Since its inception in 1919 the Festival has grown in size and scope. The first Festival had 274 entries in the 38 classes offered, with a total of 2500 participants. The 91st Annual Festival, held from March 1 to March 22, 2009, had over 3000 entries in more than 500 classes. Running for 23 days, the festival utilized 11 venues in Winnipeg and engaged 15 adjudicators from across Canada. The Winnipeg Music Festival was established by the Men's Musical Club, the first festival being held in May 1919. One of the major hurdles for these organizers was selling the idea of a competitive festival to a new market. One solution was to cooperate with existing festivals in Alberta and Saskatchewan, thereby hiring well-known and distinguished musicians, most from Great Britain, as adjudicators. This established a tradition that lasted until the mid 1960s when the festival began selecting adjudicators from North America.
Our Board of DirectorsDean Cooper – President (Instructor, Red River College)Dean has been working as a media educator for the past 18 years. He is currently a media production and communications instructor in the Creative Communications program at Red River College, and also runs his own production company specializing in corporate and promotional video. Along with commercial voice-over work and acting, he has a love of silent film, magic and pop culture collectibles.Pascal Boutroy – Interim Executive Director, Formerly Vice-President / Vice président (Independent Filmmaker)Pascal Boutroy is an independent scriptwriter and director based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Bilingual, he has been working in French and English, in film and television production, for the past 12 years.Originally from France, Pascal Boutroy has studied in Paris and Montréal. Interested in international relations, he worked for six years with CIFEJ, a non-governmental international organization linked with UNICEF and UNESCO, dealing with children films and television.