Kitchener-Waterloo Kiwanis Music Festival Scout House Awards
Two individual musicians and two high school bands are sharing $900 in prize money awarded in memory of Preston Scout House Band founder Wilf Blum during the Kitchener-Waterloo Kiwanis Music Festival’s (KWKMF) recent grand finale concert.
The 2024 awards bring the value of Scout House Band youth music scholarship awards over the past decade to about $11,000. Scholarships were previously awarded through the Waterloo Region boards of education. This year awards were presented through the Kiwanis Music Festival.
The Blum prize winners, and amounts received, in the Woodwinds Category are Alex Zan, $150; Jacob Blais, $100.
Zan also received the Woodwind Trophy for top score in the woodwinds category, awarded in memory of Florence Hansen and Bruce Torrie. Both Zan and Blais are also delegates to the Ontario Music Festivals Association provincial finals held in Burlington and Oakville June 10 to 15.
In the School and Community Bands category of the Kiwanis Festival, Forest Heights Secondary School and Huron Heights Secondary School each received $200 Wilf Blum awards.
The Kitchener-Waterloo Kiwanis Music Festival is the largest annual music education event in Waterloo region, running since 1948 as a Kiwanis Club service project. Between 1,200 and1,600 public school and private music students perform in solo and group classes. The aim is to support and inspire youth musical ambitions and skill development.
The festival offers classes in a wide range of instruments and musical styles and offers both competitive and non-competitive opportunities to music students. The festival also welcomes music students of all ages, with classes for families, adults, and community ensembles. Every participant receives feedback from an adjudicator: a professional musician and educator. Participants are eligible to receive ribbons, financial awards and trophies. Each year the festival distributes $8,000 to $20,000, with individual awards ranging from $25 to $500.
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Each year, the KWKMF selects about 150 delegates to represent Kitchener-Waterloo at the Ontario Music Festivals Association provincial competition.
The Kiwanis Festival winners of Wilf Blum prizes will be recognized in the program for the Scout House community Summer Social on June 22, marking the 86th year of community service since Blum founded the Band in 1938 as a new activity for members of the 1st Preston Boy Scout Troop. Over more than eight decades, the organization has included five member groups. The current active group is award winning Silver Leaves Brass ensemble, including some members who marched in the original band in the late 1950s and later years.
Preston Scout House Band, Inc. is a non-profit corporation with registered charity status able to issue tax receipts to donors, incorporated under the Corporations Act of the Province of Ontario on Nov. 29, 1956.
For more information about Preston Scout House Band Inc. activities, contact telephone (519) 653-3376, email PSHBAND [dot] INC [at] outlook [dot] com
