Wendy Brook Music Festival Around the Corner

Wendy Brook Music Festival Around the Corner

Submitted

The 41st annual Wendy Brook Music Festival is set to begin on March 9 and will run until March 16. It is open to the public, with most events taking place at the Vegreville United Church. There are also some events at the Vegreville Alliance Church and the A.L. Horton School Gymnasium. Everyone is invited to come and listen to the talent we have in Vegreville. Performers will be adjudicated by professionals in the field, and they adjudicate in the areas of piano, band/instruments, vocal, speech arts and Ukrainian performances.

Our piano adjudicator is Esther Madsen. She is a career studio teacher and musician with over forty years of experience in her field of theory and piano studies. Even while working towards her Associate degree she took on a full studio of students. Her Associate degree, in pedagogy, is from the Western Board, now Conservatory Canada studying with Vera Shean and Carmen Blomert. A Bachelor of Arts specializing in Music rounded out her education. She still enjoys learning through workshops and masterclasses, especially when she is the clinician. She has prepared students for all levels of exams for all the national schools, including, the Royal Conservatory, Canada Conservatory, and the Canadian National Conservatory of Music. Besides preparing students for examinations, she enjoys teaching music for the joy of music, inspiring old and young alike with the love of music as it enriches and fulfills our lives.

Esther Madsen will be the piano adjudicator at this year’s Wendy Brook Music Festival in Vegreville.

Esther has been active in the festival movement for her whole life. She was first a performer, an accompanist, then as a parent of performers, and now is enjoying adjudicating.. She later moved to being president of her own local festival for many years, and is still a volunteer at her local level.

While serving a three year term as a member of the Provincial Executive for the Alberta Music Festival Association, the National Music Festival was held in Edmonton for 2 of those years which brought the excitement of the local level to a much larger stage.

Esther has been conducting choirs for over forty years. She loves the dynamic of people participating collectively to create and enjoy making music together. In the past 10 years she has been involved in two community choirs: the Elk Island Regional Honor choir and more recently, as the director of Festival Singers of Sherwood Park.

Mark Henderson will be the speech arts adjudicator at this year’s Wendy Brook Music Festival in Vegreville.

Our speech arts adjudicator is Mark Henderson. He is an Edmonton Actor and Director. He is also the Artistic Director of Theatre Prospero, a theatre company specializing in Canadian Classical Theatre, and the Thousand Faces Festival, a multicultural, multidisciplinary festival of mythic art. Mark has acted in and directed dozens of plays. He holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Directing from the University of Alberta, and a Bachelor of Arts in Acting from Dalhousie University. As a young man, he had the privilege to study Speech Arts under the late, great, Walter Kaasa. Outside the world of words and art, Mark is a father, a skier, an avid cyclist, and an advocate for the preservation of public education and healthcare.

Daniel Davies will be the bands and instruments adjudicator at this year’s Wendy Brook Music Festival in Vegreville.

Our bands and instruments adjudicator is Daniel Davies. He is a saxophonist and educator from Edmonton, AB. He completed his Masters in Jazz Studies at the University of South Florida in 2009. The Writers’ Guild, a new music composition collective he co-leads received a WCMA nomination for their record “Based on a True Story.” In 2015 Dan’s composition “What Happens Next” received an Edmonton Music Award for Best Jazz Recording. Dan has been fortunate enough to perform with P.J. Perry, Tommy Banks, Jim Head, Joel Gray, Juno winners Mike Murley and Kevin Turcotte, Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne, the Yardbird Suite Jazz Orchestra, the Edmonton Jazz Orchestra, and the Glen Miller Orchestra.

Dan’s latest project is his trio featuring Josh McHan on Bass, and Jamie Cooper on Drums. This ensemble features Dan on Baritone Sax, essentially making this a low down, heavy, two-bass band.

Currently, Dan is an instructor at MacEwan University and the MacEwan Conservatory of Music at Alberta College. He gives master classes and performances around his home province of Alberta and across Western Canada.