The Hamlet of Rosebud has become a leading example of rural Alberta celebrating the arts.
    This summer it is leaping ahead again introducing the Rosebud Chamber Music Festival (RCMF).
    The Festival is slated from July 29-August 4, and will feature performances in Rosebud, Drumheller and Three Hills.
    Rosebud native Keith Hamm has been named artistic director of the Festival. At just 22, he was named Principal Violist of the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra.
     “RCMF is a grassroots project committed to bringing world class musical performance to rural communities in the Canadian Badlands. The mission of RCMF is to showcase international performers in concerts, education and outreach programs. Our spectacular artist lineup includes some of Canada’s finest young chamber musicians,” said Hamm. “I am thrilled to welcome them to Rosebud, Alberta, the artistic heart of the Canadian Badlands.”
    This week the Drumheller and District Chamber of Commerce has stepped up its support for the Festival with a $2,500 donation.
    “We always want to support local businesses in the valley and the community, and we feel a good tie-in in because it is going to bring people in from out of town that may not come tor Drumheller for other reasons,” said Chamber president Jon Shoff. “It is something that is unique and new and worth trying out, and hopefully it becomes and annual event.
    LaVerne Erickson, one of the organizers of the event, says this is a long time coming. For years, he has envisioned international artists coming to the badland for years to promote cultural tourism.
    “The artists are people that you find on the concert stages anywhere in the world,” said Erickson.

(l-r) Drumheller and District Chamber of Commerce president John Shoff and Chamber manager Heather Bitz present LaVerne Erickson with a donation of $2,500 to seed the first Rosebud Chamber Music Festival coming this summer.

    The festival promises to kick off its premiere season with an ensemble of players with astonishing reputations in the Canadian classical music community.
    Pianist Peter Longworth, a professor at Toronto’s Glenn Gould School, will be featured. Also on the bill are violinists Aaron Schwebel and Sheila Jaffé, two of Canada’s most outstanding young violinists currently performing around the world.
    A sensational feature of the festival is the appearance of the Bonjour Stradivarius Cello that will be played by cellist and Calgary native, Arnold Choi. The instrument is on loan from the Canada Council for the Arts and is valued at $11 million.
    Included in the RCMF lineup are performances at Knox United in Drumheller on August 1, Prairie Atrium, Three Hills on August 2, and the Rosebud Church on August 4.
    Another event included in the festival is a classical music Reading Party at the Rosebud Mercantile, hosted by the Rosebud Centre for the Arts. This is on July 31 is a chance for artists to get acquainted with members of the local community.

Dalbey Farms, The Pallesen Family

    One of the many interesting stories in the history of Western Canada is how some areas were settled by groups of pioneers connected by their background and faith.
    Barry Pallesen can trace his mother Rita’s family’s presence in the area south of Drumheller to a group of Danish immigrants who came to Canada in the late 1920s. Somehow they survived the brutal conditions of the 1930s.
    “My grandpa used to say after a harvest, ‘At least you got your seed back,’ “ recalls Barry.
Barry’s father, Olav, followed his dream of becoming a farmer and came out from Denmark after the Second World War to join an uncle in the area.
    The Pallesen family farm’s name, Dalbey Farms, is a combination of two places names in the area – Beynon and Dalum and Dalbey farms is the 2013 BMO Farm Family of the Year for Wheatland County.

The Pallesen Family was recognized as the BMO Farm family for Wheatland County.

    Olav and Rita still live on the farm and help out when needed; Olav was on the combine every day of the 2012 harvest. Barry and his wife Pauline are the farm’s main operators right now, but Barry says his daughter    Kirsten, a student at Olds College, makes an increasingly large contribution.
    “She hasn’t run away yet,” he quips. “It looks as if she’s going to continue with it, and that’s wonderful. When you see that your child wants to continue with things, it makes what you’re doing seem more rewarding.”
    The couple’s other daughter, Jenny, is a math major at the University of Lethbridge and is always ready to help out when she is needed.
    Dalbey Farms is a mixed enterprise, with a 140-pair cow-calf operation and 4,000 acres of wheat and canola. The cropland is continuously cropped and no-till. There are also about 1,500 acres, both rented and owned, that support the herd.
    “I’d rather have cows than the wheat, even though there’s way more money in the grain,” Barry admits. “The cows have personality. A lump of wheat doesn’t look at you. You can’t scratch wheat under the chin. But,” he adds, “wheat does just stay there all winter without being fed, too.”
    The Pallesen cattle are bred from either Black Angus or Charolais bulls.
    “It’s not a purebred place,” Barry says. “They’re all red, white faced cattle.”
    Knowing that what you do helps to feed the world is a pretty satisfying feeling, adds Barry.
    “The challenge of raising these cattle and doing this fieldwork is absolutely huge, but, man, is it rewarding at the end of the year when it’s all come together,” he says. “There’s no better business than agriculture right now.”
    Every generation of the Pallesen family has, and continues to, be active in their church and community. “Everybody does their part,” Barry says. “If you see that from a young age, then it would seem abnormal if you didn’t do it, too.”
    For Barry, the success of the Pallesen family farm can’t be attributed to anyone person’s efforts.
    “It’s a generational thing,” he remarks. “Just because, right now, I’m the decision maker doesn’t put me at the head of anything. It’s just my turn. The transition among all the generations has been good, and everyone gets along. We all have the same goal. It’s not about making money. It’s about doing a good job and being satisfied with what you’ve done.”