The 66th Kiwanis Music Festival will soon be upon us. We are excited for our participants who will be performing in one (or more) of our diverse array of classes. We also look forward to hosting the annual Rose Bowl competition and Young-Ja Park Memorial Piano Competition.

We continue to seek feedback via surveys from the music educators across the London Music Community who teach in various settings. Your feedback contributes to our goal of strengthening the experiences for each of the participants. One change this year in response to comments from teachers, parents, and entrants, is the suspension of awarding
solo trophies. After deliberation in response to those comments the KMF board decided to suspend awarding solo trophies thus not offering Solo Trophy classes. All regular solo classes will proceed as usual but the solo trophy classes generated by them will not be offered for the 2026 Kiwanis Music Festival. We thank you for your understanding and continue to welcome your thoughts and insights as we continue to evaluate these classes.

Our volunteers continue to be the driving force that enables the festival to occur. They include hall managers, adjudicators' assistants, door greeters, and those who perform multiple tasks behind the scenes across multiple aspects of the festival. The Festival's Board of Directors, as a volunteer group, dedicate their time and areas of expertise throughout the year and the Festival.

This fall Don Clark will be stepping away from the role as Adjudicator Coordinator and as a member of the board. Over many, many years, Don's dedication and attention to detail has been felt by each of those with whom he engaged. Both were reflected in the compliments
adjudicators would offer at the end of festivals. They noted Don's presence and support before and during the festival as he regularly checked in to ensure that everything was unfolding as it should. We thank you Don for your years of dedication. We presented Don with a plaque as a sign of our appreciation at the 2025 AGM in June.

Stepping into the role of Adjudicator Coordinator is our newest board member Pree Austin, who has been a music educator for many years. Joining her as a Co-Coordinator is Lisa Snow, another well known music educator in London. Thank you Pree and Lisa for taking on this expansive role.

We continue to strive for and maintain a balanced budget, and in response to that responsibility we thank our current sponsors and advertisers, and welcome new ones. We continue to seek new awards to support students music education and thank those who offer one-time awards and have established endowed ones. We regularly receive thank you cards from the various awardees who express their deep appreciation for such support.

We are looking forward to your participation in the upcoming 66th Festival, whether it is as a performer, an audience member, and/or a volunteer. Do reach out to me about ideas, concerns, opportunities, and challenges.

Betty Anne Younker, Chair, Board of Directors
bettyanneyounker@gmail.com