UPCOMING EVENTS
Bringing art music to exciting & unexpected venuesNew! 4 Concert Package! Buy Tickets Here
Music in the Country
Enjoy beautiful music from CMF String Quartet in a peaceful pastoral indoor setting. Homecooked food, alcoholic beverages and refreshments will be available for purchase.
Thank you to festival sponsor Astro Insurance and to Community Partner Venue of New Hope!
Music in the Country
CMF String Quartet
Thursday, July 3, 7 pm
The Venue of New Hope, 100043 Range Rd 22 #3, Diamond City
CMF String Quartet
Alina Khvatova, violin
Alayna McNeil, violin
Gabe Kastelic, viola
Christine Bootland, cello
Music in the Garden
Concert goers are provided with high fidelity headsets. Enjoy the concert while you move around the beautiful garden landscape, or sit near the performers. Beverages will be available for purchase. We move indoors if the weather is bad.
Thank you to festival sponsor Astro Insurance!
Music in the Garden
CMF String Quartet
Friday, July 4, 7 pm
Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden, Lethbridge
Alina Khvatova, violin
Alayna McNeil, violin
Gabe Kastelic, viola
Christine Bootland, cello
Pianos (and more!) in Paris by Candlelight
This event takes place in an intimate setting, lit by flickering candles. You will be mesmerized as you are transported to Paris in Southern Alberta. Poulenc’s Sonata for 2 Pianos (Brad Parker, Deanna Oye); Poulenc’s Sextet for Wind Quintet and Piano; “Paris” by Darius Milhaud, for 4 pianos featuring FOURtitude.
Thank you to festival sponsor Astro Insurance and Casa Concerts sponsor Stringham LLP!
Pianos in Paris by Candlelight
Saturday, July 5, 7 pm
Community Room, Casa, Lethbridge
Our Wind Quintet:
Paul Sanden, flute
Liz Tormorsky-Knott, oboe
Joan Rogers, clarinet
Jonathan Gresl, bassoon
Sarah Viejou, French horn
Rising Stars and Final Bows
This grand finale concert has something for everyone. We highlight this year’s Festival winner, along with final performances by piano virtuosos and members of the CMF String Quartet.
Thank you for festival sponsor Astro Insurance and Casa Concerts sponsor Stringham LLP!
Rising Stars & Final Bows
Featuring Scholarship Winner: Noelle Kuntz, mezzo-soprano and Friends
Sunday, July 6, 3 pm
Community Room, Casa, Lethbridge
Concert features scholarship winner Mezzo-Soprano Noella Kuntz with Carolyn Herrington on piano; Brad Parker, and members of the CMF String Quartet performing the Mozart Piano Quartet in G-Minor
Casa Concert Duo
sponsored by Stringham LLP
Bundle & save! Join us for the Casa Concerts for one fabulous price.
Pianos in Paris by Candlelight, Rising Stars & Final Bows:PURCHASE TICKETS
Centric MusicFest in Festival Square
Centric MusicFest at Festival Square
Free 1 Hour Concerts: CORRECTION
Friday July 4, 2025 12:00 pm
Free Guided Soundwalk July 4, 2025 at 1:30 pm with Annie Martin
Saturday July 5, 2025 11:00 am
Join us for a selection of local musicians performing live on stage in the heart of Downtown.
2025 ARTIST LINEUP
2025 Festival Quartet
Centric MusicFest String Quartet
At the heart of the Centric MusicFest String Quartet’s purpose is the promotion of collaboration, transcending geographical and artistic boundaries. By uniting musicians from different communities, we inspire a powerful exchange of ideas, techniques, and creative visions.
This unique ensemble will vary every year, bringing together local and visiting artists. The members of the 2025 quartet are musicians Alina Khvatova, first violin; Alayna McNeil, second violin; Gab Kastelic, viola; and Christine Bootland, cello.
Pictured left, the 2024 Centric Festival Quartet, consisting of Alina Khvatova, violin; Vladimir Ruffino, violin; Fabiola Amorim, viola; and Christine Bootland perform at Venue of New Hope, Diamond City, Alberta.
Alina Khvatova, violin
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Alayna McNeil, violin
Alayna McNeil has completed her first year of a Master of Music degree at the University of Denver Lamont School of Music, where she studies with Linda Wang. Alayna received her Bachelor of Music from the University of Lethbridge, where she studied with Peter Visentin. She was honoured to receive the Faculty of Fine Arts Gold Medal upon graduating in 2024. Alayna is the winner of the 2022 Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra’s RBC Foundation Young Artist Competition, and she was a featured guest soloist with the orchestra in 2023. In 2019 Alayna won the Rose Bowl award for the Most Artistic and Outstanding Performer in the Lethbridge Music Festival.
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Alayna McNeil has completed her first year of a Master of Music degree at the University of Denver Lamont School of Music, where she studies with Linda Wang. Alayna received her Bachelor of Music from the University of Lethbridge, where she studied with Peter Visentin. She was honoured to receive the Faculty of Fine Arts Gold Medal upon graduating in 2024. Alayna is the winner of the 2022 Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra’s RBC Foundation Young Artist Competition, and she was a featured guest soloist with the orchestra in 2023. In 2019 Alayna won the Rose Bowl award for the Most Artistic and Outstanding Performer in the Lethbridge Music Festival.
Alayna is passionate about all aspects of music. An avid performer of chamber and orchestral music, Alayna has enjoyed collaborating and performing with musicians in Canada, the US, and the UK. Alayna is an active performer with the Lethbridge Con Brio trio. In Denver, Alayna has been co-concertmaster of the Lamont Symphony Orchestra for the past six months, and she also played as concertmaster of Bow Art chamber orchestra ensemble during the winter months of the year. Alayna currently plays with a string quartet and a string trio in Denver, and she enjoys working as a teaching assistant for aural skills and music arranging.
Alayna was honoured to be the featured performer in the final concert of the 2022 Centric Music Fest. In 2024, she performed a Centric pop-up concert with the Con Brio Trio, as well as a Centric fundraiser event with Alina Khvatova and Christine Bootland. Alayna is delighted to be returning to Centric again this year and to be performing with the resident quartet!
Gabe Kastelic, viola
native of Lethbridge, Alberta, Gabe Kastelic has been heavily involved in the Southern Alberta music community for many years. He has extensive experience as an orchestral musician, having performed in concert with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Red Deer Symphony, Symphony of the Kootenays, and is currently the Principal Violist of the Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra. He is also a seasoned chamber musician, winning first place the Chamber Music category at the 2012 National Music Festival with his ensemble, the MRU String Trio and is presently the violist in the Musaeus String Quartet.
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Along with performance, Gabe’s greatest passion in music is teaching. He has held numerous teaching positions over the years including professor of violin/viola for the Calgary Multicultural Orchestra, Director of the String Academy for Medicine Hat College, and most recently as Music Director of the Tutti Corda String Orchestra. Gabe is also a sought-after adjudicator, frequently serving in this role for various music festivals and competitions.
Christine Bootland, cello
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Christine is an active extra performer in various chamber ensembles and with the Lethbridge, Red Deer and Regina Symphonies as well as the Symphony of the Kootenays and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra.
She has toured Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia as a member of the Armadillo String Quartet of Canada and was first prize winner in the CIBC National Chamber Music Festival Competition with the JEB string quartet. Christine has adjudicated all over Alberta, BC and Saskatchewan and her students have won numerous awards at all levels but for her, she gets immense joy from doing educational outreach performance programs wherever she is. Christine was on the faculty at Medicine Hat College from 2001-2021 as cello instructor, ensemble coach, Academy Instructor and conductor and program coordinator for both the Community and Junior Orchestras. In 2010 she was pleased to be invited to become a cello instructor at the University of Lethbridge Conservatory of Music three days a week. Her favorite thing to do in her down time is to read, experiment in her garden and go for walks.
Noelle Kuntz, CentricMusic Scholarship Winner
Noelle Kuntz just completed her first year of music graduate studies at the University of Lethbridge, studying voice with Dr. Janet Youngdahl. She graduated with a Bachelor of Music with great distinction, also from UofL, in Spring 2024.
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Noelle has been studying classical voice for eight years and has loved to sing ever since she can remember. Growing up in Calgary, she was involved with various choirs and programs around the city before moving to Lethbridge in 2021. Since starting her studies, Noelle has been an active member in the University of Lethbridge Singers, and she sat on their club executive for three years. She spent the last school year as assistant conductor of the group, which was an incredible experience.
In her studies so far, Noelle has greatly enjoyed preparing and performing in several different recitals. In addition to solo voice in her grad studies, her research project, tentatively titled “Absolute Pitch in Singing: Learning to Navigate Interior Musical Processes” aims to explore the impact of absolute pitch (perfect pitch) on learning processes and environments during solo and choral singing.
Noelle participated in the Lethbridge District Music and Speech Arts Festival for the first time this past spring, and was the recipient of a Lethbridge B’nai Brith and Hebrew Congregation of Lethbridge Award and the Donaldson Plaque for Outstanding Performance in the Sr. Vocal class. Noelle recently placed third in the 28 and under class in the Alberta Provincial Music Festival and be competing in the Canada West Festival in late July.
She is absolutely thrilled and honored to be the recipient of the Centric Music Scholarship this year, and she can’t wait to share some wonderful music with you!
FOURtitude
FOURtitude is an ensemble founded by Canadian pianists, Cheryl Emery Karapita, Carolyn Herrington, Deanna Oye, and Brad Parker, all based in Southern Alberta. We share a passion for collaborating and exploring music that we would not be able to perform on our own, including operatic and orchestral arrangements and new compositions for multiple hands on one or two pianos (and sometimes more!)
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We invite our audiences to have fun with us as we exponentially expand the sonic possibilities of the piano and negotiate the athletic and contortionist choreography necessary to share the keyboard. As dedicated performer-
educators, we aspire to bring our enthusiasm for ensemble music making to our students and our communities!
Festival Square Artists
Jamani Duo, July 4, 2025, 12:00 pm
The jamani duo is the musical partnership of Jodi Groenheide (flute and percussion) and Matt Groenheide (percussion). The jamani duo plays a fun and energetic assortment of music on an impressive collection of instruments from around the world, including marimba, timpani, flute, African percussion, Japanese Taiko drums, drumset, kalimba, pandeiro, djembe, bongos, duck calls, and many more!
Dale Ketcheson (guitar), Alec Chisholm (Celtic musician) and Mohsen Mahmoud (Persian drummer)
July 5, 2025, 11:00 a.m.
Our Festival
Since its inaugural event in 2014, Centric MusicFest has become a permanent fixture in the City of Lethbridge's flourishing art and music scene. Building upon the success of its founder, Jesse Plessis, the annual summer classical and art music festival has grown under the stewardship of Artistic Director Ryan Kolodziej to feature a combination of local and visiting world-class Canadian and international musicians from coast-to-coast-to-coast. Read more...
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