The Kiwanis Music Festival of London Inc., the organizing body of The Kiwanis Music Festival of London and surrounding area, has a stated mission to encourage, nurture and support performances and educational activities within the London area, where musicians can enhance their interpretative and musical styles as a means of strengthening character development and celebrating the enjoyment of the arts.
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.
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.