The faint sound of instruments tuning up can be heard all over the region.
It's a familiar sound. It's been happening this time of year, here, since 1951.
The next edition of the annual Prince George & District Music Festival is about to strike up the band for 2017.
The festival is "opening this Sunday at 1 p.m. with the Nechako Orchestra at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church," said festival volunteer Gina Bialuski.
After that, it is a full-out run to Feb. 25 when competition ends.
"All disciplines except piano are at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church. Piano is at the Evangelical Free Church," Bialuski said.
The instrument categories are broken into segments. Strings start on Sunday, Instrumental starts on Friday, Vocal/Choral events start on Feb. 18, then Piano streams happen starting on Feb. 20.
The adjudicators are always a highlight of each year's festival.
Some are local and some travel in from afar to work with the competitors in each discipline.
Joanne Hounsell (winner of the Maureen Forrester Award and the Sylva Gelber Award) will bring her vocal skills from Victoria.
UBC Music School faculty member Miranda Wong will come to judge the piano competitors.
Prince George Symphony Orchestra's own Lynn Giesbrecht will be overseeing the instrumental divisions.
Juilliard graduate Carla Trynchuk will come in from Michigan to adjudicate the strings section.
The public is welcome to attend any of the competition performances, and after all the judging is complete there is a pair of special performances of particular interest to the public at large.
Each year, the Prince George and District Music Festival gives dedicated players and singers the chance to do their best work in front of audiences and adjudicators.
The creme of those competitive performances are awarded prizes and the best of the best get the call to come back for a two-part spotlight to close the event.
The first is the showcase recital, during which the city's best young and emerging talent gets to perform, giving the public a sneak peek at who the big prize winners of tomorrow might be.
The second is the festival gala where the top artistic scorers come back for an encore of the best of the best. Both of these special variety concerts happen on March 4 at Vanier Hall.
