That is true in Squamish.
About 100 corridor students will be showcasing their talents at the annual Howe Sound Music Festival from Monday, March 15 to Saturday, March 20.
"The festival is an incredibly valuable music education opportunity for youth in our community," said PJ Elliot, the festival's executive director in an email to The Chief.
The Howe Sound Music Festival is for students from Lions Bay to D'Arcy.
The week-long event is an adjudicated workshop where students may be selected to represent the district at the provincial level.
In 2020, the event went ahead as planned, ending on March 14, 2020, just as the pandemic restrictions rolled into B.C.
Last year's BC Performing Arts Provincial Festival was cancelled, however, due to COVID-19.
The students selected to represent HSMF for 2020 will have that opportunity to do so this year.
This year, though it is going ahead, the pandemic will make its mark on the event, which will be held at St. John the Divine Anglican Church.
"The 2021 HSMF will definitely look different this year. There will not be performances or spectators. Only the workshop participants — students — will be present for the classes and a handful of administrative staff and the adjudicators to ensure we follow the Provincial Health Orders," said Elliot.
Families will get a Zoom link so they can watch.
There will not be a live highlights concert this year.
The festival was founded in 2001 by Colleen Koop with the Howe Sound Performing Arts Association's support.
What it means to SAM
Melissa Braun, music teacher and owner of Squamish Academy of Music said the festival is important for local musicians, especially this year, as it brings them together to celebrate with their community.
"Our festival is a very non-competitive festival compared to a lot of the others where the students are ranked in their classes. So, just the overall tone of the festival here is so welcoming and it just feels like such a community event," she said.
"It is just always a week where we are just celebrating accomplishments and celebrating learning. It is everybody coming together from their individual practice times and sharing and learning and talking about what they are learning and about goals and making new goals."
Previous corridor students have been able to go on and perform and do well at the larger, more competitive festivals such as the Vancouver Kiwanis Music Festivals and the BC Performing Arts BC Festivals, Braun added.
"I feel like a big part of their success there is because, at [the Howe Sound ] festival, you are experiencing an adjudication, you experience a festival, and you feel supported. I feel that having that has been a huge factor in their success at the larger festivals as well."
Braun also noted that due to the pandemic, there hadn't been as many opportunities for students to perform outside of with their teachers, so the festival is a great opportunity for that.
"I have some students who I haven't heard sing in person in about a year now, so it is going to be interesting," she said.
"I have a couple of students who this will be my first opportunity to actually be in person with them since last March."
Music as an outlet in stressful times
While the pandemic has been hard on everyone, Braun said seeing how the music community has adapted and carried on has been inspiring.
"There's been so much peer sharing around best practices for online teaching and help with software and apps and finding good sound online and things like that. There's been a ton of information that has been put out and a lot of support for educators, which has been really great and allowed us to pick up and carry on," she said.
Music educators know the value in what they do for themselves and their students, she noted, and it has been an outlet for them in an uncertain time.
SAM started offering students in-person lessons again in September while still having online classes for those who prefer that option.
"We can adapt to what their comfort is," she said, adding that she is grateful to the community for continuing to value music education as well.
"For a lot of music students, music plays such a big part of their life that if that had fallen away for them, a lot of them would have really struggled,” she said. "I think the community has shown gratefulness toward us for continuing, but we are so grateful to the community for continuing and for the festival going ahead."
Find out more on the Howe Sound Music Festival website.
The BC Performing Art Provincial Festival will be held virtually in June.
