PEAK Performance Project expands to Alberta with an eye on musical partnerships with B.C.

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      Finalists in the PEAK Performance Project will have a chance to collaborate with their Alberta counterparts this year, as the annual competition for emerging artists expands to two provinces.

      For the first time, programs will take place in B.C. and Alberta, with the top 12 performers from each contest attending the project “boot camp” at RockRidge Canyon near Princeton this August.

      Music BC executive director Bob D'Eith said musicians from both provinces will team up on co-writing projects as part of the week-long boot camp, which he described as a music business “mini-university”. He also hopes to see the B.C. and Alberta winners tour together following the competition.

      “Part of what happened in B.C. is we helped build a community here around those artists…and we’re hoping that that scene will cross into Alberta, so there’ll be more of a B.C. and Alberta scene,” D'Eith told the Straight.

      The B.C. PEAK Performance Project, administered by Music BC and funded by 102.7 The PEAK, is in its sixth year of a seven-year, $5.2-million program. Past winners include We Are the City, Kyprios, Current Swell, Dear Rouge, and Rykka.

      D’Eith noted that 100 artists have gone through the program over the last five years.

      “We knew there’d be some sense of community building, but we didn’t realize how big it would be in terms of…how connected so many of them are, and how many of all of them come back every year to the concert series, and the family keeps getting bigger and bigger,” he said.

      “I think especially the B.C. community’s been really craving a sense of scene, a sense of community. For the last 20 years, there’s been a real erosion of the live music scene in B.C….and people are just having a hard time finding a home,” he added. “This kind of gave everyone a chance to connect to something.”

      This year will be the first of seven years for the Alberta program, which is launching in conjunction with a new PEAK radio station in Calgary this year.

      Prizes for this year’s B.C. competition are $102,700 for first place, $75,000 for second, and $50,000 for third. Alberta's top prize will be $100,953, followed by $75,000 for second place, and $50,000 for third.

      Applications for both programs open April 1.

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