The Board of Directors of the Kiwanis Music Festival of London is pleased to announce the Syllabus for the 2023 Festival. We are planning a live festival in 2023, but will be prepared to revert to a virtual festival on short notice if public health requirements necessitate the change. We were pleased to learn that schools will resume instruction for bands, choirs and orchestras as both credit courses and as extracurricular activities this academic year. We also included the new areas that the Ontario Music Festivals Association Provincial Finals now offer such as Popular Piano and Popular Voice.

Highlights for 2023 include:

• We continue to require that entrants follow all public health requirements at the time of their performance.
• Entry and payment continue to be online only.
• The performances are planned to be live, face to face, but we reserve the right to move to a virtual Festival if public health considerations necessitate this change.
• Most solo classes will use the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) and Conservatory Canada (CC) curriculum level systems rather than ages.
• When age is specified, the entrant must meet the age requirement as of December 31, 2022. This requirement pertains to Music Theatre, Percussion, Piano Concertos, Popular Piano, Speech Arts, Popular Voice and Ukulele.
• Almost all music selections are “Own Choice” but must conform to the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) or Conservatory Canada (CC) Syllabi. Exceptions are noted in the Class description.
• Each entrant must provide an original score of all music selections to the adjudicator at the time of the performance.
• Entrants must perform One, Two, or Three Selections in each Class at the same level and at the level in which the competitor is currently studying. The number of selections to be played is indicated in each Class description.
• Competitors may count one or more movements of a multi-movement work as one selection only but will need to remain within the time limits posted for each Class.
• Competitors (individual or school ensemble) may enter the same class more than once with different selections at the same level. When this happens, the Festival will split the Class so that the entrants are not competing against themselves.
• Entrants may enter in more than one Section.
  Memorization is recommended.
• Memorization is required if the competitor wants to be considered for the Provincial Music Festival except for entries in Brass or Woodwind Classes.
• Entrants may perform without an accompaniment for the Kiwanis Music Festival of London, but will be required to have a live accompanist if they wish to be recommended to the Provincial Music Festival. Accompaniment must be live.
• We will continue to hire the highest quality adjudicators. A written adjudication will be provided to each entrant at the conclusion of each session.
• First, Second and Third Awards or Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards as selected by the adjudicators will be awarded. These Award Certificates will be presented at the end of the session.
• Monetary prizes and trophies will be awarded as approved by the Awards Committee of the Board of the Festival.
• A Certificate of Performance Award will be given to every entrant who performs but does not receive an Award.
• These certificates will be presented at the end of each session.
• The Kiwanis Club of Middlesex has endowed the John Quinney Memorial Award of $1,000 for a performance chosen by the Awards Committee.
• MusicFest Canada Adjudicators at qualifying festivals may refer any group that would benefit from attending the National Festival to be held May 15-20, 2023 in Niagara Falls. (See Qualifying Class 1691.) Entrants may perform live (in person in Niagara Falls). Groups can be 2-6 performers, 7-11 performers or 12-25 performers. There are four Divisions: A) Instrumental Jazz (jazz combos, jazz ensembles, traditional jazz and world music); B) Concert Bands (bands, guitar ensembles, percussion ensembles, chamber ensembles); C) Choral/Vocal (vocal jazz, contemporary ensembles, concert chamber and combination choirs); O) Orchestra/Strings. For further details, please go to the MusicFest website, www.musicfest.ca.

Celebrating our 60th Year!

We were looking forward to celebrating 60 years of the Kiwanis Music Festival of London in 2020 with a Stars of the Festival Gala Concert. This unfortunately is on hold. In 1970, our 10th Anniversary, Labatt’s established the Rose Bowl Competition to honour the outstanding young musician in the Kiwanis Music Festival of London. Winning this substantial prize has been an important stepping-stone launching a professional music career for London and area youth. Past winners have attended the most prestigious music schools including the Juilliard School of Music, Eastman School of Music, Curtis Institute and the Peabody Institute. They have made Carnegie Hall debuts, won Juno Awards and one was a semi-finalist in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Notable winners include Arthur Rowe, Scott St. John, Kevin McMillan, Jennifer Orchard, Anita Park, Angela Park and Nathanael Bartley. Rose Bowl winners are busy working as musicians on the world-wide stage as soloists (53%), in small ensembles (42%), in orchestras (47%), in opera (26%) and making recordings (34%). They are teachers as university faculty (23%) and non-university teachers (23%). They are church musicians (6%), accompanists (11%), conductors (13%), composers (8%), and administrators for music organizations (19%). Only two do not derive their income from music – one is a medical doctor and the other is a chiropractor, but both people are still actively involved in music.

London is officially a UNESCO “City of Music”, the first city in Canada to earn this designation. The designation was made in part because London has produced a significant number of internationally recognized, award-winning musicians.