The focus is on youth this weekend as both the Carmel Music Society and the Carmel Academy for the Performing Arts pay a visit to Carmel’s Sunset Center.
The academy has its roots in a building built by Joanne Nix to house the old Carmel Ballet Academy.
“Her wish was to have it always be a performing arts studio,” studio owner Carol Richmond says. “I promised her I would do my best to keep her legacy alive.”
Nix was trained in the methodology of the Royal Academy of Dance, an organization which has been training A-list instructors and dancers since its inception in London in 1920. Now, some 60 years later, Nix’s wish is flourishing as the Carmel Academy offers arts education in all genres of dance and music, along with private coaching and instruction in acting, voice and theater arts.
The results will be in full view when the organization presents its annual Showcase Weekend, a two-day affair featuring performances by each type of dance class taught at the academy – ballet, tap, jazz, modern. “We now have two teachers on staff who were trained in the Royal Academy’s methods,” says Richmond. “We have come full circle.”
The Carmel Music Society has been conducting competitions in three categories – pianists, vocalists and instrumentalists – annually since 1976. They now host a biennial piano competition, the first installment of which commences this Saturday.
The piano showdown is open to performers ages 18-30 who were born in, reside in or currently study in California, Oregon or Washington state, with prize money totaling $9,000 and with the winner getting a recital at the Society’s opening concert of the 2017 season in January.
All finalists remain anonymous to ensure equality in judging as the field is reduced.
This year the finalists are half men and half women, ranging in age from 18 to 27. The last leg of the competition is the finals on Saturday morning and afternoon, ahead of the awards ceremony at 8pm Saturday night, when the top three vote-getters each perform their winning pieces.
The entire competition is free and open to the public. An added benefit for the six finalists is a breakfast with the judges on Sunday morning, where all six players get a rare opportunity for a one-on-one critique of their Saturday performances.
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