Thirteen musicians and performers — including four Tri-City residents — are in Chilliwack this week to represent the CDMF Performing Arts Festival Society.
The representatives won a spot at the provincials during the regional festival, held at the Trinity United Church in Port Coquitlam in February and March.
Those competing at Performing Arts BC for CDMF are:
• piano: Aisha Hsu (junior A) of Burnaby; Rachel Wei (junior B) of Vancouver; Angela Hu (intermediate) of Coquitlam; Hamilton Lau (senior) of Coquitlam; and Mina McKenzie (national class) of Coquitlam;
• classical vocal: Omer Murad (junior) of Richmond and Claire Bidulka of Tsawwassen;
• musical theatre - vocal: Makena Thomas (junior) of New Westminster; Lyrie Murad (intermediate) of Richmond; and Brooklyn White (senior) of Coquitlam;
• and speech and drama: Ezekial Centeno (junior) of Burnaby; Allison Keogh (intermediate) of Vancouver; and Tiffany Chen (senior) of Burnaby.
McKenzie, Lyrie Murad, White and Lau are no strangers to the Performing Arts BC contest: last year, McKenzie was named runner-up in the national piano division while Murad was tied for second place in the intermediate musical theatre category; White also got the runner-up title for senior musical theatre and Lau clinched first place in intermediate piano.
The provincials see musicians and performers — between the ages of 10 and 28 — from around B.C. compete against the winners from 34 regional festivals. They include the Vancouver Kiwanis Festival, the Prince George Music Festival and the Cowichan Festival.
Started in 1964, Performing Arts BC — formerly the BC Association of Performing Arts Festivals — is a non-profit group that hosts adjudicated competitions and workshops in a different city each year.
