69th annual Medicine Hat Rotary Music Festival in full swing

Speech is one of these areas of opportunity.

Fifteen-year-old Jeeya Gupta performed her speech, “Snow White Gets Her Say” on Wednesday.

Gupta has been performing at the festival since the age of six in a variety of areas and enjoys finding something new each year.

“Every monologue, every scene requires something different,” Gupta said.

“Costumes, props, words, acting, everything it differs between the scenes,” she added.

“It’s always fun and new experiences every year and new adjudicators come, so always new feedback.”

Gupta is also participating in classical singing and musical theatre.

Tanya Acharya is 13-year-old, she performed her speech, “Secret Agent Little Red Riding Hood” on Wednesday.

Acharya has been participating in the festival as long as she can remember.

“I’ve been doing it for a really long time. I don’t know what age but it’s being going for quite a while,” Acharya said.

“I wanted to do it just because it’s a big opportunity to do this and it’s really fun, you get to skip school,” she added.

Acharya said she still gets nervous before she performs.

“”Before I go on stage I’m scared and nervous, and then I go on stage and I’m performing my piece it gets more soothing,” Acharya said.

“I feel less tense, it’s something that makes me happy. It’s better on stage.”

Festival Chair Don Davis feels there is importance to supporting the arts.

“This means music, dance those kinds of things,” Davis said.

“It’s very important for children to be exposed to that so that they know what opportunities are out there,” he added.

“They don’t realize what they’ve got inside until they try and perform in front of an audience and realize that what they’ve done is quite a remarkable feat.”

Davis also appreciates the work the adjudicators put in each year.

“A wonderful group of people,” Davis said.

“They really do put a lot of effort into their evaluations of the kids when they’re performing,” he added.,

“Take the extra time for many of them to show them this little technique or this little technique on the musical instrument or on a dance step or something like that.”

Gupta is grateful for the Rotary Music Festival and said it’s been a big part of her life.

“My parents always tell me how lucky I am to be able to do these kind of things and be able to experience all of these different genres of art,” Gupta said.

“I feel that I just learn so much every year and it makes, it gives me something to look forward to every year, whether that be with speech or singing or guitar or piano,” she added.

“I get to come here and I get to perform and I get to do my best and then get feedback and hopefully better myself.”

The Ecole Connaught School choir waiting to perform two pieces to be adjudicated during the Medicine Hat Rotary Music Festival. (Photo Submitted by: Dennis Buchko)

The festival runs this week and next with the Rosebowl competition March 15th and Stars performance on March 17th.

The full schedule is available at the Rotary Music Festival website.

by Jesse Gill

69th annual Medicine Hat Rotary Music Festival in full swing

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