Ben Makarchuk is entering his seventh year as a French Horn instrumentalist.  This is his second year as a member of the Calgary Youth Orchestra and his first as a member of the Academy program at Mount Royal University.  Ben studies privately with Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra member, and renowned horn player, Laurie Matiation.  He has participated multiple times in the Calgary Kiwanis Music Festival and this year was chosen as the Provincial-National brass candidate. Ben will represent Calgary at the Provincial Festival in Edmonton, later this month.

Emily Sunderland

Emily Sunderland has been competing in the Calgary Kiwanis music festival for 11 years. Emily has been training in Musical Theatre and Classical voice since the age of six, and she currently studies with Rachel Hop. This year she won the Provincial/National Musical Theatre Class and was presented with the Gary Miller Memorial Scholarship. Over the last few years Emily has been involved in several community theatre productions. Her most recent credits include Gertrude McFuzz in Seussical and Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables.

The ProArts Society is pleased to continue our relationship with the Calgary KIWANIS Festival by presenting outstanding young artist from the Festival’s annual competition.

The Calgary Kiwanis Festival is an educational, non-profit, charitable organization. It is one of approximately 250 performing arts festivals in Canada and one of the largest amateur competitive festivals in North America with approximately 4,000 entries and 12,000 participants annually. Since 1931, the Festival has been an integral part of the Calgary arts community and remains one of the premier performing arts events on the Calgary arts calendar. It encourages classical and contemporary music and speech arts performance among amateur students of all ages and skill levels.