Happy 100th anniversary to our Peel Music Festival!  Every spring for a century, the Peel Music Festival has filled our region with inspired and inspiring instrumental music, song, and speech.  This has not happened fortuitously or accidently.  It has involved passion, determination, dedication, and a sturdy belief in the Festival’s lasting value.  There have been so many positive results: motivation, excellence, community, and revelatory aesthetic experience. 

In 1927, the birth year of our Festival, Peel County was a mostly agricultural region linked by dirt and gravel roads.  The population was under 30,000.  In 1974, Peel Region was created, comprised of Brampton, Caledon, and Mississauga.  I believe that PMF missed one year during World War 2 and one during the COVID pandemic.

I would be remiss if I didn’t report our Festival’s glowing results at the Provincial competitions (OMFA) in June of this year.  Peel had an active presence there; our representative performers won 25 First Place awards, 11 Second Place awards, 6 Third Place awards, 2 Honourable Mentions with Distinction, and 28 Honourable Mentions!  This is our top showing in some years!  Congratulations to all!  Thank you to performers, parents, teachers, and volunteers who went the extra mile and made this happen.

Speaking of volunteers:  we are always in need of volunteers to take attendance, check scores/texts, and serve as clerks for the adjudicators.  If every teacher who has students participating in the Festival could offer help for one three-hour session, what a difference that would make!  Thank you to new and long-term volunteers for your enthusiastic support!  The Committee members share your delight in both performances and the young performers.

If you or perhaps your company are in a position to donate to the scholarship fund, the Festival and students would be grateful for any amount you could manage.  It is remarkable that donations can add up, even little by little. 

If you have been considering participating in the Peel Festival, may I suggest that this would be a great year to do so?!  Historical!  “Festival” means “celebration”.  Together, let’s celebrate the ineffable qualities of beautiful music and speech, March 29 to May 1, 2027.  We hope you will join us for Peel’s 100th year!

Joy Tappenden
President