I was looking at the line up of events over the next week the other day, and I was amazed by the variety of the interesting things you can see and do in Niagara and beyond. So I gathered together a bunch of them for my weekend arts blog entry to dispel the theory once and for all there is nothing to do at this time of the year than get ready for Christmas. Incidentally, for me, that season will be starting rather late this year...
The first event is actually well underway now: the annual STRUTT Wearable Art Weekend is upon us again, livening up an otherwise blah November weekend with wild creations and revelry designed to dispel any notion Canadians don't know how to have a great time.
Earlier this evening The Sound of Light featuring the Gallery Players of Niagara performed at the W.S. Tyler Factory in the Samuel Building, where even earlier a Wearable Art Expo was on display, showing off pictures of wearable art from the previous ten seasons or so of STRUTT. The pics come from the creative lens of NAC member Brian Youngblut, and will be on display throughout the event this weekend.
Of course, the Big Event is the Saturday evening Runway show, also in the Samuel Building of the W.S. Tyler Factory in St. Catharines. This is literally a spectacle that knows no bounds, and having one of the most creative artistic souls in the city living right next door to me in Sandy Middleton, I know almost first-hand how seriously people take the Runway show and all the events surrounding it.
If you want to check your logic at the door and escape for a night of visual and musical stimulation (musical score performed live by The Sadies, by the way), contact the Brock Centre for the Arts box office at 905-688-5550, ext. 3257 for tickets to the event on Saturday evening. The doors open at 8 and the show gets underway at 9. It should be about as much fun as socially-acceptable Canadians allow themselves on any given weekend.
I wrote about the Avanti Chamber Singers concert coming up Saturday evening at 7:30 in an earlier blog post on choral concerts in the month of November, but I want to revisit it again here since there is more news now on the CD being released officially at the concert tomorrow night at St. Thomas Anglican Church on Ontario Street. The concert is titled "Blessed Are They".
The latest "Voices of Niagara" CD, Vol. 4 in the series and titled "Gate of the Year", presents a creative compilation of music, structured to take the listener through the seasons of the church year. As with past releases in the series, each track has a Niagara connection of some sort, with most being recorded for the first time.
Composers represented on the disc include local composer John Butler with his Requiem; Nathaniel Dett, the Chair of the Dept. of Music at Brock University, Matthew Royal; Gail Poulsen of the Niagara Symphony; the late Professor of Music, Ronald Tremain, and others. Many of these will be performed at the concert tomorrow evening, along with music by Durante and Mozart.
The Avanti Chamber Singers, directed by Harris Loewen, used to be known as the Niagara Vocal Ensemble. They will be joined by organist Lesley Kingham and musicians from the St. Catharines Chamber Music Society. The choir is presented by the Department of Music, part of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts at Brock University.
Tickets are available at Ryson's Music in downtown St. Catharines, or tomorrow night at the door. Needless to say, the new CD will also be available for purchase at the concert.
Elsewhere this weekend, I don't often get the chance to write about the ambitious season offered by the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society, but this weekend they are embarking on a special project they call Haydn 68, wherein they will present all of the quartets of Haydn this season, and who for all intents and purposes invented the string quartet.
The first Haydn weekend brings twelve quartets to audiences at the Music Room in Waterloo, all performed by the acclaimed Attacca Quartet. There are four concerts in all this weekend, presenting three quartets at each concert, at 2 pm Saturday and Sunday afternoon and 8 pm Saturday and Sunday evenings. There is a whopping discount for attending all four in the weekend, by the way, so keep that in mind.
For tickets, call 1-519-886-1673 or email kwcmw@yahoo.ca.
Once the weekend is done, we're not done with great theatre and music in Niagara, either. Next Wednesday, November 20th, Essential Collective Theatre presents Sky Gilbert's An Evening with Lucky Jim Lacroix, featuring Jason Cadieux and Stephanie Jones.
This is Hammer Theatre's production of Gilbert's newest work, an up close and personal look at ex-contract killer Lucky Jim, played by Cadieux, who has agreed to give a talk at the local community centre. Looks like an interesting show, and if you have seen Gilbert's earlier show CRACk, also presented by ECTheatre, you pretty much know what to expect.
Shows take place at the Sullivan-Mahoney Courthouse Theatre in downtown St. Catharines and are staged Wednesday to Saturday at 8pm, with a Sunday Pay-what-you-can matinee at 2 pm. There is a warning, by the way, adult themes and strong language are part of the show, but hey, if you have been following the Rob Ford saga in Toronto this week, there isn't likely much you haven't already heard.
For tickets visit www.ectheatre.ca or pick them up at the door before the show.
Finally, the ENCORE! Professional Concert Series for the Department of Music at Brock, part of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, continues next Friday evening, November 22nd with Night Songs, featuring faculty pianist Karin Di Bella along with guest artists from the Niagara Symphony, Vera Alekseeva on violin and Austin Hitchcock on French horn. The concert features music by Russian, French and Italian composers from the early 20th century, along with a trio for violin, French horn and piano by Johannes Brahms.
The concert takes place at the Sean O'Sullivan Theatre at the Centre for the Arts at Brock University next Friday at 7:30 pm. You can purchase tickets in advance at the Brock box office or at the door the evening of the concert.
I love the programming offered by the Department of Music at Brock, as it is always so varied and well programmed, so if you have not already done so, you should try to catch at least one of their many concerts offered over the course of the season.
So there you go, no reason to feel the least bit bored this week in Niagara!
November 15th, 2013.
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