Kiwanis, the bringer of harmony

Tuesday, 20 April 2004 — 11:09pm | Classical, Music

I think I slap this label on a lot of things, each in their own mutually exclusive localized contexts, but as the song goes, it’s the most wonderful time of the year.

This evening I went to see the Gala Opening of the 96th Edmonton Kiwanis Music Festival on the steps of City Hall. While my own Kiwanis roots are strictly in assorted piano classes in the Calgary equivalent, which took place in March, the same principle applies – the principle here being, go support young musicians and watch some performances in the competition. I guarantee that you will find at least one, if not many instances where you can say, “Wow, I wish I could do that as a kid.”

Tonight’s concert, at which the Lieutenant-Governor Lois Hole was in attendance, featured everything from the Gartner family, a father-and-three-sons accordion quartet, to seven-year-old piano prodigy Harris Wang, who appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno last year. It also featured my former high school classmate Christine Eggert, who performed Liszt’s Concert Etude No. 3 in D-flat (“Un sospiro”). Now I finally have the grounds to affirm to people that yes, she’s a phenomenal musician.

Unfortunately, I leave town before the Musical Theatre Competition at Muttart Hall (Grant McEwan College) on Sunday, but somebody out there attend for me by proxy. The festival proper runs from tomorrow to May 5th, and performances take place at Alberta College, McDougall Church and the Cosmopolitan Music Society Hall.

Previous:
Next:

submit to reddit