ROSTHERN — The Sask. Valley Music Festival ran March 17 to 25 in Rosthern, with a final concert being held on March 27 at St. Odilon RC Church.
Class competitions were held at several locations, including RJC High School, St. Odilon RC Church and the Station Arts Centre.
The Sask. Valley Music Festival district includes the following communities: Beardy’s and Okemasis’ Cree Nation, Blaine Lake, Cudworth, Duck Lake, Hafford, Hague, Laird, Martensville, Neuanlage, One Arrow Cree Nation, Osler, Rosthern, Saint Isidore-de-Bellevue, Wakaw, Waldheim and Warman. This year’s festival saw 259 entries from the communities in its district and beyond. Students from any community in Saskatchewan are welcome to enter the SVMA festival, but festival scholarships are only available to students who live or study with a teacher who lives in the Sask Valley district, except for the Alumni Post-Secondary scholarships. The Alumni Post-Secondary scholarship is available to former competitors in the Sask Valley Music Festival who no longer meet the residency criteria. The alumni award is available to competitors for a maximum of four years.
The Saskatchewan Music Festival Association (SMFA) receives funding from the SK Lotteries Trust Fund for Sport, Culture and Recreation. Each year, SMFA hires over 170 professional musicians as adjudicators and collaborates with similar music organizations in Saskatchewan to keep programs relevant. In addition to over 40 district music festivals, the SMFA produces a provincial syllabus and provides performance and educational opportunities, including access to events like the Provincial Competitions, Concerto Competition, Opera Competition and the Canada West Performing Arts Festival.
Sask. Valley Music Festival is a volunteer-run music festival under the umbrella of the Saskatchewan Music Festival Association. Many of those volunteers have given of their time repeatedly for many years. At the final concert of the Festival, two long-standing volunteers were thanked for their years of service. Audrey Watson and Sanne Gillingham have both stepped down from the SVMF Committee.
District Festival Competitions are held annually in 44 locations throughout the province, starting in March and concluding in May. Each District Festival offers local scholarships and awards, which are selected by the adjudicators at the various festivals. These adjudicators decide on the scholarship winners and recommend competitors for advancement to the provincial finals.
To qualify for the finals, competitors must participate in at least two solo classes within the same discipline at their District Festival, achieve a score of 87 or higher and place either first or second in their class.
The 2026 Provincial Finals Competition will take place at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon from June 4 to 7.
Those recommended to Provincials from SVMF include:
Nora Bergen-Braun: Brass Recital
Jaron Ens: Piano Recital and Piano Canadian Saskatchewan
Jesse Hildebrandt: Piano Recital, Piano Canadian/Saskatchewan and Spoken Word
RJC Singers and RJC Concert Choir: Choral Classes
Monica Steinke: Voice Solo Operatic, Voice Solo Concert Group, Voice Solo Recital, Music Theatre Ballad
Finn Nichol: Voice Solo Recital
Mia Gillingham: Voice Solo Concert Group, Voice Solo Folk Song and Ballad, Voice Solo Canadian/Saskatchewan, Voice Solo Recital, Classical Voice and Musical Theatre
Naveya Bihari: Voice Solo Recital
Audrey Loewen: Voice Solo Folk Song and Ballad
Abilgail Doerksen: Musical Theatre
Some of the award recipients who demonstrated an outstanding level of skill and were recognized at the Final Concert include:
Nora Bergen-Braun: Sask Valley Music Festival Instrumental Scholarship (Most Outstanding Instrumentalist at an Advanced Level)
Clara Loewen: Saskatchewan Valley Jubilee Rose Bowl & Scholarship (Most outstanding pianist at Grade 9 or higher)
Finn Nichol: Erwin Janzen Memorial Trophy & Scholarship (Exceptional Vocalist at any age/level)
Mia Gillingham: Vernon Klaassen Vocal Rose Bowl & Dora Klaassen Memorial Scholarship (Most outstanding Vocalist at Grade 8 level or higher)
Rosthern Elementary Grade 2 & 3: Division I (Grades K to 3) Sask Valley Music Festival Choral Speech Shield
Hepburn Elementary Grade 4: Division II (Grades 4 to 6) Hague Hardware Choral Speech Shield
Waldheim School Elementary Choir: Division II (Grades 4 to 6) “The Gift of Song” Choral Shield
RJC High School Concert Choir: Division IV (Grades 10 to 12) David H. Paetkau Memorial Choral Shield
Sask. Valley Music Festival 2027 will run March 9-17, with the final co
