DAVID FESTIVAL

Two of ‘The David Festival’ organizers are Cathy Cooper, left, and Karen Stiller.

King David was a man ‘after God’s own heart’. God-fearing, patient, long-suffering and faithful; David was a music teacher and poet, and is the author of at least 73 of the Psalms in the bible.

The David Festival celebrates its second year in 2010 and offers participants a unique opportunity to enhance and refine their performance in artistry skills.

The Festival is non-competitive and encourages both personal and spiritual growth through three professionally-led workshops in music and poetry. Individuals, church groups and choirs are encouraged to participate in what was a wonderfully successful event in its first year in 2009. This year’s theme is ‘New Life’.

The vision of the Festival is to encourage, enable, engage and equip folks to glorify God through music and the arts among and through the churches of Scugog.

The mission of the Festival is as follows: 1. Encourage cooperation, collegiality, fellowship, enrichment and appreciation among artists; 2. Enable performance and growth opportunities in an acoustically pleasing venue with excellent clinicians in a non-competitive format; 3. Engage listeners to meaningfully respond and participate; 4. Equip artists to glorify God with skill and soulfulness.

Cathy Cooper, one of the event organizers is excited and encouraged by the number of people already registered. “Everyone is welcome. We have room for various church groups to attend; as well as those who have an interest in song and poetry.”

Mark Ruhnke, an accomplished musician with a specialty in choral music, will again lead a number of the music workshops. The adult choral session will be held on Saturday afternoon at Port Perry United Church. The children’s choral workshop will be held on Saturday morning at St. John’s Presbyterian.

D.S. Martin is an award-winning Canadian poet
who will lead the Saturday morning poetry workshop, being held at the Anglican Church of the Ascension from
10 a.m. - 12 noon.

“It is our hope that the Festival will continue to grow year after year, with more participants, more workshops and more art forms being explored,” states Cathy.

The Festival Service is a culmination of the Festival Workshops, which will include a magnificent mass choir of more than 100 people at Port Perry United Church on Sunday, March 28 at 7:00 p.m. All are encouraged to attend this awesome service.

For more information about the festival or to register, please contact: Cathy Cooper at 905-985-3423 or Karen Stiller at 905-982-0697.

By Tammy Horvath
Focus on Scugog