INNISFAIL – When Spencer Peck first stepped on stage last March at the Olds & District Kiwanis Music Festival he was admittedly nervous.
Spencer was just 12-years-old. He had been involved in musical theatre at Red Deer’s Cornerstone Youth Theatre since the age of eight but this was the first time performing at a festival.
His only performance of any kind was three years earlier for Cornerstone when he played a guard in Shrek The Musical without uttering a single word.
“It's always very nervous to do something. Getting on stage is always very nerve-wracking. But when you do it, it's actually very fun to do,” said Peck, a former Innisfail student who now attends Red Deer’s École Camille J. Lerouge School as an honours student going into Grade 8 in September.
He came out a winner in Olds. Spencer received a recommendation to perform at the Red Deer Festival of the Performing Arts and the Alberta Music Festival Association Provincials.
He was again a winner at both. He also received a cash prize from the Rotary Club of Red Deer for outstanding musical theatre performance in the junior category.
At the provincials on May 30, Spencer placed first in the 12 and under Up-tempo Musical Theatre category.
“We watched at provincials, and we saw so many good performances. There was 21 and he was the only boy,” said Spencer’s mother Trudy Irwin. “When they announced his name as the winner we were shocked. We always go into festivals with no expectations because we don't look at them as competitions.”
With that win, Spencer was also one of three chosen to represent Alberta in the 13 and under category at the Canada West Performing Arts Festival being held in Edmonton on July 21 and 22 at MacEwan University.
He finished with an impressive second place performance.
The world has definitely opened up for Spencer. He has grown in many different ways. Physically, he’s a big kid for his age; now standing six-foot one-inch tall and weighing 160 pounds.
With the help of his Innisfail area parents, father Jason and mother Trudy, decisions were made a year ago to develop his talent with professional support.
“We started voice lessons. He was already on piano, and she's (trainer) a voice teacher as well. We just asked her to help him because his voice was changing,” said Trudy. “The best way to take voice lessons is to work on a specific song. We had just seen Fiddler on the Roof in Calgary.
“We picked one song because Spencer loved it, and he's just taking it all the way to the end.”
That song is Miracle of Miracles.
Colleen Dyment-Begeman is an accomplished professional Innisfail-area voice trainer who was tasked by Spencer’s parents to work with Spencer. She believes Spencer’s sudden festival success this year is “well deserved.”
“As soon as I started to work with him I could see he just had this real confidence, and was so comfortable with himself. It lets him be really fearless with trying things on with the characters we work on,” said Dyment-Begeman. “I could see as soon as we started to work he was going to be a really easy person to work with. He was very brave about all of his choices.
“It's also really unusual for a 12-year-old boy to have their voice fully changed. That makes him pretty remarkable for his age, and he’s got a naturally great voice,” she said, adding she believes Spencer has a strong professional future if he chooses that path.
“I think honestly he's just so strong at this point but he's also so teachable,” said Dyment-Begeman. “There are people who just are really so willing to listen to everything and take all that you have to offer them, and Spencer is one of those people.
“If he wants to pursue it he'll absolutely be successful.”
On July 20 Spencer met with the Albertan at Innisfail’s Centennial Park for an interview and photo shoot. He was dressed for the part of Motel the Tailor in Fiddler on the Roof.
It was a perfect day; the sun shined brilliantly over the park and Napoleon Lake.
His mother Trudy came along to watch Spencer sing Miracle of Miracles.
The young man was perfectly in tune. He was a perfect fit for the song, brave and resilient.
“Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles
God took a Daniel once again
Stood by his and side and miracle of miracles
Walked him through the lions' den”
As for the possibility of trudging down the challenging path towards being a professional musical theatre performer, Spencer for now is choosing to just live for every moment in front of him.
“It's definitely a possible career choice for me if I really wanted to but I do it more for fun,” said Spencer. “But it's definitely possible that I could choose to do that.”
