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Young musicians take the stage

The Prince George and District Music Festival is preparing to celebrate its 60th anniversary, with organizers are expecting more than 900 participants to enter from communities like Burns Lake, McBride, Vanderhoof and Prince George.

The Prince George and District Music Festival is preparing to celebrate its 60th anniversary, with organizers are expecting more than 900 participants to enter from communities like Burns Lake, McBride, Vanderhoof and Prince George.

They will perform for professional adjudicators in instrumental, piano, strings and vocal categories, with the most popular usually being piano.

A large number of the vocal section includes musical theatre numbers and we are pleased to have several school and community choirs participating, said Gina Bialuski, festival volunteer.

The festival has grown yearly from about 20 competitors to what it is today, and has played a role in the successes of many local students who have gone on to make music their career, Bialuski said.

This year's festival starts on Feb. 26, with the entry deadline being Jan. 14, 2011,

with string sessions at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church on Ospika and Dufferin.

Vocal begins on March 3, choral begins on March 7, and instrumental on March 9, all at the same venue. Piano sessions start on Feb. 27 at The Evangelical Free Church on Fifth Avenue.

The program of classes will be available in early February.

Professional musicians are brought in to adjudicate students and to provide advice and encouragement to everyone.

This year's professional adjudicators will be William Vandersloot for strings, Cynthia Goddard for piano, Brenda Fedoruk for instrumental, Reid Spencer for vocal and Sandra Meister for choir. Meister, sister to city manager, Derek Bates, grew up in Prince George and was the founder and conductor of the internationally acclaimed Die Meistersinger Children's Choir.

She has received many awards, including the Governor General's Award for outstanding service to arts and culture in Canada.

Each year students are chosen to represent Prince George at the Performing Arts B.C. Festival, which will be held in Kamloops in June.

The syllabus, a list of festival rules and regulations, is now available at Studio 2880 and at Long and McQuade on George Street. People of all musical levels are welcome to participate and are encouraged to pick up a free syllabus.

The festival wraps up with two concerts - the Showcase Recital and the Gala Concert - on March 13 at the Prince George Playhouse.