Despite Changes, Allied Arts Festival Honors Area’s Brightest

First, the bad news. The Greater Spokane Music and Allied Arts Festival will not have its annual Young Artists Concert with the Spokane Symphony this year.

Now, the good news. The festival has been rolling along all week, bigger than ever, with more than 1,600 entries in its various piano, vocal, dance, instrumental and art competitions, according to executive director Gary Laing. The adjudications continue through Friday, mostly at Gonzaga University.

And, in lieu of the Young Artists Concert, the Festival Highlights Concert will be bigger than ever Friday night. The concert, at 7:30 p.m. at The Met, will feature all of the Young Artists winners and selected winners from all divisions. All of the cash awards and scholarships will be announced. The concert is free and open to the public.

The Greater Spokane Music and Allied Arts Festival is one of Spokane’s most honored cultural traditions. For 51 years, it has been rewarding the best and brightest piano students and other students in the fine and performing arts. Nationally known adjudicators come in each year to judge the students and their work.

During the last year, it became a victim of its own success. Like many non-profit competitions, student entry fees do not cover the true cost of the event. Each entry is essentially sold at a loss, and since entries have gone up 33 percent in the last four years, the losses have gone up, too, said Laing. Also, the cost of staging the Young Artists Concert at the Opera House with the Spokane Symphony has continued to go up.

The result was that the festival ended last year with a $20,000 deficit, “which for us is big-time,” said Laing. The board decided “never again,” said Laing, and mandated that this year’s festival would concentrate strictly on its main purpose, the adjudications. Any peripheral functions, such as the Young Artists concert, would take place only if the money was raised in advance through foundation grants, individual donors and entry fees.

The board raised enough money this year to pay off the entire debt and almost raised enough to stage the Young Artists Concert, too. The funds fell just short.

But more good news: They raised enough money to allow each Young Artist winner a $750 scholarship in lieu of performing with the symphony. That scholarship is in addition to the $250 cash award each Young Artist will get.

Even after that, Laing said the festival should end the year with over $12,000 in the bank, which almost assures that there will be a Young Artists Concert next year.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Staff illustration by A. Heitner

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: HIGHLIGHTS CONCERT The Greater Spokane Music and Allied Arts Festival’s Highlights Concert will be at 7:30 p.m. Friday at The Met. Free.