February events in Niagara

With the weather being very winter-like at the moment, I thought this week I would give you some excuses to get out and enjoy some entertainment in Niagara over the coming couple of weeks as we wait for spring to arrive.

The Shaw Festival film series will continue this weekend with Saturday afternoon's screening of the lavish Anna Karenina in the Festival Theatre at 3 pm.  Next weekend is Silver Linings Playbook and the final Saturday screening on the 23rd is Quartet.  The Friday documentary film series wraps up next Friday at 5:30 with Under African Skies.  For more information and tickets, call 905-468-2172 or log on to www.shawfest.com/films.

Chorus Niagara has their annual fundraising Singathon this Saturday from 10 am to 3 pm at "The Most Famous Food Court in the World" at the Seaway Mall in Welland.  That was the scene, of course, of their record-breaking flash mob performance of the Hallalujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah a couple of years ago, which is now up to about 41 million views on YouTube.  The Singathon presents the Chorus in a casual, fun setting as they basically sing for their supper, along with The Chorus Niagara Side By Side High School Chorale and a special appearance by The Chorus Niagara Children's Choir at 11:30.  If you are down that way, be sure to stop by and take in some entertainment with several guest celebrity conductors taking to the podium.

Saturday evening this weekend, the Avanti Chamber Singers will perform at St. Barnabas Anglican Church on Queenston Street, directed by Harris Loewen.  The concert features works by Bach, Mendelssohn, Mozart and Schubert and the choir will be accompanied by the St. Catharines Chamber Music Society Strings.  Tickets are available in advance at Ryson's Music Studios downtown or Niko Music Gallery, or at the door tomorrow evening.

At that same venue Sunday afternoon at 3 pm, Primavera Concerts presents Stratford Festival bass-baritone Marcus Nance and Stratford's Interim Director of Music, Franklin Brasz on piano, in a concert of opera and Broadway musical favourites, along with a number of other popular songs.  Nance was part of the tour on Broadway with the Stratford production of Jesus Christ Superstar, by the way.  Tickets are available in advance by calling 905-736-2150, or logging on to www.primaveraconcerts.ca.

The St. Catharines Chamber Music Society presents Voice of the Whale, an evening of 20th and 21st-century music including a world premiere by local composer Tyler Versluis on February 15th at 7:30 pm at Covenant Christian Reformed Church in St. Catharines.  Tickets should be available at the door.

The Gallery Players of Niagara presents their Movie Night, an annual event at the Niagara Artists Centre on February 16th at 7:30 pm, with performers Eric Mahar, guitar; Douglas Miller, flute; and Penner MacKay, percussion.  They will improvise music to silent films being screened at NAC, with the feature film being 1927's Sunrise by F.W. Murnau, which was awarded three Oscars, by the way.
Tickets are available in advance by calling 905-468-1525 or going to www.galleryplayers.ca; they should also be available at the door.

Lyndesfarne Theatre Projects will present their winter show, Criminal Genius by Canadian playwright George F. Walker, starting February 20th and running until March 10th at the Seneca Queen Theatre in downtown Niagara Falls.  The show opens on the 22nd, and should be a good one.  The cast draws upon veteran Shaw Festival actors Ric Reid and William Vickers, as well as Artistic Director for Lyndesfarne, Kelly Daniels, directed by Wes Berger.  For tickets call the box office at 905-374-7469 or log on to www.lyndesfarnetheatreprojects.com.

Finally, the Niagara Symphony (nso) presents their Family series/Pops 3 concert the weekend of February 23rd and 24th at the Sean O'Sullivan Theatre at the Centre for the Arts, Brock University.  This is a new idea this year, doing without the Saturday evening Pops concert in favour of a Saturday afternoon performance geared towards family members, and that probably will prove to be a wise move.  The concert, conducted by Associate Conductor Laura Thomas, features music from Disney films as well as Star Wars, Superman, James Bond and Batman, and the concert is titled, not surprisingly, Heroes and Villains.  The concert is performed without intermission, by the way, so I will be in the lobby before and after the performances that weekend with music available for purchase.  For tickets, call the Brock box office at 905-688-5550, ext. 3257.  Both concerts are at 2:30 in the afternoon.

So there you go - lots of entertainment this month to get you out and banish the winter blahs - get out and enjoy!

February 8th, 2013.