The busy holiday season continues apace with a number of events - both holiday themed and otherwise - still to come before Christmas arrives, so this weekend I'll touch on a few things happening here in Niagara and beyond you might want to attend or in one case take part in. It's by no means a complete list of events; just a few things to tempt you as the season marches on inexorably to its conclusion.
The Niagara Symphony Orchestra (NSO) presents their annual Holiday Pops! concerts this weekend at the Sean O'Sullivan Theatre at the Centre for the Arts, Brock University. The first one was this evening at 7:30; the second and final concert is Sunday afternoon at 2:30. Maestro Bradley Thachuk will be gathering together a host of musical guests to accompany the Niagara Symphony in their annual Christmas concert, and yes, there is the obligatory sing-along in the second half of the programme.
Tickets should still be available for the Sunday concert, although seating might be tight at this point. You can call the Brock box office at 905-688-5550, ext. 3257 for tickets and more information.
This weekend up in Kitchener-Waterloo, the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society continues their ambitious programming with performances by Trio Celeste, headed up by Canada-Council-Stradivarius winning violinist Iryna Krechkovsky. Dubbed by Philip Seltzer of the Emerson Quartet as "one of the best young chamber groups around", Trio Celeste are presenting a trio of concerts devoted to - what else? - Beethoven trios.
The first concert was last evening, and the three-concert series continues Sunday evening and Tuesday evening at 8 pm with the Trio nos. 1 and 5 and the "Kakadu" Variations on Sunday and the Trio nos. 3 and 6 and the Variations, Op. 44 on Tuesday. I'm told there will be a bit of a party following the Tuesday concert, although just what that entails I am not quite sure.
The KWCMS presents a season full of wonderfully-programmed chamber music in the cozy confines of the Music Room in Waterloo, and you can access more information on their season by going to www.k-wcms.com, or check out the Calendar page of my website at www.finemusic.ca, where I will be updating the entire season shortly.
Tickets to the final two of the Beethoven Trio concerts and indeed the entire season can be had by going online to www.TicketScene.ca or by calling 519-886-1673.
Also up that way, the final concerts of the Christmas season will be held later this week and on the weekend at St. John's Church in Elora, as part of the Elora Festival Singers winter season. The ever-popular Festival of Carols will be presented by Noel Edison and the Singers twice on Thursday, December 19th at 5 and 7:30 pm, and again on the 22nd at 7:30 pm.
The church is small but has a wonderful ambiance and acoustic to it, and the full sound of the Elora Festival Singers is not to be missed especially in their home church. Tickets are available by going to www.elorafestival.com or by calling 519-846-0331 or 1-888-747-7550.
Back here in Niagara, the annual Gallery Players Christmas concerts come up this Friday evening and Sunday afternoon at two lovely churches in the area. Entitled Around the World with Glissandi and Guy Bannerman, the veteran Shaw Festival actor will be reciting spoken work passages interspersed with seasonal music by the local ensemble Glissandi, always a great draw over the holiday season.
The Gallery Players have just released their new CD, by the way, and I was fortunate enough to receive a copy of it last month. It is absolutely delightful, and I will be writing about it in the coming days in this space.
The two Glissandi concerts next weekend are Friday evening at 7:30 at Grace United Church in Niagara-on-the-Lake; the Sunday afternoon concert is at 2 at St. Barnabas Church in St. Catharines.
Tickets to Around the World with Glissandi and Guy Bannerman are available by calling 905-468-1525 or by going to www.galleryplayers.ca.
The Centre for the Arts at Brock University presents their final concert prior to the Christmas break with Canadian crooner Matt Dusk's holiday concert next Sunday, December 21st at 2:30 in the Sean O'Sullivan Theatre. Matt is the consummate pro and an all-round nice guy, too, so you'd be best to call the Brock box office soon if you still don't have tickets. Call 905-688-5550, ext. 3257 or go to www.Arts.BrockU.ca.
In Hamilton, the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra presents their annual Home for the Holidays Christmas concert next Saturday evening, December 20th at 7:30 in the Great Hall at Hamilton Place. Guest conductor Martin MacDonald is joined by special guests the Hamilton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra along with the HPO and narrator Roch Carrier, in a performance of his classic story The Hockey Sweater. Many more of your seasonal favourites will also be featured at the concert, along with the usual carol sing-along with the audience members.
Tickets to the HPO season are available by calling the box office at 905-526-7756 or by going to www.hpo.org.
Finally, my friends at Essential Collective Theatre in downtown St. Catharines have come up with a clever fundraiser for next Saturday, December 20th, to be held at Mahtay Cafe on St. Paul Street. The free community event will run from 11 am to 7 pm, and will essentially be a marathon of play reading as they welcome thespians and would-be thespians to take to the stage and read some holiday classics such as The Christmas Carol to a hopefully very supportive audience.
The open-house style event will raise much-needed funds for ECT as they prepare for the move next season to the new Performing Arts Centre right across the street from Mahtay Cafe.
You can get involved by either volunteering to read yourself, which takes up about 20 minutes of your time and requires a minimum $50 of your friends' pledge dollars, or you can pledge a reader through the 12 Days of Giving, on now through December 21st. You can make a tax-deductible donation by going to www.canadahelps.org/en/pages/play-day-a-play-reading-fundraiser-for-ect.
The choice is yours as to whom you want to sponsor for the reading; for me, it's my neighbour and ECT board member Sandy Middleton, who has bravely agreed to take to the stage next Saturday and is already looking for pledges. If you don't already have a favourite reader to sponsor, Sandy will be an exceptional choice! The minimum donation being suggested is $10.
That should do it for events coming up in the next week or so; plenty more are available in communities both near and far, so get out and support a local arts organization and get some Christmas cheer in the process.
Have a great weekend!
December 13th, 2014.
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