SLOVAK CANARY 1997

This year has marked the seventh anniversary of the all state competition of children singers of Slovakia. The finale was held in hotel Reduta in Lucenec, June 26. There were over 50000 children participating in this year’s competition and from them 16 finalists from nine districts were chosen to compete for the golden canary in Lucenec. I have learned about this competition from my friend and the president of The Folklore Union of Slovakia, Stefan Zima, whose organization is also one of the sponsors of the competition. The main grantor is Slovakia's famous opera singer Peter Dvorsky. The music was by the folk instrument orchestra of the Slovak Radio under leadership of Miroslav Dudik. The conference hall of the hotel was filled to the last seat, the TV broadcast the program, and the atmosphere was fantastic and friendly. Dudik's musicians were playing great. After a long private debate about this years winners two golden canaries were awarded. In the first category grade 1-3 Frantisek Grega from Bratislava and in the second category grade 4-6 Daniela Hikanikova from Popradno. Canary 1997 ended with all participating finalists joining Peter Dvorsky in singing: Sedi Sokol na Javori-The falcon is sitting on a maple tree. After the competition there was a small celebration for invited guests and all finalists. All of them were awarded prizes, toys, honey cookies etc., by the many sponsors that the organizators got. I was also told that the competition couldn’t be held without generous support of many organizations such as Istrobanka, Agrokomplex-Nitra, OMV, Coopex, Skoda, Volgswagen, Duslo, VUB, Digital, Matica Slovenska, Folklore union of Slovakia, Termostav Mraz, STV, Avant, Hotel Reduta, Matador and Copy center Nika, Bratislava. Director of the preparing committee Dr. Peter Stilicha was also celebrating his 50th birthday the same day.

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Published in the Slovak Heritage Live newsletter Volume 5, No. 3, Fall 1997
Copyright © Vladimir Linder 1997 
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