This year's Helen Davidson Music Award was presented on June 23 to two different musicians at the T.C. Douglas Centre.
"In order to encourage and support ongoing, well-qualified musical education, we are awarding both candidates $2,000 each," said Gail Murray of the Helen Davidson Music Award committee.
Emcee and award committee member Isabelle Butters noted that this was the sixth annual presentation of the award.
"I just know that Helen would be very pleased with these two people who are receiving this award," she noted.
Following the presentation that evening, Sidloski and Frederick each gave a recital of four songs. Each performer was given a heartfelt standing ovation by the audience.
Lisa Frederick's background in piano is extensive as well as impressive.
"When I was a kid, piano was a huge part of my life. I did music festivals, I did provincials, I did exams," she explained. "My grandma was always there. During music festival week, she would be volunteering, always there, always helping, always proud."
Lisa grew up in Churchbridge, SK and as a young girl she received the silver medals for highest marks in the grade eight and nine Royal Conservatory exams. She has been in Weyburn for ten years with husband Jason, who farms south of Weyburn.
"I always had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to do my ARCT," she explained. The ARCT is the Associate exam for the Royal Conservatory, which is the diploma that comes after grade ten in the Royal Conservatory.
Last summer, Frederick's grandmother passed away, leaving her some seed money.
"I wanted to do something special with it," said Frederick. "She won't be here to see me accomplish it, but she can still be a huge part of it. I decided I was going to use that little bit of money to pursue my ARCT, in her honour."
Since October of 2012, Frederick has been working with music teacher Cherith Alexander to prepare for the ARCT exam, which she wrote on June 22.
"What initially started as a way to honour my grandma has turned into something more," said Frederick. "I've found a renewed love of playing piano. I'm not ready to give up playing again, because I'm enjoying it so much."
With three children, Frederick doesn't have a lot of 'me-time'.
"Playing piano has become my down time almost and my release," she said. "So it's been huge for me. But it's been a lot of work."
Frederick noted that she has 'practice performed' for various groups in preparation for the exam and the recital.
"There were some friends (at the recital) who've never seen that part of me before," she said. Now that she has gotten over her nerves, she looks forward to sharing her gift with her community.
Weyburn has witnessed the musical side of Kjel Sidloski rise up in recent years. At 20 years old, Sidloski has already completed two years of post-secondary education as a piano major. He has attended Briercrest College and the University of Saskatchewan, and he plans to attend the University of British Columbia this fall, where he will complete their music composition program.
Kjel's greatest musical influence has been a local music teacher, Alfredo Aguilar.
"At the beginning of grade 11, my mom enrolled me in guitar lessons with Alfredo," he recalled. "I didn't even know who he was or anything, but I soon found out what an incredible musician he is."
"It morphed into lessons of piano, guitar and singing, composition, orchestration, harmony and instrumentation," he noted. "So, I pretty much started spending as much time as I possibly could with Alfredo, absorbing as much information as I could. He's one of my best friends for sure."
Sidloski has only been playing music for four years, but he plans to make it his career.
"I do want to pursue popular music," he said. "I am working on recording some of my older songs as well as a couple of new ones and in the future I want to at least create an album and do some touring. But I also want to focus on getting my compositions performed and I'd like to start writing for some ensembles and get my works out into the public."
Sidloski and Frederick, each pursuing their music education with such passion and dedication, are both diverse examples of why the Helen Davidson Music Award exists. Any musicians interested in applying for next year's award can visit helendavidsonmusicaward.com.
