2015 Composition Festival
KANATA, ON March 2015 – Music for Young Children has just completed its 28th International Composition Festival with 7,942 MYC students taking part in Canada, the U.S., Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Vietnam. Compositions are judged within their level in four different regions – Western Canada (BC, AB, SK, MB), Eastern Canada (ON, PQ, NS, NB, PEI, NF), United States, Asia & New Zealand (South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam). The eight first place (eight different age levels) International winners each receive $250.
According to Frances Balodis, MYC Composition Chairperson and founder of Music for Young Children, “This year all of the reviewers noticed that students were listening to their teacher about giving titles to their compositions. Almost every composition did in fact have a title. That makes compositions so much easier to understand. The titles were often about weather as we have had such a tricky winter this year! We all want to have spring! Some titles were about flowers and warmer times.”
Cathy Morabito a teacher and Quebec Coordinator and who was our guest judge this year said “As a teacher I never really knew the process of the selections and often wondered how they went about it. I can assure you that it is not a process taken lightly. Every single competitive submission was played, some numerous times, to be 100% sure before making a decision. So how do compositions get to the finalists stage? One reviewer plays the submission, if she thinks it is good, it goes to a second reviewer; if that reviewer thinks it's also good, it goes to a third reviewer. So yes, three reviewers in order to get to the final regional stage. One submission can be played five times, maybe even 10 times. No decision is made lightly. Once the submission is selected to be considered as a finalist, a team of three reviewers select the regional finalists. Once the regional selections are made a team of several reviewers select the international winners. WOW!!!! What a process!”
Approximately 1,000 students sent in their artwork for the Composition Festival sticker and student Ryan Lotocki’s artwork was chosen. Ryan is in Moonbeams 3 and a student of Debbie Sehl in Brampton, Ontario. Kanata artist Dorothy Hayter takes on the job of choosing the art for the composition sticker every year “once more it has been difficult to select a few from the many delightful entries”.
Roland Canada sponsors the Music for Young Children Composition Festival and provided six F-20 keyboards. Roland truly demonstrates a dedication to music education through their fine instruments and through their support of this composition festival. Thanks also to ASAP Printing for printing our composition stickers.
In business for 35 years, Music for Young Children is taught to 24,000 students annually across Canada, the United States, New Zealand, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia. For more information phone 800-561-1692 or visit www.myc.com.
Janice Reade, Public Relations in Ottawa 613-592-7565.
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