The assertion that the well of musical talent in Weyburn runs deep will be hard to dispute this week as two local performers compete in the National Music Festival, Aug. 17-19

Pianist Cody Obst, 20, and saxophone player Nathan Degenhart, 26, left for the competition in Halifax on Tuesday, along with their accompanist and fellow Weyburnite Cherith Alexander.

The national contest is the last stop on the music festival circuit. Musicians begin at the local level and work their way up to provincials. Degenhart will be competing with the Saskatchewan contingent, while Obst will be playing on behalf of Manitoba, where he attends university. A group of eight to 10 musicians play for each province in piano, strings, voice, woodwind, brass and chamber music.

"It's one of the top competitions in the country, a representation of the finest musicians from each province," said Alexander, who played in the festival herself in 1991. "Certainly the level is very high. These two guys being hometown boys, it's really exciting."

Obst said he was feeling excited and a little apprehensive prior to the event.

"It's going to be very stiff competition, so in one sense it's scary. There's one (musician per class) from every province and they're going to be really good. I'm going to try to go in with the attitude to have fun and really learn from the other players," he said.

Obst began his piano training at the age of nine, after he was encouraged to take up the instrument by his Grade 4 teacher Elaine Zandee.

"I came home and asked for a piano for a month and my parents bought me one. I started practising and they had to tear me away from it," he said.

Obst learned his skills from teachers Mary Johnston, Linda Hookenson and Alexander, and now studies under Dr. Joan Miller at Brandon University, where he has completed four years of a five-year program for bachelor's degrees in music and education.

Obst practices at least three hours a day. He will play two pieces at the festival: a piano concerto by Franz Liszt that is 23 minutes long and a piece by Chopin that is 10 minutes long. Obst memorizes the pieces in blocks.

This is his first time at a national music festival. He was a finalist at the Saskatchewan Concerto competition this year, and has also been named best senior player in Manitoba.

Obst says he likes competing, but performing is his passion.

"There's something about a live concert you can't get anywhere else, a feeling with live music that a record or CD can't reproduce. It's a personal experience with me and I'm happy to share my music with other people," he said.

Nathan Degenhart's musical roots began in Grade 7 when he joined the Weyburn Junior High band.

His training included lessons in Regina every second week from grade 8 to 12, and further study at the University of Regina, where he completed a bachelor's degree in music education.

From there Degenhart went to university in Illinois and did a masters in music performance. He plans to go back to the university for a doctorate in music, and has lately been teaching at a small university in Oregon.

He's been home for the summer to get some practice for the festival.

"Each competition has a unique challenge. This is the competition with the highest level and most attention given to it," he said.

Degenhart has had several career highlights, including a competition with saxophone players from all over the U.S., playing with Canada's top military band, the Ceremonial Guard in Ottawa, and playing in the Tower Sax Quartet, where he toured rural areas in the southern U.S. He also performed with the Chicago Civic Orchestra last year.

"I feel pretty good to be in this competition. I'm lucky to have an excellent piano player to be playing with," he said, adding Weyburn is fortunate to have a pianist of Alexander's calibre living here.

Degenhart said he's played in enough competitions not to worry about winning anymore, and is more focused on playing to the best of his ability.