The Southeastern Manitoba Festival (SEMF) is currently in action, with the second and final day of the choral festival taking place today.
Gabriela Gallo, is one of the organizers for the choral discipline for SEMF.
Gallo says the choral festival involves people from all over the Southeast.
“Landmark, Grunthal, Mitchell, Steinbach, Steinbach Christian School. We've got so many awesome groups out this year, and I truly had tears in my eyes at some of our performances.”
She says it’s great to see kids from different schools have this opportunity to gather.
“All these kids know each other from hockey or football or their family and things like that, and it's like a little bit of a reunion for these kids. They're all so excited to see each other and perform for each other."
Gallo adds she was talking with the adjudicator, Carolyn Boyes, about what choral music teaches these kids and how important it is in their growth as individuals.
“And she was saying that that little bit of extra work to get to the level of excellence that she said she saw is just so amazing to show these kids. You work hard, you present this hard work, and it pays off and your audience sees it and they celebrate you and you celebrate each other. It’s just beautiful.”
They had all the students singing together yesterday morning.
“We had over 200 teenagers all learning a song together. They just did this little community bonding warm up, and they sang a song that's called connected. And it was so beautiful, all the bases together, all the tenors together, and just over 200 voices of teenagers. No one's on a screen, everyone's engaged, and it was fabulous.”
There are classes all throughout the day today between 10:00 AM and 3:00 PM at the Grace Mennonite Church in Steinbach
If you would like to watch the performances, entry is $3.
With files from Kenton Dyck
Wed, May 8, 11:00 AM
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