To say the least, her work was absolutely on point during the 2021 Saskatchewan Provincial Music Festival, which took place virtually June 3-6.
Zarubin, a Grade 12 student at Peacock, would pick up a total of five provincial honours -- including two in the highest Excellence division -- as part of a crew of Moose Jaw performers who put together a series of outstanding showings at the event.
“There were some really great performances from the other competitors, so it was really humbling and rewarding to have my work recognized that way when there were so many talented people,” Zarubin said Friday afternoon.
“It was really great, it’s an example of how music brings us all together. Even after the festival, we reached out together and have been talking on social media, so even with the distance this is a big part of our community.”
The Winning Repertoire
Zarubin took first place in the Intermediate (17-and-under) Excellence Classical division with performances of O del mio dolce ardor by Christoph Gluck, Take Me to a Green Isle by Walter MacNutt, Silent Noon by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gretchen am Spinnrade by Franz Schubert. You can click here to see each of those.
She also topped the Excellence Musical Theatre class after performing Little Miss Perfect from the movie of the same name, With You from Ghost, I’m the Greatest Star from Funny Girl and Being Alive from Company. Click here to check out those performances.
In addition to those elite categories, Zarubin also topped the Intermediate Concert Group Vocal 17-and-under (click here), Intermediate Musical Theatre Ballad (click here) and Intermediate Female Vocal (click here).
As one might guess, performing that well over that range of songs required an incredible amount of work and preparation.“In a normal year, we start picking some of our repertoire as early as September, and we work on it for months and months,” Zarubin said. “Especially with the classical vocal side of it, there are some challenging, challenging parts at that level and it takes months of work and extra voice lessons here and there, so it was definitely a process.”
That’s where vocal coach Jeri Ryba comes in. Zarubin, a soprano, gave tons of credit to Ryba for helping her develop and improve over the last two years.
“She’s just wonderful, she’s done so many extra lessons with me,” Zarubin said. “One thing I enjoy about having her as a teacher is she cares about the musical aspect, but she also cares about me as a person. We have our inside jokes and are always in communication with each other, and I think it’s important to have that kind of relationship with your teacher because music is such a personal thing.”
Learning From Criticism
Like each of her provincial title-winning compatriots from Moose Jaw -- more on them in a second -- Zarubin recorded her entries and sent them in for adjudication. That required a whole process to get things to the highest calibre possible.
“It was very odd recording, because there were lots of different challenges like getting levels right, and when we were filming I actually had to film twice because I used this mike that had really bad feedback and all you could hear is static,” Zarubin said with rueful laugh. “So we had to learn as we go, there were some frustrating moments and some rewarding moments, for sure.”
In the end, though, it was all worth it. In addition to her championships, Zarubin also came away with some valuable advice for improvement, something she plans to take to heart as she joins the vaunted University of Toronto vocal program next fall.
“Even after I submitted my performances, my wonderful adjudicators would say ‘hey, you missed a detail here or there’ and it’s really valuable to get that feedback,” Zarubin said. “Now I’m really looking forward to getting back into the studio and putting some of their ideas into practice… I always say feedback and criticism is healthy for musicians because there’s never a perfect place you can be, you can always improve your performance.”
Banner Year for Moose Jaw
Zarubin also made a point of giving a shout out to the rest of her Moose Jaw compatriots -- after winning a single class in 2019, local performers picked up a total of nine titles and two runner-up awards, one of the top overall showings for the community in recent history.
In addition to Presley McLeod’s win for Junior Musical Theatre, Ava O’Bright took first place in Intermediate Trumpet Solo and Daniel McElroy landed top spot in Oratorio Solo Senior.
McElroy also was the runner up in Concert Group Grade B Senior.
Natalie Warren also came close to landing a provincial championship in the Excellence class, as she finished second in Elementary (12-and-under) Musical Theatre.
Joining the crew of provincial titleists and contenders in representing Moose Jaw this year were Marcus Capili (elementary 12-and-under piano), Daniel Cripps (senior 24-and-under voice), Deborah Cripps (junior 17-and-under musical theatre) Abby Dueck (senior voice and musical theatre), Jordan Engstrom (junior voice), Alyssa Hetherington (senior musical theatre), Grace King (elementary voice and musical theatre), Grace Keifer (intermediate 14-and-under piano), Olivia Janzen (junior piano), Shemiel McLanahan (intermediate voice and musical theatre), Matthew Merifield (junior voice and musical theatre) Nancy Moffitt (senior voice) and Alice Zarubin (junior musical theatre).
To see all the local performances, click here, find the category of the performance and click through to the Youtube video lists for each class.
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