A pair of Foothills residents took home hardware at the Alberta Provincial Music Festival last month. 

The Festival usually takes place at the end of May in Edmonton and includes students from all over Alberta, but due to COVID, was held virtually this year.

Taking part were Kalyse Hemsing and Ava Friesen who both placed in their respective categories. 

9-year-old Kalyse placed second in the 10 and under category with her song Born to Entertain from the musical Ruthless as well as getting second place for Forty Little Birdies.

The virtual festival was different than anything she had done and came with new difficulties. 

"It was definitely a different experience. Doing it through recording is harder because you just can't really interact with the audience as well 'cause you're just basically looking through the camera so it's harder. What I found was better was that we got to tape it a few times. So if I messed up I could try again."

The young bilingual singer also placed second for a French song, La Tragique D'histoire du Petit Rene.

"I am actually in French immersion, so it was it was really fun because I got to play with an accent and lots of the words I did actually understand which if I wasn't in French then probably some of the stuff I wouldn't know what it was talking about."

Taking home 1st place and 2nd place awards was 13-year-old Ava Friesen.

She placed second for I Speak Six Languages from the musical 25th Annual County Putnam Spelling Bee and first for Requiem for a Bear from Dani Girl.

Ava, who has been performing in festivals since grade 4, found the lack of a live audience difficult but adapted quickly to the virtual format. 

"I thought it was okay online. I got to make sure the performance I sent in was the best I could do. That was nice. Just 'cause sometimes at festival, you’re not always able to give your best. So that is something I really like, but it just wasn't the same as being able to perform in front of the whole audience of people."

She chose the song Requiem for a Bear from Dani Girl because of its message.

"It’s such a beautiful song. This girl died from cancer and so it did have a really powerful and strong message and so I thought that would be a really nice song to do and just to try to portray those emotions that she showed during the song."

Both Kalyse and Ava are students of the Naomi Koch Voice Studio in Okotoks. 

 

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