By Voice staff
The Morden Festival of the Arts wrapped up its 51st season Sunday with its highlights concert, featuring performances from this year’s top participants in each discipline.
At its highlights concert Sunday afternoon (top picture), the Morden Festival of the Arts handed out awards to accomplished young performers, including the Loreena McKennitt Award to cellist and vocalist Katrina Banman
The festival had featured adjudicated sessions in strings, sacred music, piano, choral vocal, band, and French and English speech arts through March and April.
The afternoon concert also included the presentations of numerous awards, including the Loreena McKennitt Award, which is presented each year to a performer judged to have reached a level of excellence in their musical studies and who plans to continue studies and a career in the performing arts.
This year’s winner is Katrina Banman.
Banman’s musical journey began with learning how to play the violin at the age of four. She switched to the cello two years later and began taking voice lessons as well.
Banman has sung and played cello at the Morden Festival of the Arts for many years, and has also honed her singing voice in preparation for competition at the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) competition in Winnipeg This past year at NATS, she received an honourable mention.
She has also sung with the Central Manitoba Youth Choir and performed in Garden Valley Collegiate’s production of The Wizard of Oz.
Banman plans to continue her musical studies at the University of Manitoba. She has dreams of one day singing in operas and having her own music studio.
Other award winners included:
• Strings awards to Lola Johnston, Lauren Peters, Franklin Kroeker, Ramona Elias, Silas Kebernik, Jaden Schulz, Emily Pelser, Andy Funk, Mary Mierau, and Sam Kroeker.
• Strings duet, trio, or quartet award to Jack Kroeker and Franklin Kroeker.
• Piano awards to Ellis Derksen, Adria Nickel, Isabelle Peters, Erika Kauenhofen, Azalea Derksen, Everett Wiens, Aaron Schulz, Brayden Wang, Jessica Kagan, Heidi Wiens, and Deidre Penner.
• Vocal awards to Everest Warkentin, Lauren Peters, Abby Loutchan, Ruqaiya Rubaiyat, Hallie Loutchan, and Katrina Banman.
• Vocal award for duet, trio, or quartet to Abby Loutchan and Hallie Loutchan.
• Speech arts awards to Maxine Noseworthy, Raya Noseworthy, Ainsley Noseworthy, Brayden Wang, Lucina Rocha Routhier, Gabriella Jerema, Rebecca Kagan, and Jessica Kagan.
• Speech arts duet, trio, or quartet award to Alexia Friesen and Pia Gardiner Toews.
• Sacred to Lauren Peters (strings, beginner to Gr. 4), Tennessee Johnston, Taylor Friesen, and Franklin Kroeker (strings ensemble), Isabelle Peters (piano, beginner to Gr. 4), Hallie Loutchan (piano, Gr. 5 and up), Sophia Buschmann and Lauren Peters (vocal, 12 years and under), Abby Loutchan (vocal, 18 years and under), Isabelle Peters and Lauren Peters (vocal ensemble), and Josh Wiens, James Wiens, Paul Wiens, and David Giesbrecht (mixed ensemble).
Numerous performers also received adjudicator’s recommendations to move on to represent our area at the Provincial Music & Arts Festival in Winnipeg next month.
