Dougherty Kiwanis Club to host art, music competition

ALBANY — Following a successful Georgia Kiwanis District Art & Music Showcase in Albany last April, plans are being formulated for the next year’s event.

Ken Rodd of Albany, a Kiwanis Club of Dougherty member who is serving as chair for the statewide 2016 showcase, said the upcoming Art & Music Showcase is slated for Saturday, April 30, 2016.

Kiwanis clubs around the state host local art and/or music competitions and the winners advance to the district contest. In 2016 the Kiwanis Club of Dougherty County will host its 36th annual art contest featuring works by students in Dougherty and Lee counties.

The Dougherty County club committed to hosting the district event for three years, with the first in 2015. In the inaugural one, Rodd said, “We learned quite a few things, but I think it turned out pretty well, thanks to the hard work of some of the members of this club and, because it was a district project, some of the other clubs” in the state.

As it was last year, the 2016 showcase will be split, with the art show held at the Albany Area Arts Council building and music performances in the city’s Municipal Auditorium. While there is no limit to the number of art entries, musical contestants are restricted to 24 acts, each no longer than four minutes. There were 20 entries this year, but “hopefully we’ll fill up” in 2016, Rodd said.

“The people that came (last April) were very impressed with the Municipal Auditorium,” said Rodd, adding that “the venue is super.” City staff handled technical aspects of the music performances, and “they did a super job (with the lighting and sound)” as well as moving a piano on and off the stage as needed.

Rodd expressed appreciation to Kristin Caso for running the art portion of the contest and to Doug Lorber and Ben Lockett for emceeing the 2015 music performances.

Lorber and Lockett “kept it running and they kept it light,” said Rodd. “After the kids performed, they would do a short interview with the (performer), and it was fun.”

The Georgia District of Kiwanis offers a total of $15,000 in scholarship prizes to victorious contestants, $7,500 each for the art and music categories. Top winners in each portion receive $3,500; second place, $2,500; and third-place finishers, $1,500.

In a unique conclusion of the 2015 music showcase, the top prize of a $3,500 scholarship was awarded to Adrian Romoff of Peachtree City, an academic and piano prodigy who is a 10th-grader at only 10 years old. He has been a contestant on the “America’s Got Talent” television program as well as performing on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and two concerts at Carnegie Hall, all of which confirm Rodd’s description of the talent level in the showcase.

“This is not the normal high-school talent show,” he said. “These kids, all of them, are excellent.”

Rodd read aloud a letter he said he received shortly after the show from Albany Symphony director Claire Fox Hillard, who served as one of the judges for the 2015 music showcase. Hillard wrote in part, “I’ve had numerous comments from random people about how great the event was…this is the type of event that Albany needs more of.”