Powell River’s Festival of the Performing Arts and Pacific Region International Summer Music Academy (PRISMA) are collaborating to bring even more opportunities to local youth participants in 2019.
The alliance will offer some youth who take part in the 75th Festival of the Performing Arts later this winter the chance to perform at and emcee events at PRISMA in the summer.
“We are excited about the opportunity being offered by PRISMA to our festival participants,” said Festival of Performing Arts volunteer Monica Peckford. “Both of our organizations are committed to providing settings for young people to improve their performing, at our festival through adjudication and at PRISMA through master classes.”
Two instrumentalists from the festival who are recommended to the provincials will be invited to perform in a concert with pianist Edwin Sungpil Kim at PRISMA and those participating in speech arts will get emceeing opportunities as well as mentorship.
“We wanted to find ways to celebrate with the community, to see if there were some things we could do to encourage local kids to share the stage during PRISMA with the folks who we bring in,” said PRISMA admissions/student services coordinator Lynda Harris. “It is our hope that by collaborating we can bring interested students into the heart of PRISMA and in turn enrich the community through the language of classical music.”
Some past local PRISMA participants include cellists Hannah and Eli Schweitzer and violinists Julie Kennedy of country music duo Twin Kennedy and Madeline Hocking. Both violinists have gone on to pursue professional careers as musicians.
“Powell River is known locally and around the world for its cultural events and our committee is proud that our festival is the oldest one in the community, marking 75 years in 2019,” said Peckford.
Powell River Festival of the Performing Arts begins Saturday, February 23, and concludes with the Grand Concert on Friday, March 8, at Evergreen Theatre in Powell River Recreation Complex.Online registration is open until 4 pm on Tuesday, January 22. For more information or to register, go toevents.solarislive.com/PRfestival.
PRISMA takes placefrom June 17 to 29 will be celebrating its seventh year.
