Jennika Bobryk Wows at Recital

Jennika Bobryk is a grade 10 piano student here at the Music School. She takes private lessons and piano group lessons with Karen Rempel, and has taken theory with Geoff Barker…this all means she spends a lot of time perfecting her skills with the piano.

Karen’s students performed at their end of year recital this past weekend, and Jennika played Elegie by Rachmanioff. Watch as she plays this piece with such passion and conviction!

Jennika Bobryk and Karen Rempel

On The Hunt for Mystery Jars

Country Fair is around the corner, and we are starting to collect the Mystery Jars! If you are interested in participating, feel free to drop off a jar filled with all kinds of goodies! Bubbles, candy, art supplies, little toys, stickers, glow-in-the-dark jewelry are some ideas you can use to fill up your Mystery Jar. Feel like covering the jar to make it even trickier to guess what is inside? Fantastic! Bring them by the office when they are filled up, or put them in a box that is waiting outside of the office. The more Mystery Jars we have, the better! Don’t have a jar but would still like to participate? No problem! We have some extra ones here at the school that you can use and fill up. The best part of the suspense is watching the kids try and figure out what is in their jar!

Country Fair: June 7th, 4pm-7pm. See you there!

NEW – Let’s Sing-Preschool

Do you have a young child who LOVES to sing? Do they sing in the car, in the bathtub and in the grocery store? Then we have the perfect group program for them to bring out their inner Celine Dions and Michael Bubles! Check out Kim van Wensem’s class for kids aged 4-5, on Tuesdays at 1:00pm.

These aspiring singers will play singing games, participate in fun learning activities in a relaxed setting, and learn the basics of vocal technique, breathing, pitch, rhythm, music notation, solfege, performance, musical theatre and more! The cost is $504 for the full year (September to June), and only $56/month! Register your singer today by calling the Music School at 250-545-4977.

Calling All Glee Enthusiasts!

Do you love singing, dancing, and getting your ‘Queen’ on? Glee is looking for you to perform Bohemian Rhapsody! Auditions for the December 2019 performance are coming up, June 22nd and 23rd at 1:00pm. Give Therese Parent a call to learn more, 250-307-7701.

Noah Wessels Wins Scholarship

Noah is in grade 8 piano with Daisy Penner, and played Mozart’s piece ‘Sonata in C Major, 1st Movement’ at the Scholarship Recital this past weekend. Noah did such a great job, he won the Peter and Pauline Legg Memorial Scholarship! Listen to the speed of his fingers hitting every key so effortlessly. Well done Noah, we can’t wait to hear your next recital piece!

Jax Dolman Wins The Vernon Community Singers Scholarship

Jax sang ‘Lachen und weinen’ in a breathtaking performance at the Scholarship Recital on Saturday. He is a grade 8 voice student of Kimberley van Wensem, and lives for the fine arts. He won the Vernon Community Singers Scholarship, a local multi-generational choir. The choir has two sessions per year; with concerts in December and April, and they share their love of music and community spirit by supporting local non-profit music education organizations with financial assistance.

Congratulations Jax!

Rishali Vincent Sings at the VCMS Scholarship Recital

Rishali, a grade 6 voice student of Therese Parent, and a grade 7 piano student of Daisy Penner, performed in her first Scholarship Recital on Saturday. Rishali sang Shenandoah arranged by Mark Mrozinski, and played a piano piece, called Nocturne by Clifford Poole. Her piano performance won her the Dante Darkazanli Memorial Scholarship! Well done, Rishali, both performances were fantastic!

Here she is singing Shenandoah.

Alyssa Goff Wins Elizabeth Scott Scholarship

Alyssa Goff is a grade 6 voice student of Therese Parent, and has been training with her since September. This is her first Scholarship Recital at the Music School, and she did an amazing job! She sang ‘On My Own’ from Les Miserables and won the Elizabeth Scott Scholarship for Young Musicians!

The Elizabeth Scott Vocal Choral Award was established in 2006 with donations from her choirs: Scott Singers, Young Scott Singers, and the community. It is managed by the Community Foundation of the North Okanagan. The award was initially to recognize and assist promising voice students enrolled in post secondary music education. The recipients between 2008 and 2016 were: Nathan Letourneau, Heather Harker, Alison Harker, Sioban Raupach, Alexa Hildebrandt, Cormac Eby, Sidney Cummings, and Alexa MacDougall. These musicians have all continued their long term involvement in music. Several have shared their musical gifts with the community through concerts and teaching.

After the 2016 award the decision was made to expand the scope of the award to all disciplines of music and a younger age group. It is now administered by the Vernon Community Music School. The amended name is The Elizabeth Scott Scholarship for Young Musicians.

Well done Alyssa!

Guitar Group Wins Scholarship

Huge congratulations to Jadyn Dobernigg, Jeremy Fehlauer, and Seamus Powell, for winning a scholarship for their piece C.C. Rider. This group of students have only been playing together for a year, but their seamless transition from player to player made it seem like they have been playing together forever! The presentation was so enjoyable to watch and listen to. Well done, team! You knocked it out of the park!

C.C. Rider

Scholarship Recital A Massive Success

This past Saturday, we had our annual Music School Scholarship Recital. What a phenomenal event! The talent that comes out of our Music School is outstanding. Thank you to all of the students who practiced and played so beautifully, the Loft was truly a magical place to be this weekend; THANK YOU so much to all of the parents/grandparents/family members who support our musicians by encouraging students to practice, and driving them to and from lessons.

Congratulations to all of our scholarship winners:

This year we had a record amount of money donated from the community to go towards scholarships for our students. We were very happy to see the Banducci family come to the Scholarship Recital, who donated a generous scholarship to the program.

Banducci Family

The Sandro L. Banducci Memorial Scholarship Fund was created in memory of Sandro Banducci (April 30, 1967 – January 25, 2018), who loved music. Among other musical interests, he was an accomplished acoustic guitarist who dedicated countless hours to technically mastering his beautiful instrument. Music, along with his wonderful sense of humour, shaped his life and filled his soul. The Memorial Scholarship Fund has been created in his honour to support talented, high level students in Grades 9, 10 or ARCT levels.

If you see any of the scholarship donors in our community, please go and thank them for their contribution. Without them, our scholarship recital would not be at the capacity that it currently is.

Check out some of the photos from the event:

Josh Mark playing Happy Time Jazz
Veronika Ociepa playing Waltz in A Minor
Joanna Osborn playing Sonatina in C Major
Salome Making playing Etude in G Minor
Ava Stanley playing Andante in G Minor
Laura Hrabchuk playing Souvenir
Mark Hesketh playing Solfeggio in C Minor
Jenny Sunderland singing Apres un reve
Jadyn, Jeremy and Seamus playing C.C. Rider
Ella Bannon playing You Raise Me Up
Mathias Volk playing Meditation from Thais
Craig Matterson playing Prelude in C# Minor