The Evergreen Festival of the Arts wrapped up its 42nd year of spotlighting the musical and other artistic talents of youth in the Evergreen School Division’s catchment area.
This year’s festival attracted over 180 entrants, who competed in dance, piano, instrumental, speech, Orff, and vocal/choral over the course of April and were assessed by professional adjudicators.
The festival held its Hi-Lites Concert on May 5 where the entrants chosen by the adjudicators for demonstrating precision, excellence and artistry performed in their respective discipline and were then presented with awards or scholarships.
Photos Courtesy of Evergreen Festival of The Arts
The festival’s president Krystal Isfeld said the Evergreen region has a number of high calibre musical performers and other artists.
“The festival had a very successful year,” said Isfeld, who’s a musician, teacher and assistant principal at Sigurbjorg Stefansson Early School. “For such a small area in the Interlake, we have tons of talent. We have a very talented musical area.”
Apart from three years during the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival has run every year since its inception in May 1981.
It’s run by a volunteer committee who are dedicated to promoting and supporting arts in the region. Two of the members – Janice Arnason and Larry Moore – have been on the committee since 1981, said Isfeld. And the family of another committee member, who passed away last year, set up a memorial scholarship in her name to help youth continue on with their musical pursuits.
“Lisa Baker was part of our festival committee and an extremely huge supporter of the arts in our community. She did tons of fundraising,” said Isfeld. “When she passed away, her family asked that the donations people wanted to make came to the Evergreen Festival of the Arts. Her family is now sponsoring a scholarship every year in her memory. It will allow a student to attend the International Music Camp at the Peace Garden. Lisa’s husband Grant and her son Mitchell presented the first award this year.”
Photos Courtesy of Evergreen Festival of The Arts
The Evergreen Festival of the Arts’ awards and scholarship winners for 2025 are as follows:
Band/Instrumental: Band Merit Awards (Sponsor: Evergreen Festival of the Arts) – Dr. George Johnson Middle School (DGJMS) and Winnipeg Beach School (WBS) Grade 7 Band, Gimli High School (GHS) Senior Band.
Orff: Best Performance in Orff (Sponsor: Evergreen Festival of the Arts) – DGJMS Grade 5 (Mr. Gibson’s class), Certificate of Distinction – Sigurbjorg Stefansson Early School (SSES) Grade 3 (Mrs. Mager’s class).
Piano: Best Performance in Beginner Piano (Sponsor: Romanna Klymkiw Music Studio) – Sella Johnson; Best Performance in Piano Gr. 1-3 (Sponsor: R.M of Gimli) – Nate Borkowsky; Best Performance in Piano Gr. 4-6 (Sponsor: Evergreen Festival of the Arts) – Lucia Borkowsky; Best Performance in Piano Gr. 7 & up (Sponsor: Town of Winnipeg Beach) – Tessa Johnson, Johanna Wall.
Dance: Best Performance in School Dance (Sponsor: Riverton Friendship Centre) – Riverton Early Middle School (REMS) Grade 5 & 6; Best Performance in Dance, open (Sponsor: Evergreen Festival of the Arts) – Tenleigh Smolinski; Dance Scholarship (Sponsor: Kiwanis) – Paisley Abuda; FORM Dance Scholarship (Sponsor: Adjudicator Brynne Abgrall) – Kyra Borgfjord.
Speech: Best Performance in Speech K-4 (Sponsor: Minerva Ladies Aid) – Nate Borkowsky; Best Performance in Speech Gr. 5 and up (Sponsor: Baker Law Gimli & Riverton) – Lucia Borkowsky; Best Performance in Speech Choir (Sponsor: Rona Gimli & Rockwood) – SSES Grade 4 (Mrs. Braga’s class).
Vocal/Choral: Best Vocal Performance 12 and under (Sponsor: Westshore Singers) – Lucy and Tilley Kilpatrick; Best Vocal Performance 13 and over (Sponsor: St. Michaels Catholic Women’s League and receives Lillian Fridfinnson Scholarship) – Liubov Smyrnova.
Best Performance in Musical Theatre: (Sponsor: H.P. Tergesen and Sons) – Adalynn Tupper.
Best Performance in School Choir K-8: (Sponsor: Evergreen School Division) – WBS Grade 3.
Best Performance in School Group open: (Sponsor: Access Credit Union) – DGJMS Grade 5&6 Choir.
Best Performance in Contemporary (Sponsor: Aurora Peiluck) – Adalynn Tupper.
Certificate of Distinction – Elin Isfeld & Malakai Pelletier.
Best Overall Performance (Sponsor: Kiwanis) – Liubov Smyrnova.
IMC [International Music Camp] Scholarship (Sponsor: Riverton Elks) – Tenleigh Smolinski.
Lisa Baker Memorial Scholarship – Adalynn Tupper.
Johannes Palsson Memorial Scholarship – Tessa Barkman.
Lilja Martin Memorial Scholarships – Nate Borkowsky, Lucia Borkowsky, Tessa Barkman.
Lillian Fridfinnson Scholarship – Liubov Smyrnova.
Trophy Class participants were Sella Johnson, Nate Borkowsky (poetry & piano), Tessa Barkman, Tenleigh Smolinski, Lucia Borkowsky (piano, speech & vocal), Lucy & Tilley Kilpatrick, Liubov Smyrnova and Adalynn Tupper.
The Evergreen festival is a non-profit organization that’s funded by the money it receives from registration fees, sponsors and scholarship funds. The festival has to pay its adjudicators, including their accommodation costs if they have to travel and stay overnight.
“A big thanks to our sponsors. We couldn’t do this without them because we have a volunteer committee. Everything is basically funded by our sponsors,” said Isfeld. “The Evergreen School Division is one of our biggest sponsors; they provide all the busing of the school kids. Busing is very expensive. If the division didn’t do that, we couldn’t run this festival at all. The division also provides some venues for the festival and that saves us money. In addition to the division, some community organizations donate a venue to us. For example, the Arborg-Bifrost Community Centre donated its hall for the dance portion of the festival, and the Waterfront Centre in Gimli let us use Johnson Hall for two days and an evening. That’s a huge cost saving for us. Our local churches also donate venues.”
To help students attend the International Music Camp, the Riverton Elks provides $1,000 every year to the festival to send a youth to the camp, said Isfeld, who had competed in the festival when she was young and also attended the music camp.
Core sponsors of the festival were Access Credit Union, Baker Law Gimli & Riverton, Evergreen School Division, H.P. Tergesen & Sons, Lilja Martin Scholarship, Riverton Elks, the Lisa Baker Memorial Scholarship, Riverton Friendship Centre, RONA Gimli & Rockwood, Johannes Paulson Scholarship, and the Betel Waterfront Centre.
Community donors were the Arborg-Bifrost Community Centre, Aurora Peiluck, Gimli Lutheran Church, Kiwanis Club of Gimli, Lakeview Hotel Gimli, Lillian Fridfinnson Family, Riverton Lutheran Church, RM of Gimli, Romanna Klymkiw Music Studio, St. Michael’s Catholic Women’s League, Town of Winnipeg Beach, Westshore Singers, Minerva Ladies Aid, and Sobeys Gimli.
