Saturday, March 25, 2023

Two for the road this weekend in downtown St. Catharines

 It may be a rainy Saturday in the city but at least it's spring now, so things can only get better...right?!  Ah the early spring, ready to spring a surprise on us all at a moment's notice!

No surprise we have a wealth of entertainment options this weekend in Niagara, but I'll focus on two this weekend in downtown St. Catharines that might interest you, both taking place at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre on St. Paul Street.

Bravo Niagara! Festival of the Arts kicks off their spring season as part of the TD Jazz Series with a performance by Juno and Grammy Award winner Alex Cuba tonight in Robertson Hall.  Cuba is, oddly-enough a Cuban-Canadian singer-songwriter performing music that reflects his many and varied Latin and African influences, fused with a mix of funk, jazz and pop.  

This will be an intimate solo concert and will highlight music from his recent Grammy Award winning album "Mendo".  The concert begins at 7 pm tonight and tickets are limited, but you can log on to www.bravoniagara.org to see if there are still tickets available if you do not already have them.

Also at the PAC tonight and again tomorrow afternoon in the spacious Partridge Hall the Niagara Symphony Orchestra presents their final POPS! concert of the current season, with a concert entitled "The Music of Phil Collins and Genesis".

The NSO comes by their affinity for the music of Genesis naturally, it seems, as Music Director Bradley Thachuk often performs the music of Genesis with the band's original guitar player, Steve Hackett.  In fact, after the Sunday concert Brad travels to Europe to perform again with Hackett in both England and Germany.

In the recorded world, Bradley and Steve collaborated on the release "Steve Hackett - Genesis Revisited Band & Orchestra:  Live at Royal Festival Hall".  Filmed in London, the concert features Thachuk's own arrangements of many of Phil Collins' solo hits as well as many Genesis classics.

While Hackett will not be in attendance for the performances this weekend at the PAC, Bradley and the NSO welcome and all-star band to join them along with vocalist Jeremy Saje.

Tickets might be hard to come by for this evening's 7:30 performance but for both that and tomorrow afternoon's 2:30 matinee performance you can contact the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre box office for tickets or if you dare, just turn up at the door prior to the performance.

Music is in the air this weekend in downtown St. Catharines...

Have a great weekend!

March 25th, 2023.

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