What is the Federation Festival we keep hearing about?

This year's Federation Festival will be held on Saturday, Feb. 19, 2011 at Moody Memorial Methodist Church.  Here's a little background information on the festival: It's name "Federation" refers to the sponsoring group, the National Federation of Music Clubs, of which the Galveston Musical Club is one federated member club.  Federation Festivals are held all over the country and are governed by rules published every 3 years in the NFMC Bulletin.  Students may participate in any number of events, including just about every instrument, voice and choir.  The Galveston Federation Festival is host every year to about 250 students from all over the Galveston area, registered by about 15 teachers.  Most of these are piano students and violin students, but we also have a few wind and percussion students (almost all of whom are GHPAC students) as well as guitar and voice students.
 
The students who participate in the Federation Festival perform 2 musical selections, one from the required list and the other a piece chosen by teacher/student.  The students do not compete with each other; rather, they perform for a judge who gives them a rating on a scale of 1 to 5 points.  A "5" rating is also called "Superior"; a student can get either a Superior Minus, a Superior, or a Superior Plus.  Once a student has accumulated 15 points (usually taking 3 years), they earn a Gold Cup trophy (thus, the festival was once called the "Gold Cup" Festival).

Our GHPAC students have been participating in the Federation Festival for about 6 years now. We have been happy to offer this opportunity to our students because of the noticeably positive effect it has.  Typically, students who prepare for the FF focus more on studying their instrument, and the improvement in their playing in our GHPAC bands and string ensemble is significant. This year for the first time, all 4 of our GHPAC choirs will also be participating in the Festival! For further information on the Federation Festival, ask any of the following teachers who sponsor students at the festival:  Becky Eldridge, Jeannette Duke and June Pulliam.

Written by June Pulliam, Chairperson of the Federation Festival