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The Beautiful Canadian Rockies come alive with the sound of music every November when the Vic Lewis International Band Festival strikes up the bands! The eleventh annual Festival will happen in Canmore November 7 – 9, 2008. Last year more than thirty concert bands, wind ensembles and jazz bands from across Alberta played for some of the finest band directors in North America.

Last year’s guest directors included Dr. Gillian MacKay, Director of Wind Bands at the University of Toronto, Bill Wall is a fourth generation Band Conductor from Medicine Hat, Jim McFalls, jazz trombonist on faculty at Towson University in Maryland and Mark Dejong, jazz saxophonist on faculty at the University of Saskatchewan. The guest directors were phenomenal and the response was tremendous. We are currently finalizing the guest directors for this year so please keep an eye on the website for more information.

Past guest directors have included such notable musicians as Dr. Tony Mazzaferro, Director of Bands at Fullerton College, in California, Dale J. Lonis, the Dean of the Faculty of Music at the University of Manitoba, Kevin Turcotte, trumpeter, from Toronto and Mike Tomaro, jazz saxophonist and composer, who hails from Duquesne University, in Pittsburg, PA.

Named to honour a Canmore pioneer who introduced band music to Bow Valley students in the 1940’s...and who taught them for over twenty years...the Vic Lewis International Band Festival has earned a reputation as one of the best non-competitive music festivals in Alberta. Over 800 students in junior high and high school bands perform for adjudicators, participate in workshops, listen to faculty recitals and give public performances during the two days and two nights of the festival. The festival takes place at Canmore Collegiate High and the Canmore Recreation Centre with evening gala performances at the Oh Canada, Eh?! Theatre.

Vic Lewis passed away in 1999 just a few days after the close of the festival. The vibrant music community of the Bow Valley was enlivened over several decades by his many contributions and the sponsors and organizers of the Vic Lewis International Festival are pleased to celebrate his legacy with this event that serves young musicians from across Alberta.

With the valued support of our community and corporate sponsors, we are able to keep the per student registration fee to $30.