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2022 Adjudicators

Brass and Woodwinds:  Laura Chambers

Guitar:  Shawn Pickup

Musical Theatre:  Scott Beaudin

Piano:  Penny Johnson

     Jennifer Smele

     Arianne Ewing-Chow

     Elaine Lau

Speech Arts:  Dia Frid (English Classes)

                        Joy Tappenden (French Classes)

Strings:  Mary Elizabeth Brown

Voice:  Colleen Skull

President’s Message:

Greetings to all past, present, and future participants and your teachers and families! 

This is our 95th year! 

Thanks and congratulations are due to the entire Peel Festival community for making the 2021 Virtual Festival a successful reality: the Committee; Administrator Kati Pearson; Stars Concert organizers Richard Summers and Dr. Brent Crawford; certificates creator and dispatcher Nathalie Loseto; teachers, adjudicators, parents, and performers. We appreciate and admire your resourcefulness and persistence. In the 2021 Ontario Provincial competitions, Peel performers won 5 firsts, 12 seconds, 6 thirds, and 15 Honourable Mentions. Bravo, well done! 

The PMF Committee is delighted to announce that the Festival has a new Administrator: Elizabeth Sarginson. The Festival phone number and e-mail and mailing addresses remain the same. We also have a new person maintaining our IT and database: Saiprasad Kamath. Both of these newcomers are terrific fits for our community: experienced, very well qualified, and enthusiastic. Welcome! We say good-bye to former Administrator Amy Weymouth and former IT developer Paul Bates, with warm thanks for your hard work, loyalty, and expertise. 

At the time of this writing, the numbers of COVID-19 infections and its variants are rising, and the country is in the “Fourth Wave”, despite vaccinations and other social measures taken. As a result, we have decided to make the 2022 Festival virtual once again. In order to be reliable and realistic, most of the big festivals in Ontario have made the same decision. So - you’ll be able to put your experience with video and YouTube to good use once again! It is with disappointment that we make the decision not to offer any ensemble classes once again in 2022, i.e. no duets, trios, choirs, or bands. Based on current events and statistics, we are not willing to endanger the well-being of our performers, families, teachers, and adjudicators.

“If life gives you lemons, learn to juggle”, “Singin’ in the Rain”, “Smile When Your Heart Is Breaking”, “Only in darkness can you see stars”, “Music comes from an icicle as it melts, to be reborn as spring water.” There are lots of lyrics and aphorisms to encourage us to keep on keeping on during challenging times. In a music festival’s case, beautiful music and speech are among our many profound rewards. 

Let’s make Peel Festival number 95 a wild and wonderful ride! 

Joy Tappenden 

President, Peel Music Festival