News and notes on the local music scene in Niagara this weekend

As I've written the past couple of weeks in this space, there is no shortage of musical events in Niagara to catch your interest, and this weekend is no exception.  So a few notes on things that have happened or will be happening you might want to keep in mind before Monday rolls around again.

Last evening you had your choice of catching Liona Boyd in Concert at St. Mark's Anglican Church in Niagara-on-the-Lake or the Toronto-based Madawaska Ensemble at the Sean O'Sullivan Theatre at the Centre for the Arts, Brock University.  I chose the latter, simply because another chance to hear La Liona comes up next Friday evening, November 28th at Silver Spire United Church in downtown St. Catharines.

The Madawaska Ensemble performed two of Brahms' greatest chamber works as part of the Encore! Professional Concert Series presented by the Department of Music at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts at Brock.  The ensemble is young, sharp and very accomplished, handling the master of the Romantic Era with relative ease.

I am also happy to report the audience was quite large for one of these events, with many in the audience Brock music students who are required to attend the concerts as part of their course curriculum.  While I saw a few lost souls who had no interest in the music whatsoever, including the young lady seated beside me who fidgeted, played with her hair, stared at the ceiling, noisily searched in her bag for nothing in particular throughout the concert and who, at the start of intermission instantly started texting people, by and large the audience was appreciative and responsive.

I love well-played chamber music and this concert was a pleasure to witness from beginning to end.  It also illustrates the high quality of music programming the Department of Music at Brock presents each season, and which will be coming to the downtown Performing Arts Centre next season.  So thanks for the great concert last night, Madawaska Ensemble.

As I mentioned, Liona Boyd, Canada's so-called First Lady of the Guitar, is on a concert tour of smaller venues in the province at the moment, which brought her to the lovely St. Mark's Church in Niagara-on-the-Lake last evening.  The tour is to support her new Christmas (or Holiday-themed if you prefer) CD, A Winter Fantasy.  I featured the disc in my November newsletter from A Web of Fine Music a couple of weeks ago, in fact.

Liona is really doing what she does best here:  visit smaller, more intimate venues with her guitar and fellow musicians to engage in some seasonal fare.  The musicians in question last night were the Queenston Ladies Choir, while next Friday night the Silver Spire Adult Choir will accompany Ms. Boyd.

I have always had a soft spot in my heart for Liona, as she was one of my very first radio interviews when I worked in Oshawa and commuted every day from my home in east-end Toronto.  The year was I think 1977 and Liona had made a splash on the Canadian music scene with a few solo guitar albums on the Boot Records label.  I was invited to interview Liona at her parents' Etobicoke home that afternoon and when I arrived, she was deeply embroiled in a long-distance phone call trying to book her concert dates in South America.

Back then Liona did all that herself, before she became much more famous and others were doing all that work for her.  But on this fateful day, I patiently waited while she negotiated the concert while sitting on the living room floor in a long flowing dress.  When we finally did talk, she was delightful in every respect, and I have had the pleasure of talking to her a few times over the years since; she is always very graceful and accommodating in our conversations.

Anyway, you can catch her concert next Friday evening at Silver Spire United Church by calling 1-888-222-6608 or going to www.ticketweb.ca.  You could also likely get them at the door.  If you want her new CD, I can certainly get that for you by contacting me directly at music@vaxxine.com.

Finally, tomorrow afternoon you have two local concerts to choose from, one in Welland and one in St. Catharines.  In Welland, the local choir Choralis Camerata will present their second concert of the weekend, featuring Britten's A Ceremony of Carols and J.S. Bach's Wachet Auf! at Central United Church on Young Street.  Accompanying the choristers directed by David Braun will be harpist Deborah Braun and Sinfonia Camerata, along with soprano Kira Braun, mezzo-soprano Jennifer McKillop, tenor Jason Lamont and baritone Michael York.

Tickets are available at the door or in advance through their website, www.choraliscamerata.com or by calling 905-646-9225 or 905-354-4348.  The concert begins at 2:30 Sunday afternoon.

Here in St. Catharines, meanwhile, Primavera Concerts kicks off their 10th anniversary season with a concert entitled A Strauss Party, featuring Guy Few on trumpet and piano and Stephanie Mara on piano.  As you might expect, the concert is primarily of trumpet and piano selections as well as piano four hands, celebrating the great composer Richard Strauss and his contemporaries and successors.

Primavera Concerts also uses Silver Spire United Church for most of their concerts again this season, with tomorrow's musical offerings beginning at 3 pm.  For tickets and more information call 289-990-3630 or go to www.primaveraconcerts.ca.  You can also pick them up at the door prior to the concert tomorrow afternoon.

So there you have it:  several reasons not to go to the mall and listen to all that dreadful piped in holiday music over the next few days.  No need to thank me; just doing my part for the sanity of the city and its' citizens, that's all.

Enjoy your weekend!

November 22nd, 2014.