The 2022 Sudbury Music Festival, formerly the Kiwanis Music Festival of Sudbury, will be held in April.
After 75 years the Kiwanis Club of Sudbury, although continuing to be supportive, will no longer sponsor the festival. Like many service groups, its membership has declined.
Local music teachers and enthusiasts who are passionate about the festival and the opportunities it provides young musicians have formed a new organization known as the Sudbury Music Festival.
"The organizing board has been working for the past eight months by Zoom to ensure Sudbury and area music students have a chance to perform and compete as they have in the past 75 years," says festival board chair Ralph McIntosh, in a press release. "Though the process has had its challenges, we are looking forward to entering a new era on a high note."
Sudbury Music Festival will be an online festival again in 2022 as COVID-19 precautions continue to restrict the size of social gatherings.
Instead of performing live for an adjudicator, participants will film their performance(s), and upload the video(s) to YouTube. Participants in each category will meet with their adjudicators on Zoom to view the videos together and receive their feedback and evaluations.
Musicians and vocalists must register by Feb. 28; the deadline for video submissions is March 25.
Information and the 2022 syllabus are available at www.sudburymusicfestival.ca.
"Our aim is to create as meaningful an experience for the participants as possible," says McIntosh. "The online format worked very well in 2021 and although we wish musicians could experience the excitement of live performances, the festival board is happy we can continue to provide an online alternative."
The festival board has announced that Louis Simão will be overseeing the 2022 competition as festival co-ordinator.
Simão, until recently located in Toronto, is a multi-instrumentalist and composer who has worked with numerous distinguished artists and ensembles. He was named “World Solo Artist of the Year” in 2017 by the Canadian Folk Music Awards. Sudbury is now this outstanding artist's home.
Tony Jurgilas of 50 Carleton has designed a new logo for the music festival. The logo incorporates the Kiwanis Club's blue and gold colours, a tribute to the Club’s successful 75-year history of support for the festival.
