Youth musicians showcase their work with strings attached at Rotary

The Rotary Music Festival celebrated the talents of their young string musicians on Thursday, showcasing the ability of those who have guitars or violins as their instrument of choice.

Competitor Evan McOuat has been attending Rotary for several years now, and is particularly proud of how far he’s come with his current selections, which included “Fur Elise” by Ludwig van Beethoven, “Ancient Drums” by Norbert Kraft, and “Danse de village,” a traditional piece arranged by Claude Gagnon.

“Ancient drums is actually by a Canadian composer,” said McOuat. “It’s a lot different than a lot of songs because it uses the guitar like a percussion instrument, and it uses that sort of percussion to make different sounds; even by striking the bridge can make the strings ring in a different way, which I think is really unique.”

McOuat has been to the provincial competition in previous years for his performances in classical guitar already, at 12 years of age, and wished to give credit to his guitar teacher for help picking the pieces he performed, and was pleased to be able to work in the different dynamics to bring

“Danse de village” to life.

A student of the same teacher, Andrew Peter, stole the show in the 15 and under class, with his choices of “Allegretto” by Ferdinando Carulli, “Pinocchio” by Frederic Constantino, and

“Baby, I Love Your Way” by

Peter Frampton.

“With Pinocchio, there’s a lot of variation in how it’s played in different parts of the song. It took me around a while to learn, I think I started working on it alongside Allegretto in early October,” said Peter.

Peter was exceptionally proud of the last, due to the technical skill required to perform the string bends needed for the piece.