OCEANSIDE — The 12th annual Music Festival will bring a musical, gospel choir and children’s choir to town.
The three-weekend festival showcases a mix of professionals and up-and-coming young singers.
“The mentoring aspect alone is invaluable,” Eliane Weidauer, Oceanside Cultural Arts Foundation (OCAF) chair, said. “The students are incredibly talented. They get a chance to work with professionals and see how a professional performs.”
The audience gets to see performers who have “honed their craft” and “rising stars.”
“We try to provide a wide range and variety of genres of music for different audience tastes,” Weidauer said.
The festival kicked off Oct. 5 with the musical “Shake, Rattle, and Roll, or the Revue That Saved Miss Primm’s Academy for Young Ladies” at The Brooks Theatre.
The musical was written by Weidauer. She said she adapted her musical “Hurray for Hollywood” that was performed at the festival last year by changing the setting and time period to the 1950s.
In “Shake, Rattle, and Roll,” boarding school students wore poodle skirts and rolled jeans, and used expressions like “righteo” and “go ape.”
Act I set up the story that the boarding school was in trouble and could be saved by a fundraiser talent show.
In act II the students and teachers put on the talent show. Beat poetry was recited and popular 1950s songs including “Rock Around the Clock,” “Purple People Eater,” and “Blue Suede Shoes” were performed.
Oct. 6, festival favorite Through The Storm Gospel Chorus and Tri-City Christian High School Singers performed at 1st Christian Church.
Through The Storm gospel chorus was formed in 2005 when a group of friends with diverse musical backgrounds decided to raise money for charity by performing together as a chorus group.
The group has held benefit performances for Invisible Children, Interfaith Community Services, Hurricane Katrina victims, World AIDS Day, Darfur Sudan refugees, Camp Pendleton recruits, Jubilee USA and literacy campaigns.
The group’s purpose is to bring awareness to poverty and social injustices and inspire dreams through music.
Coming up on Oct. 19, the Scholarship Gala and OCAF Honoree Reception will be held at Oceanside Museum of Art (OMA). Carolyn Mickelson, president of the OMA board of trustees, will be the OCAF special honoree.
Mickelson chaired numerous events and fundraisers for OMA and helped with museum branding, graphics and promotion. She was influential in getting funding for an ongoing children’s art program at the museum.
She also helped with promotion and graphics for Concerts in the Park, and OCAF Days of Art and Music Festival.
To close the festival San Diego North Coast Singers will perform the Global Spirit concert at St. Mary Star of the Sea Church on Oct. 20.
The Music Festival raises money for graduating high school students’ performing arts scholarships. The “Shake, Rattle, and Roll” musical also collected donations for Casa de Amparo children and family support services.
The goal of the festival is to inspire young musicians to further their talents.
“The performing arts is a reflection of our community, lifestyle, history, culture and politics,” Weidauer said. “It’s the way people think, what they believe in.”
For more information and performance times, visit ocaf.info.
