2023 Southeast Manitoba Festival registration deadline is only 6 weeks away

“There will definitely be a festival in 2023,” says Jen Penner, Southeast Manitoba Festival Executive Assistant. 

The group of volunteers that currently run the festival have decided to go for it.

Once again there is no President or Vice-President, rather extremely dedicated volunteers who are not giving up.  

The following is an email many music teachers in the southeast received recently:  

Dear Music Teachers, 

The SEMF Executive is hard at work putting together a festival for 2023! 

Our addendum is up on the website and can be found here: https://semf.ca/information 

A few things to note this year are that Dance has been discontinued and Guitar will not run this year. 

The entry form deadline is December 1. 

We are without a president, so please send inquiries to the Discipline Coordinator, or to myself and I'll try to find an answer for you. If you know of anyone who would be a good fit for our executive, please let me know. There are a number of volunteer positions to fill. 

Thanks for your participation as we're looking forward to a fantastic festival for your students in 2023! 

On behalf of the SEMF Executive, 

Jen Penner 

SEMF Executive Assistant 

Trophy handed out at the AD Penner Park after the shortened 2020 SEMF

The 2023 SEMF Discipline performances will take place on the following dates:  

VOCAL performances will take place from February 21 to 24, 2023 

JUNIOR PIANO performances will take place from February 28 to March 4, 2023 

MUSICAL THEATRE performances will take place from March 7 to 9, 2023 

SENIOR PIANO performances will take place from March 12 to 15, 2023 

The dates for Strings / Instrumental / Speech & Theatre Arts / Choral are still to be determined.

Please note as well that "the festival committee strives to do their best to provide dates and information in the addendum published in October each year. However, there will possibly be changes as venues and adjudicators are booked."  (SEMF website) 

Collage of performances from the 2019 SEMF Gala in the SRSS Theatre

With the 2020 SEMF cut short, and the 2021 festival cancelled, the 2022 festival experience was different, yet also very special to the students, parents and adjudicators. 

Former President of the SEMF Sharon Guenther says of the 2022 festival, "It was quite exciting. It also highlighted several Adjudicators with Steinbach connections."

“We had Jane Doerksen who took care of all our piano classes and with Choral and Musical Theatre we had Ed and Millie Hildebrandt. These folks are well known in our community and many know how much they have contributed to the musicality in our community.”

Guenther says this year's festival had about 420 entries with about 600 people involved, including the individual students in the choral entries.

With both of the top-two volunteer positions on the SEMF Executive open, the current board asks for anyone interested to contact them.