It's better late than never as a renowned music festival prepares to celebrate Manitoba's 150th birthday.

Since 2006 the Clear Lake Chamber Music Festival has been entertaining audiences in the Westman region of the province. Last year the festival had to take a hiatus due to COVID-19 restrictions. This year the festival is back, and organizers say it's better than ever.

This year’s festival puts Manitoba composers front and centre in the belated provincial birthday celebration. The festival also pays homage to composer Ludwig van Beethoven who celebrated his 250th last year but did not get his proper due.

This year’s festival performances are all online, which creates a whole new world of possibilities for both performers and composers. Audiences from around the world can now be exposed to Manitoba performers and composers. As CLCMF Director Alla Turbanova says, “I already have some responses from Italy, and from Russia with people saying ‘we don’t want to miss your concerts’ which is just great.”

Locally, it means that audiences from Winnipeg and other regions of Manitoba can now see some of the amazing performances that the Clear Lake Chamber Music Festival has become renowned for in Westman.

The online element affords the festival some very creative programming options. Music from some of Manitoba’s top-tier composers such as Jim Hiscott, T. Patrick Carrabre, Ken Nichols, Sid Robinovitch, David R. Scott, Sophie-Carmen Eckhardt Gramatte, to name just a few, is combined with stories of Manitoba’s rich history.

There is a movie night on August 13 which will feature the film Wheat City: 1900s, making Modern Brandon. The film will be played alongside a musical score written by Manitoba composer Kenneth Nichols.

There are also performances of works by both students and professionals of music written by Manitoba’s rich wealth of composers. “Manitoba has a big, huge, amount of musical treasures which is really necessary to showcase…composers have created a large amount of works and it is really a Manitoba Treasure,” says Turbanova

There is also music by composers such as Chopin and Beethoven. Beethoven's birthday celebration takes place in the fourth concert which takes place on Tuesday, August 17. This concert will feature the festival's co-artistic directors, father and son combo Daniel and Alexander Tselyakov in a program that features Beethoven’s 4th piano concerto, and his remarkable Moonlight Sonata.

The festival also welcomes Winnipeg dancer Kathleen Hiley as she dances to music of local composers, as well as the music of Chopin. These performances will feature some of her own choreography, but also some resurrected choreography that was done by the legendary dancer and ballet master Isadora Duncan.

Another world-class performer that will take to the virtual stage for the CLCMF this year will be world-renowned clarinetist James Campbell, performing along-side his son Graham Campbell. The father and son duo will perform a light-hearted coffee concert on the morning of Saturday, August 14.

The concerts are being offered for free, but a suggested donation of $20 would be greatly appreciated to help keep this amazing quality of programming and performances going well into the next several years.

For a complete list of concert dates and links you can find more info on the festival's website.