By Kevin J Sabo For the Advance
Two Castor youth have left their fingerprints on the music world in Canada. Tiara van Zandbergen and Bethany Holland were two of four students from Castor to attend the “Summer Sizzle Keyboard Camp” in Biggar, Sask, this past summer. The two youth were also two of 11 youth selected from across Canada to have their original compositions featured in the “Fingerprints from Biggar, 2018” composition book.
For van Zandenberg, her piece entitled “The start of something new” was written during her senior year of high school to express her next step in life, which is pursuing a combined degree of a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Education at the University of Lethbridge. While her 6 years of piano has come to an end in Castor, it is something she intends on keeping up in Lethbridge.
“Tiara is a very bright girl who has a tremendous work ethic,” said piano teacher Doreen Renschler. “She is always willing to rise to a challenge and try new things,” which included taking on the challenge of composing her song.
For nine-year-old Bethany Holland music has been a part of her life since a young age. Starting with Renschler at age four, she has grown in her piano skills, and over five weeks last year she wrote “Skiing Skiing Skiing,” a piece designed to take the listener to the ski hill.
“She is always eager to learn new pieces and compose songs,” said Renschler. “Her composition titled Skiing Skiing Skiing was chosen to be included in the Fingerprints book and was debuted at Summer Sizzle in August in Biggar, Saskatchewan.”
To have two young composers under the age of 18 from the community make it into a publication that draws talent from across the nation says volumes about the depth of talent that our community has, but it shouldn’t underscore the fact that along with Tiara and Bethany, Bethany’s sister Aislyn Holland and Allie Weber also represented Castor at the camp, which had about 50 kids.
Bethany, Aislyn, and Allie are all back with Renschler this fall, and have many years of fingerprints to leave behind.