(pictured above: five winners of Grade Five Song-Writing Competition)
On Friday night, May 10, 2019, CMC BC presented Barbara Pentland Awards of Excellence for Outstanding Composition to winners of the Vancouver Chamber Choir‘s Young Composers Competition.
BC Director presenting Antoine Villéger with Barbara Pentland Award of Excellence
BC Director Sean Bickerton, on hand to present Music Director Jon Washburn with CMC BC’s Lifetime Achievement Award, also presented Pentland Awards of Excellence to three young composers who won VCC’s Best of BC Awards:
Antoine Villéger (Elementary) for The Butterfly & The Bee
Luc Faris (Secondary) for Moonrise
Benjamin Sigerson (College/University) for Tavern Edna St. Vincent Millay
BC Director Sean Bickerton presenting Luc Faris with Barbara Pentland Award of Excellence
In addition, five students (pictured above) won the Grade Five song -writing competition, all girls, which promises better balance for composition classes in the future.
BC Director Sean Bickerton presenting Benjamin Sigerson with Barbara Pentland Award of Excellence
One of the highlights of the evening was a special appearance by Carrie Tennant‘s outstanding Vancouver Youth Choir, which opened the evening with an entrancing premiere of Et kiitke Jumalat by Pärt Uusberg. And they brought the house down with a powerful, rousing performance of Katerina Gimon‘s Fire!
If any reading this have doubts about the future, the extraordinary compositions written by these young composers and the electrifying performances by Vancouver Youth Choir should put their concerns to rest. These kids are going to rock the world!