Submitted by Florence Stemo
Fifty-five students of local music teachers (54 at the piano and one on the violin) performed recently in the annual spring recital, hosted this year by Mrs. Jackie Anderson. Families and friends were treated to a variety of tunes and rhythms, as the young people ranging in age from five to 18 years played their favourite piece from their repertoire of the past year.
Following the students' performances, trophies were presented to Jessica Lohmann and Tamara Service for their achievement in Royal Conservatory exams in Piano. Tamara also received a certificate for her mark in the RC exam in Theory 2. Congratulations to these two young ladies.
Marking the culmination of their year of music study, the recital, held on two dates to accommodate all the students, is an important part of the training of young musicians. Not only does the recital allow the students to show off their progress, but it also gives them the experience of playing before an audience. Holding the recital in the Rimbey Church of the Nazarene affords the budding pianists the opportunity to play on the church's beautiful grand piano.
Each year guest performers are invited to share their gift of music with those attending the recital. Our guests for the Sunday concert were several members of The Cat and the Fiddles, a group of talented young musicians from around central Alberta who are trained and directed by Laurie Maetche of Lacombe. These dedicated and enthusiastic musicians charmed us all with an interesting variety of old-time fiddle numbers.
We were privileged to have at our Monday concert a couple who have long been a part of the music scene in Rimbey, Darrell and Teresa Craig. It was in fact their last act before moving away from our community. They performed The Celtic Psalm, Teresa's own arrangement of the well-known Twenty-third Psalm featuring guitar, penny whistle, and Teresa's lovely voice; followed by Teresa's moving rendition of the song about love from the movie Shrek.
Their appearance at the recital gave us the opportunity to thank them for sharing their musical talent in our community over the past number of years; and to wish them well as they move to a new location where Constable Craig will begin his career with the RCMP.