The Ontario Music Festival Association will hold its annual provincial competition for voice, musical theatre, piano, strings, speech arts, brass, and chamber groups in Hamilton this year, from June 11 to 16, at various venues and will include performers from the Niagara Musical Theatre & Voice Festival.

The competitors, from 48 member festivals across Ontario, must be recommended by an adjudicator to attend, and only two competitors per discipline are recommended, said Lisa Brillon, director of NMTVF.

The Niagara Musical Theatre & Voice Festival has 12 singers recommended for this year's competition, she said.

From Niagara-on-the-Lake, singers Gioia De Leonardis, Ayla Jamal and Alexandre Brillon will be competing.

De Leonardis will be singing in the Junior Musical Theatre division, Jamal will sing in the Elementary Musical Theatre Division and Brillon will sing in the Intermediate Musical Theatre and Nationals qualifying divisions.

Brillion is a past overall winner of the Junior Musical Theatre division as well as placing third in the past four consecutive years. 

From Niagara Falls are Morgan Hilliker and Emily Draper for Senior Musical Theatre; Paige Hergott and Milo Boccinfuso for Intermediate Musical Theatre; Naomi Shad for Intermediate Musical Theatre and National Musical Theatre; Geena Prestia for Junior Musical Theatre; Maya Boccinfuso for Elementary Musical Theatre; Alexis Bowman and Victoria Ferreira for Grade 6 voice; Carlo Rescigno and Milo Boccinfuso for Grade 7 voice; and Sydney Cornett and Madison Marino for Grade 9 voice. 

The Niagara Musical Theatre & Voice Festival has been running for five years. This year the festival was held at the Yellow Door Theatre in Virgil in February.

The festival provides more than $4,000 in scholarships to young singers and is a member of the Ontario Music Festival Association.