Musicfest winners to perform at concerts

Winners of this week’s Musicfest Northwest festival for young artists will be featured in free concerts tonight and Friday at The Met.

The 60th annual festival (formerly the Greater Spokane Music and Allied Arts Festival) started Sunday and continues through Friday at Gonzaga University.

It features 1,600 young musicians and dancers from throughout the region – and as far as Pennsylvania and Nebraska – from first-graders through college students.

Competition divisions include ballet, brass, flute, guitar, organ, percussion, piano, reed, string and voice. All entrants receive written and oral evaluations of their performance by qualified teachers and concert artists.

Previous Young Artist award winners at the festival include the likes of opera baritone Thomas Hampson, pianist Stephen Drury and Spokane Symphony concertmaster Kelly Farris.

This year’s Adjudicator’s Choice and Young Artist winners in their respective divisions will perform with the Spokane Symphony in a concert tonight at 7 at The Met, 901 W. Sprague Ave.

A Highlights Concert featuring the winners of each division performing their required music will be Friday at 7 p.m. at The Met.

The festival competition itself also is open to the public, running from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.

For festival results and more information, see www.musicfestnorthwest.org. Results also will be published in this section starting today on page D5.