The purpose of the Shuswap Music Festival is to encourage, support, challenge and celebrate music students and amateur musicians by providing opportunities for learning and performing on the road to musical excellence.
The Shuswap Music Festival is open to non-professional musicians from the Southern Interior of British Columbia. Disciplines include Piano, Strings, Vocal, Choral and Band. Top adjudicators from across Western Canada are selected to provide instructive and professional evaluations of all performances.
The Shuswap Music Festival is a regional festival affiliated with the Performing Arts BC Provincial Music Festival and from 2001 to 2020, was affiliated with the Federation of Canadian Music Festivals. Top performing students at the Shuswap Music Festival may be recommended by adjudicators to compete at the provincial festival. Provincial winners then advance to compete at a Western Canada and/or the national level.
The Shuswap Music Festival is produced by a not-for-profit society managed by a volunteer board of directors. The Registered Music Teachers Association of BC (Shuswap Branch) and the Rotary Club of Salmon Arm jointly established the Shuswap Music Festival Society as a charitable organization in 2000. Thanks to the support of local organizations and businesses, the continued support of individual donors and the tremendous work of a great number of Rotarians and volunteers, the Society has successfully held annual festivals from 2001 to 2019. The global Covid-19 Pandemic caused the cancellation of what would have been the 20th Anniversary Festival in April 2020. With ingenuity and imagination, the Society continues to find ways to support and celebrate our young musicians through virtual performances and distance adjudication.
Our goal is to provide the best possible festival experiences for all participants!