and voice bursaries to young musicians displaying outstanding potential at the festival across a variety of musical genre.  There will be up to six $50 bursaries awarded. Please note, in keeping with the non-competitive nature of the festival, the bursaries will be awarded for outstanding potential in music and not for the ‘best performance.’ 

NEW THIS YEAR the Kinsmen will be awarding up to $200 in scholarships to musicians going on to provincial competition.  These will be awarded in consultation with the adjudicators and will be presented in either $50 or $100 increments.  Attendance at Provincial Competition is required to be awarded a scholarship. 

For Piano competitors please review the classes. We have combined/consolidated some of the classes. This has allowed us to introduce a conservatory concert class (which is replacing the Challenge Class).  Duets and Trios, as well as “My Teacher and Me’ are combined under Ensembles.  This class now also includes an “Accompanist” class.  This new class encourages competitors to invite a soloist to perform with them.  Pianists will be adjudicated and coached on accompanying skills!  The soloist will not be adjudicated in this class.  The “My Teacher and Me” piano class is returning as part of the Ensemble class and teachers are welcome to perform in any duet or trio. In these classes only the student will be adjudicated and receive comments / assistance from the adjudicator (no stress or pressure for teachers)!  It is a great way for young performers who have not yet competed on the ‘theatre stage’ to test the waters without having to go solo for the first time.  Early year performances where there is a teacher’s accompaniment are welcome in this class as well as teacher/student duets! 

The Kinsmen Choice Trophy returns this year along with one or two additional new trophies. The Kinsmen Choice trophy will be decided by the Kinsmen volunteers who are in attendance throughout the week and presented to a individual or group that stood out during the week for the way their performance exemplified the heart of the Kinsmen Music Festival.  All competitors, private and school, solo and group, are eligible for this trophy and there may be more than one winner at the discretion of the Kinsmen.  Our other new trophies are through private donations and are being finalized at this time.

If you are interested in being a first time participant in our music festival we’d love to help you with the various classes, and let you know about our music festival. We are excited to have you and you’ll be glad you came!  If you are one of our hundreds of returning participants, welcome to another year of music, community spirit and renewed friendships. We’re looking forward to seeing you again and are glad you are taking part.

With A Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance and Vocal Pedagogy from New England Conservatory and co founder of the South Ottawa Performing Arts Collective, we welcome Morgan Strickland as our vocal adjudicator and Danielle McIntyre, a graduate of Brandon University with a Masters of Music in Piano Performance and Literature as our piano adjudicator. 

At this time we anticipate piano classes held in the afternoon and evenings of Tuesday and Wednesday with voice classes in the afternoon / evening of Thursday and Friday.  There will be no classes held on Saturday.  The Concert of the Stars will be 2PM on Sunday April 9th. This COULD CHANGE depending on registration numbers and adjudicator availability.  In order to confirm the final schedule to all teachers as soon as possible we require all registration to be submitted on time.

Deadline to register is Thursday February 28^th.  All events for the festival will be held at Aultsville Theatre at St. Lawrence College. (Note:  schedule is open to changes pending registration numbers)

The Festival of the Stars will be held the afternoon of Sunday April 7^th.  All trophies, bursaries, and cash prizes will be announced and presented at the Festival of the Stars concert.  This concert will hopefully be broadcast on Cogeco Cable 11. Participants will be notified throughout the festival of their recommendation to perform in this concert.  This concert will feature outstanding performances by participants from both the private and school participants who have performed during the festival week. We look forward to continuing the Festival of the Stars in its new format as the Kinsmen Music Festival celebrates young artists in the area!

Please refer to the registration form and festival rules for additional information. All documents are available on the website at www.cornwallkin.com  - just look under the music festival tab. You may also contact the registrar with any questions or clarifications needed.  We hope you are as excited by this year’s festival as we are.  Plan to join us in gaining new knowledge and skills at the 2019 Kinsmen Music Festival – workshop format!

Musically yours,

Jane McLaren on behalf of THE KINSMEN MUSIC FESTIVAL