Mr Muzik

Or­gan­is­ers of the 2010 Bi­en­ni­al Mu­sic Fes­ti­val are en­hanc­ing the syl­labus. They are mak­ing changes and adding class­es to im­prove the much-loved fes­ti­val. New ad­di­tions are the Ju­nior Chorale, Ju­nior Parang and Ju­nior Ca­lyp­so Chorales, as well as the Steel Pan So­lo cat­e­go­ry and Im­pro­vi­sa­tions on Steel.

In the en­sem­ble cat­e­go­ry, three new in­stru­men­tal class­es have been added: Ju­nior In­stru­men­tal En­sem­ble; each class for string in­stru­ments; wood­wind and acoustic gui­tars. Again, mi­nor changes are be­ing ef­fect­ed in the Open Class cat­e­gories. Ca­lyp­so Chorales will now fo­cus on mu­sic from the 1920-1939 pe­ri­od to en­cour­age re­search and pro­mote the wealth of mu­sic of that pe­ri­od, es­pe­cial­ly the songs ren­dered in Pa­tois. There are changes al­so in the Lieder Class. The Spe­cial Class cat­e­go­ry and the Vet­er­ans' Class have been broad­ened to in­clude vo­cal, pi­ano and in­stru­men­tal so­los.

Pan is giv­en pride of place with the in­tro­duc­tion of two class­es–Pan Song so­lo and Leisure Play­ers' So­lo. An­dre Tanker's Steel­band Times has been se­lect­ed as the Test Piece for the Pan Song so­lo. The fa­mous and pop­u­lar Pa­nis An­geli­cus has been cho­sen as the Test Piece for church choirs, who must of­fer a re­li­gious piece-of-choice as well.

The 2010 Mu­sic Fes­ti­val is ded­i­cat­ed to Mrs Joslynne Sealy who has served the fes­ti­val over the years un­selfish­ly, with to­tal com­mit­ment and dis­tinc­tion. Next year's ad­ju­di­ca­tion will in­volve more lo­cal judges at the pre­lim­i­nary rounds. As is cus­tom­ary, three for­eign judges will be in­vit­ed to serve on the pan­els.