As the Pacific Northwest Music Festival begins to wind down, its two final nights: Scholarship Night and Gala Night cap it off with awards for the top performers.
And it’s a big effort to decide who will be named the Most Outstanding Junior, Intermediate and Senior Performers
The junior award goes to ages 12 and under, intermediate to ages 13 to 15 and senior to ages 16 and older.
Scholarship competition coordinator Eleanor Bond, who’s also on the music festival committee, meets with adjudicators as their disciplines end.
The festival committee puts together a list of participants with the highest marks.
The list is cross referenced with the number of classes participants entered and the adjudicator makes her/his recommendations for junior, intermediate and senior categories, explains Bond, who has been scholarship competition coordinator for two years now, having taken over for Jessica Peters.
“It’s going pretty well,” says Bond.
“The biggest thing is keeping track of my own students and things I’ve got to get done.
“It’s quite different,” she says about the scholarship night.
“They’re not competing against other, they’re competing against other winners so it’s quite a challenge too for the judges to decide.”
When the individual marks, number of classes and adjudicator’s choice are put together, a top student is chosen for each award.
If it’s a tie, and students also receive points, the adjudicators’ discretion comes in and they might say that even though students have the same mark, one might be a better choice for most outstanding, said Bond.
Scholarship money is expected to go toward the student’s music education.
Bond doesn’t remember a student winning junior, intermediate and senior awards in subsequent years but a few students have won the same award more than once.
In the last five years, Sandra Yoo won the junior and then intermediate awards in 2009 and 2010, respectively.
And Andrea Pedro has won the senior awards in 2009, 2011 and 2013.
Scholarship night is April 11 at the REM Lee Theatre.
For more details, see City Scene on page B3 of the April 9 Terrace Standard.