Noteworthy event returns
Musicfest attracts young artists from near and far
Musicfest Northwest is all about performing arts, and next week is the 65th time young musicians and dancers come to Spokane to challenge each other onstage. They compete in nine different divisions, from ballet to piano to brass, while judges from all over the country grade the smallest details of their performance. It’s a hectic week, but it’s also a reunion of sorts.
“All the young performers, they really end up growing up together,” said Bev Rhodes, a local piano teacher who’s been accompanying performers in Musicfest since the late 1970s. “Some come back year after year in the same division, and some switch to a different division, but you see them walk around together on campus and they are just so excited.”
The competition part of Musicfest Northwest takes on Gonzaga University’s campus as participants vying for the Young Artist Award or a spot in one of the two final concerts present their very best performances to adjudicators.
“We will have more than 1,000 performances in nine divisions,” said Gail Belanger, voice division chairman and publicity chair of this year’s Musicfest. “These performances are also a teaching opportunity. They are very much like a master class.”
That means some adjudicators will give the performers pointers and advice as they are performing.
All the performances are open to the public and people are invited to sample the different art forms.
“You can see anything from an 8-year-old playing the piano to college graduate level,” said Belanger. “Every performance lasts about an hour or an hour and a half, depending on how many students are in it. It’s shorter than a Sunday sermon, really.”
Bev Rhodes and her husband Bill Rhodes both accompany performers at Musicfest, and they try to plan ahead to make sure they know who they are playing with and what they are playing.
Yet as late as Monday sheet music was arriving via express mail, and sometimes the phone rings the night before a performer is hitting the stage.
“We do all we can to help people,” said Bill Rhodes. “And you help the performers if you can, if they forget a line or forget a note. Sometimes you have a relationship with the performer, sometimes you just met them.”
Bill Rhodes first began accompanying at Musicfest in 1978; Bev Rhodes followed him a few years later.
“I actually played in Musicfest in the 1960s,” said Bev Rhodes.
Sometimes the young performers are very nervous.
“At weddings people faint all the time, and I have to go over and help stand them back up, but I’ve never actually had anyone faint at Musicfest,” Bill Rhodes said, laughing. “If someone is very nervous, you sit down with them beforehand and you try to have a calming effect on them.”
Musicfest regularly draws entrants from Oregon, Montana and Idaho.
“Sometimes the kids come back from the East Coast, if they went away from college somewhere else,” said Belanger. “It is quite a unique festival, but it’s also a little bit like Bloomsday or Hoopfest: it’s a Spokane event that lots of people have heard and know about.”