More Than Eighty Years Of History And Tradition

The Nova Scotia Kiwanis Music Festival (or Halifax Musical Festival, as it was known at that time) was launched in 1935 by a committee of dedicated music educators and supporters who wished to provide the young artists of our community with the opportunity to pursue their craft at a broader level.  The remarkable and continued success of this project has allowed us to continue since that time on an annual basis.

For many years, the festival was primarily a project of the Kiwanis Clubs of the Halifax Regional Municipality.  In more recent years, however, the event has enjoyed unparalleled success...growing to involve thousands of participants per year and spreading out to encompass a dozen separate venues and requiring the services of 15 expert adjudicators.

The Nova Scotia Kiwanis Music Festival has been developed as a competitive festival, although non-competitive classes are offered at all levels.  Through our affiliation with both the Provincial and National Federations of Music Festivals, we are pleased to be able to offer young performers the opportunity to compete locally, provincially and nationally.

Our long-term commitment to encourage and support music performance and education in all disciplines, and our focus on excellence, has allowed the Nova Scotia Kiwanis Music Festival to achieve nationally acknowledged levels of artistic excellence and recognition.  Through a combination of stage and adjudication opportunities, the Nova Scotia Kiwanis Music Festival gives participants extraordinary possibilities for performing, learning, and sharing this musical experience with an unrivalled group of national artists and educators: our panel of adjudicators.  Likewise the general public will have the opportunity to be enriched as each of our venues fills with the sounds wonderful live music - everything from baroque recorder to original composition.