After another snowfall in Niagara you may be ready for an arts-related diversion or two, so I'll offer up a couple of ideas for you to consider as you head through your snowy Saturday...
The next Masterworks concert for the Niagara Symphony takes place this Sunday afternoon at 2:30 at their home base, Partridge Hall at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in downtown St. Catharines. There are two large works making up the programme tomorrow, one by a Sri Lankan-born Canadian composer and the other by a Russian composer from the last century.
Dinuk Wijeratne is a Juno and multi-award-winning composer, conductor and pianist who is equally at home working with symphony orchestras such as the NSO as well as string quartets, tabla players and even DJs. The TorQ Percussion Quartet will be performing along with the NSO in the orchestral world premiere of Wijeratne's Invisible Cities, which is described as being full of bold and invigorating percussive colours.
Mr. Wijeratne will be in attendance for the concert tomorrow afternoon, giving a pre-concert talk in Partridge Hall beginning at 1:45. The concert itself begins at 2:30 pm.
The second half features one of the most romantic of symphonic works from the last or any other century for that matter, the popular Symphony No. 2. The work has inspired many performers and other composers over the years, including infamously Eric Carmen back in the mid-70s.
Rachmaninoff was really a throwback to the era of Romanticism in classical music, almost old-fashioned in the first half of the last century when he and his family emigrated to North America and settled first in New York City and then due to declining health relocating to Beverly Hills, California. He only became a US citizen shortly before his death in 1943.
Tickets for the performance are available through the FirstOntario PAC box office either in advance or at the door prior to the concert tomorrow afternoon at 2:30.
Meantime rehearsals are currently underway for the world premiere of the play Danny & Delilah by Norm Foster, which opens this coming Wednesday evening by the Foster Festival. The Festival, dedicated to producing mostly plays by Norm Foster, also offers world premieres of most all of his works now, and the Festival has been tremendously successful since it began about a decade ago.
Danny & Delilah tells the story of high school student Delilah who goes to live with 72-year-old Daniel and his guidance counsellor daughter Sherry for a month. Needless to say there is a generational and cultural clash between the two D's before they forge a solid connection. The newest Foster play is one of friendship in the unlikeliest of places and is full of Foster's trademark humour.
The play stars Taran Bamrah, Erin MacKinnon, Peter Millard and Karen Wood. These latter two veterans have done extensive work in theatre for many years, most notably at both the Shaw and Stratford Festivals.
Marcia Kash is the director of Danny & Delilah and I was pleased to see an old acquaintance of mine, Alexa Fraser, is the costume designer for the production.
Performances begin Wednesday and continue until the 26th of March at the Mandeville Theatre at Ridley College, where parking is free.
Tickets are available by contacting The Foster Festival directly or at the door prior to the performance.
Have a great weekend!
March 11th, 2023.
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