The arts are alive in February

If you are like me and pretty much sick of this winter, and the all-too-familiar catchphrase "Cold enough for ya?" perhaps you would like to take a cue from the bear population and simply hibernate until spring arrives.

But there is an alternative:  if you have to endure the remainder of this winter, at least make the most of it and enjoy some great performances coming up over the next week or so.  To that end, I've compiled a short list of some of the locally-produced performances coming up this week you might just want to enjoy.

This evening, for example, the Department of Music at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts at Brock University presents The Avanti Chamber Singers at St. Barnabas Anglican Church in St. Catharines.

Directed by Dr. Harris Loewen, the choir will present premieres of two new works by Niagara composers:  Requiem by Matthew Therrien and De Profundis Clamavi by Matthew Royal, composed specifically for the Avanti Chamber Singers.  Organist Lesley Kingham and the St. Catharines Chamber Music Society Strings will accompany the singers.

Tickets are available in advance from any choir member, at Ryson's Music on Court Street, or at the door this evening.  The concert begins at 7:30, by the way.

Sunday afternoon at 3, Primavera Concerts presents a concert titled Forbidden Music, also at St. Barnabas Church.  Musicians for the concert include soprano Sharon Azrieli and pianist Shoshana Telner along with special guest, violinist Jacques Israelievitch.  The concept of the concert is music by composers banned by Hitler and Stalin, such as Mendelssohn, Schoenberg, Weill, Hindemith and Rachmaninoff.

For tickets, call 905-329-9987 or go online to www.primaveraconcerts.ca.  You can also pick them up at the door tomorrow afternoon.

The popular Tuesday music@noon concerts presented by the Department of Music at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts continues this Tuesday, February 11th at noon, in the Concordia Seminary Chapel at Brock University.  The recital is by Piano, Voice and Instrumental Students in the Department of Music at Brock, and is absolutely free and charge and open to the public.

Finally, the Department of Dramatic Arts at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts at Brock presents Jehanne of the Witches by Sally Clark in the Sean O'Sullivan Theatre, Brock University.  This new MainStage production pretty much has it all:  black magic, illusion, sexuality and the use - and abuse - of power.  Sound interesting?

It's a Canadian play performed by the students of Brock University Department of Dramatic Arts and is written by award-winning playwright Sally Clark, recounting Joan of Arc's story with historical accuracy, as well as exploring modern feminist ideals, as well as Christianity and Paganism.

Needless to say given the subject matter, the play contains sexual themes and occasional strong language, which means likely nothing you have not heard before, but just so you know.

Performances are Thursday, February 13th at 7:30pm, as well as Friday, February 14th at 1 and 7:30 pm, and Saturday, February 15th at 7:30 pm.  For tickets, call the Brock box office at 905-688-5550, ext. 3257, or visit www.arts.brocku.ca.  Tickets should be available at the box office prior to the performances as well.

Now, when you look at that list of what's coming up just over the next week in the dead of winter in St. Catharines, what do you notice?  Three-quarters of the performances are through the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts at Brock.  So, with a brand-spanking new location going up downtown right next to the St. Catharines Performing Arts Centre, just think how nice it will be to catch these performances and many more right in the heart of St. Catharines in a year or so?  You can imagine the difference this will make to our downtown core day in and day out, year in and year out.

Granted, people will still complain about parking, as they always do when coming downtown, but hey, the venue is going to be spectacular and you'll have so much more to experience downtown once everything is up and running.  Besides, if the performance is in the evening or a weekend, some of the parking will be free, which is not something you see up at Brock, right?

So let's get the anticipation going for what is surely going to make for a much more vibrant, exciting downtown St. Catharines before you know it.  It's coming...let's embrace the change!

February 8th, 2014.