Rotary Honours Concert at the Tidemark

Rotary is pleased to invite the community of Campbell River to celebrate the "Best of the Best" in dance, voice, piano and guitar. Last year's inaugural "Gift to the City" performance to mark Rotary's 65 years in the city was sold out. This year we would again invite you to revel in the excellent performances provided by these gifted young people. This year’s concert at the Tidemark is on Friday, May 25 at 7:30pm. Tickets are $12 per person. Here is just a sampling of the accomplishments from these talented award-winners:

Carter Johnson: "Spellbinding", "magical", "vibrant", and "electric" are the words used by internationally acclaimed musicians to describe the playing of 15-year old Carter Johnson. Johnson has an extraordinary list of awards and honours to his name, including Second Place in the CFMTA National Piano Competition, held in Regina, where he competed against pianists in their twenties and was easily the youngest competitor on the stage. He also won the awards for the best Baroque performance and the best performance of the compulsory piano trio, coming home with $4,500 in prize money. After winning their concerto competition, Johnson made his orchestral debut with the Strathcona Symphony Orchestra performing a Mozart piano concerto. He also competes in Speech Arts at the provincial level and received the highest possible standing of Distinction on his most recent advanced examination. Carter studies piano with Shelley Roberts.

Tara School of Irish Dancing: The Tara School of Irish Dancing was opened six years ago in Campbell River under the direction of Margaret Mullen, TCRG, ADCRG, a teacher and adjudicator registered with the Irish Dancing Commission, Dublin, Ireland. Margaret trained and danced competitively in England and Ireland before starting her teaching career in Coventry, England. Her highly successful dancing schools in Alberta and British Columbia have developed dancers

who represented Western Canada at the World Championships of Irish Dancing and produced many stirring Irish Dance Shows. The school is a member the Western Canada Irish Dance Teachers Association, and the North American Irish Dance Teachers Association. The dancers have a community performance focus, performing at many community events throughout the year and presenting a major show at the Tidemark Theatre each year. Their May 26 show, “Crossroads Ceili” with Irish entertainer, John Reynolds promises to be a highly entertaining two hours of Irish Dancing, music and storytelling – an ideal family outing.

CR Dance Xtreme: CR DanceXtreme Inc. will be performing their competitive senior jazz routine, "Big Fat Bass". This exciting & entertaining routine recently performed & competed in Surrey where they received a first place award in their category and also placed in the Top Ten Overall Score awards as well. Their competitive group, known as Showteam, have won numerous awards & have represented the city of Campbell River by performing & competing all over the island & Vancouver, as well as national dance competitions in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Corey Spetifore: 16 year-old Corey Spetifore has reveled in his studies of classical guitar for more than half his life, having started lessons at the age of seven. Appreciating a wide variety of musical instruments and genres, Corey also plays piano, trombone, electric guitar, and drums. He enjoys performing guitar as a soloist and played with a classical guitar ensemble for several years, which he performed with in Austria during the summer of 2009. Corey is currently preparing for his grade 10 Royal Conservatory practical classical guitar exam and his grade 10 RCM certification. In 2010 Corey won first place for Junior classical guitar at the BC Performing Arts Provincials, was runner-up at the 2011 BC Performing Arts Provincials for Intermediate classical guitar and was privileged to perform his 'best

Canadian' guitar piece at the 2011 Provincials Finale concert. Corey is honoured to be representing the North Island again at the 2012 Provincials for Intermediate classical guitar this May.

Mary Jo Wood: Mary Jo Wood: Mary Jo was nurtured with a love and appreciation for music from a very young age, encouraged by her family and given many opportunities to become engaged with music in a variety of capacities; she began voice lessons at age 13 and made a serious commitment to pursue her passions at age 16. After studying with Connie Preston and honing her skills with Festivals and summer programs, she was accepted to the University Of Victoria School Of Music under the tutelage of Susan Young. During this time she was the honored recipient of the Virginia Graczak Scholarship in Voice, the Bea Scott Scholarship in Voice, the Horning Memorial Scholarship in Music, the Eleanor Gray Memorial Scholarship in Music, and the Judith Harreman Scholarship in Music. Since graduating in 2011, receiving her Bachelor of Music with distinction, Mary Jo has taken a pause from her educational pursuits to gather some work experience in the field of performance; working on audition tapes, demo CD’s, travelling, and reconnecting with the thriving arts community in Campbell River.

Urban Dance connection: The UDC Performance Team is a division of Urban Dance Connection. It's dancers train in Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Lyrical, Pointe and Modern. This team uses it's training for annual Ballet Exams, Performing Arts Festivals and Dance Competitions as well as it's own productions and recitals. With the support of strong classical training and involved dance families, UDC Team has members that have been awarded at Provincial Levels, have gone on to graduate with their University Degrees in Dance and who train at various national Ballet schools.

Kaely Cronk: Kaely is in her final year at Carihi Secondary. She has been studying voice with Amy Lelliott since she was 8 years old and has just completed her grade 8 Royal Conservatory exam. Kaely received the Virginia Graczak Music Scholarship three years ago and has won several awards in local festivals. Kaely has appeared in a lead role in Fiddler on the Roof, Sweeney Todd, and Bugsy Malone and is presently rehearsing for the musical, Honk. She will be pursuing her passion of performing by attending the Canadian College of Performing Arts in Victoria this September. She is honoured to have the opportunity to perform for you this evening.