Happy New Year with friends old and new

Here we are, into a New Year, as we are now officially a week into 2011, and the Christmas rush is but a distant memory again until next year. While I was taking some time over the holidays to rest and recover from the hectic pace of December, I started to think of some of the people I've gotten to know over the past year that have added such a nice musical dimension to my life.

Over Christmas I had a couple of brief visits from our local renaissance woman of music, Laura Thomas, who was busy buying some great music for the holidays from A Web of Fine Music. I have known Laura almost since I moved to Niagara almost 30 years ago, and we've been good friends ever since. If ever there was someone with connections to the local musical establishment here, she is the one. Unfortunately I missed her annual Open House this year, but hopefully next year I'll be better organized. Happy New Year, Laura, and best wishes for a musical New Year! By the way, Laura is conducting the next Pops! concert in February with the Niagara Symphony, titled "Hey Niagara, You've Got Talent!", at the Sean O'Sullivan Theatre at the Centre for the Arts, Brock University, February 26th and 27th. The concert will be featuring talent from across the Niagara Region, so it promises to be an interesting mix of musical entertainment.

Laura is also Artistic Director of the local choir Choralis Camerata, and for several years now they have staged a concert to coincide with Black History Month in February, and each year I am honoured to join the choir for the performance as narrator, as the music explores the history of the so-called Underground Railroad that began in the deep south and ended around Fort Erie. The featured soloist for the concert each year is Teresa Holierhoek, who sings spirituals with such passion she often brings the house down at these concerts. She is a rare talent who sings jazz the rest of the year under the name of TiannaH with her group Jazz with a Twist. The group expands and contracts in size depending on the size of the venue and of course, the budget they are working with. I finally got a chance to hear TiannaH and her band at the weekly summer concert series at Charles Daley Park in Lincoln this past summer, and she is a treat to listen to.

Upcoming performances by TiannaH and co., by the way, include next Friday evening at the Niagara Icewine Gala at the Fallsview Casino Resort in Niagara Falls, and then Saturday and Sunday the 15th and 16th at the Winter WineFest on Main Street in Jordan all afternoon long. Teresa lives with her family in the Vineland area and is steadily making a name for herself in jazz circles locally for her full, rich voice and stage presence. She also happens to be a pretty neat person, too, and I count her among the great musical finds for me over the past year.

The third person I have gotten to know over the past year, who in fact performed with the Niagara Symphony just last spring, is Juliet Dunn. Juliet, along with her husband Peter Shea, perform throughout the Region and elsewhere on a regular basis, and they make their home right here in St. Catharines. For the Niagara Symphony performances last spring, Juliet was delayed getting back to Niagara due to the closure of the airports in parts of Europe due to that volcanic ash problem that developed, but she made it just in time and wowed the audiences at both performances.

I only really got to know Juliet when, out of the blue, she stopped by our CKTB Radio studios one morning after we were finished the show, and dropped off a couple of her CDs for us to listen to. Seizing the opportunity, I immediately booked her for a spot on the show that week to promote her Christmas CD, titled, not surprisingly, "Christmas in Niagara." The next day, I had the pleasure of hearing Juliet and Peter perform at Chapters at the Fairview Mall for December 24th last-minute shoppers, and she became a client of my website, www.finemusic.ca for some last-minute Christmas shopping of her own.

Just this past week, I ran into Juliet again as we were both leaving the Y; me after a workout and her after teaching a gentle Zumba class. That's Juliet: always moving and always on the go. But her voice is wonderfully expressive and she herself possesses a genuine good nature that is simply infectious. If you ever get a chance to catch a performance by Juliet and husband Peter, make a point of doing so. And if you want one of her CDs, I currently have their first release, "C'est si bon", featuring Juliet with Le Trio Parisien, on my website on the Mike's Picks page. You can order through the website or by emailing me directly at music@vaxxine.com. I can also supply the Christmas disc as well, but don't have it featured on the site now that Christmas is over. You can also go to Juliet's own website, www.julietdunn.ca.

Finally, on New Year's Eve we were out to dinner at one of our favourite local hotspots, Paris Crepes on Queen Street in downtown Niagara Falls, and providing the musical entertainment all evening long were Beth Bartley and Mark Crawford, otherwise known to local music fans as Vox Violins. Beth and Mark perform regularly around the Region, and on this night it was great to hear them in a relaxed, joyful setting on New Year's Eve at a great venue. They are also active in the local musical scene in the teaching end as well: Beth is a music instructor at Ryson's Music on Court Street in downtown St. Catharines, for instance. I have known both for a number of years now, and their association with Paris Crepes is a relatively new one, as the restaurant is part of the current renaissance of downtown Niagara Falls. They've been open for well over a year now, and are fast becoming one of the real dining jewels in Niagara.

So, to begin the year, a musical tip of the hat to some local talent I have known either for a long or a short period of time, but in all cases, glad to know them all, as they contribute so much to the local fabric in Niagara on a regular basis.

Happy New Year!

January 8th, 2011.