O audience, where art thou?

I am beginning to worry just a little bit.  Well, truth be told, I worry a lot about any number of things, but right now I am a little worried about the arts in Niagara.

What prompted this concern on my part was a performance Friday evening hosted by the Department of Music at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts at Brock University.  The evening saw the finale of the Walker Cultural Leader Series, a performance by the Toronto-based Ensemble Vivant, a small yet multi-talented group of musicians fronted by the petite dynamo Catherine Wilson.

In the Sean O'Sullivan Theatre, which seats about 500 people, I would say we were lucky if 100 people turned out for the performance, and many of them I suspect were students in the Department of Music at Brock.  That's a shame, because what those in attendance enjoyed was an exquisite evening of chamber music with a twist, ranging from Bach to Piazzolla to Gismonti and Canadian composer Rick Wilkins, among others.

In addition to Catherine on piano, we had Stephen Sitarski on violin, Norman Hathaway on viola, Sybil Shanahan on cello, all exceptional performers in their own right, and wait for it...Don Thompson on vibes and David Young on double-bass.  Hold the phone!  Don Thompson AND Dave Young, two long-standing legends of the Toronto jazz scene sharing the stage with Catherine Wilson and the rest of the crew and you were not there?  Now don't you feel silly...

The performance was exceptional, although note to Brock production people:  you might want to make sure musicians know how to operate a battery-powered microphone before sending them out on stage with one.  Small observation on my part, I know, but it is rather amusing how many times I've witnessed talented musicians being flummoxed by a portable microphone over the years.

After the concert we had a chance to chat with Catherine in the lobby, and renew a genial friendship that goes back over twenty years now when I first met her at the Guelph Spring Festival.  We talked about the audience numbers, and Catherine, quite rightly, suspected with exams looming more students were not in attendance.

That's fine; I can accept that rationale.  But what of the rest of us?  The Marilyn I. Walker performances at the Centre for the Arts have been around for many years now, encompassing drama, music and so much more, and yet every time I attend one of the performances, the general public does not generally attend.

The Drama Department performance last month of a Canadian adaptation of the story of Joan of Arc drew similarly sparse crowds, and I fear the upcoming Wind Ensemble performance fronted by Zoltan Kalman on Tuesday evening of this week, also at the Sean O'Sullivan Theatre at 7:30 might not fare much better.

It can't be the prices.  Tickets to Friday's Ensemble Vivant performance were barely more than 15 dollars; this Tuesday's Wind Ensemble performance is less than 10 dollars.  And for that pittance you get uniformly exceptional performances by local artists and those with a more national stature as well.

I don't know what the solution is, either.  It can't be the location, since Centre for the Arts performances can usually draw a crowd, as does the Niagara Symphony for both their Masters and Pops! series.  Not sellouts usually, but often pretty close.

The Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts advertises the events; I saw several ads for Ensemble Vivant in The Standard the past week, in fact.  But still, people don't seem to respond.

Clearly, answers must be found before the arts school at Brock moves into their new digs downtown adjacent the new Performing Arts Centre.  We cannot have a jewel of the downtown arts scene sit nearly empty most performance nights as is the case oftentimes up at Brock.  An aggressive marketing campaign must be devised to generate more interest in the many and varied series offered right now up at Brock prior to the move downtown during 2015, which is not that far away.

But that is only one half of the equation.  The public - you and I - have to take this seriously and support the great work the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts does day in and day out in our community.  It may be a case of out of sight, out of mind, but that is not sustainable in the long run.

Ask yourself:  have you ever attended one of their performances up at Brock?  If not, why not?  It is not an elitist performance series by any stretch of the imagination, and you get a lot of  value for your entertainment buck.

Go to the Brock University website, www.brocku.ca/music, to see what you've missed this season.  And then make a mental note to check back come the fall to see what the new season holds, and take a chance on a new entertainment experience.  It won't break the bank, and you might just find you become a fan.

Supporting the arts in Niagara is not difficult.  Bringing them back after they have vanished due to lack of support is.  Let's be proactive and show some enthusiasm for a series of performances worthy of your time and financial support.

Enjoy the Arts in Niagara!

March 30th, 2014.