Welcome back after what was hopefully a relaxing holiday in some not so pleasant weather …if you were in Edmonton. Let’s hope all this will be gone by April and we experience our usual good weather for the festival.

At this point, Whistler Cantando has registered 33 concert bands, 24 jazz bands and 13 choirs for a total of 70 groups. We are expecting to make it to 100 ensembles by the end of January so if you know of other directors interested, have them sign up as soon as possible as prime times are going quickly. We have lots of times available for concert and jazz ensembles on Sunday morning and plan to have our instrumental workshops both during the day on Saturday and also on Sunday morning. We want to make a 1 night option available to Vancouver area ensembles so they can fit all of their groups in Saturday and Sunday morning and save on some expenses for the trip as we are aware of the hotel costs in Whistler.

If you haven’t already checked the various other links on our website, be sure to see who is coming to adjudicate. We have some great adjudicators, more Canadians this year than in the past, representing faculty from Canada’s best music schools – McGill University, University of Toronto, UBC, University of Alberta and Calgary, MacEwan University, University of Saskatchewan, University of Manitoba… The list goes on. 

We are equally excited about both the instrumental and choral groups performing at our evening concerts. Perhaps Canada’s best and biggest military ensemble, the RCA band from Edmonton is superb and regularly plays to full houses at other concerts in central and western Canada. They will be having programs on both Friday and Saturday evening in the Sea to Sky Ballroom featuring a variety of guest instrumental and vocal soloists. The Friday program is more pop and jazz oriented, and the Saturday evening program features the premiere euphonium soloist in the world today, David Childs. David hails from England where he solos regularly with orchestra, wind and brass bands and in recital. Both his father and uncle were world renowned soloists as well. David now teaches at University of North Texas and as well as conducts the Dallas Brass Band. We will also be featuring a jazz concert in the Rainbow Theatre on Saturday night that features our adjudicators, guest soloists from Vancouver as well as an All Girls Jazz Band made up of students performing in the jazz ensemble category. Attendance is limited to those participants as the hall only holds a bit more than 200.

An outstanding choral ensemble, the Chamber Choir from Central Washington University is a highly regarded, auditioned choral ensemble known for its exceptional performances, often receiving acclaim for its “liquid gold” sound and is directed by Dr. Nicole Lamartine. We are scheduling three concerts on Friday afternoon and early evening for choral participants. Dr. Lamartine will also be conducting choral workshops on Saturday morning and the mass choir will have a chance to sing with the choir as well.

Our guest ensembles and many of our adjudicators have sample programs on the net – most of them on YouTube but many on Facebook as well. Be sure to download some of their performances for your students so they know what to expect.

More specific information about festival details (where to go, what to bring, when to where, where to park, etc.) will be coming up at the end of January. 

Stay warm.

Dr. Dennis Prime

Cantando Festival Founder and Director