There has been plenty of information that has crossed my desk this week via email relating to the arts, so let's get right to it and update you on some important news. We'll go from sad to glad in order of presentation here...
Late last week the Lewiston Council on the Arts announced their popular summer events schedule for 2020 has been cancelled. This includes Bug Fest, the Summer of '69 concert, Blue Monday concert series and the Lewiston Art Festival and Keybank Chalkwalk Competition, all of which will return in 2021.
Artists who were accepted into this year's arts festival will have an opportunity to exhibit and sell their work on the Lewiston Arts Council Facebook page. Meantime the Chalk Walk Competition will be taken online and opened up as a virtual competition so everyone can become a chalk artist. The arts council says there is no specific theme for the competition; they want to see what inspires you in your own neighbourhood.
Other unfortunate news from Lewiston includes the fact the ever-popular Brickyard Brewing Co. on Center Street was recently gutted by fire. The roof collapsed over the the new banquet hall on the second floor, along with plenty of damage to the rest of the structure.
There were no people in the building at the time of the fire, and owners Ken Bryan and Eric Matthews say they will reopen bigger and better than ever in the future. In the meantime people can contribute to the Brickyard and the employees on a GoFundMe page. There will also be a Brick by Brick benefit fundraiser to help displaced Brickyard employees on Saturday, June 13th. Details on these and other ways to help can be found on the Brick by Brick Facebook page.
The Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake has now cancelled events and performances throughout the month of July. At this point the balance of the season has not yet been scrubbed as has been the case at Stratford, and the Festival is following all public health directives regarding when they can safely reopen.
It is good to see the Festival has managed to keep almost all their artists and arts workers employed, although as we mentioned earlier this month about 70 ensemble members, musicians and other independent contractors have been suspended, and several part-time seasonal staff have also been laid off.
The Festival has re-engaged almost all the artists along with others from the local Shaw Festival family as temporary, full-time employees under a new program supported through the Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS). The team of nearly 80 Education and Community Outreach Specialists will work to increase the Festival's connection with the rest of the community by increasing the amount of digital patron engagement, creating online events for Friends of the Shaw and other projects.
As has been the case with earlier season cancellations, a small team of box office representatives is currently working remotely to contact ticket holders to provide options such as holding money on account for future exchanges, converting the ticket value to a charitable donation or if preferred, issuing a full refund.
If you have any questions or concerns you can visit the Shaw Festival website.
This past Thursday afternoon Bravo Niagara! Festival of the Arts took part in a virtual charity concert entitled United in Music, to aid UNHCR's coronavirus response. The UN Refugee Agency's COVID-19 response aims to help protect refugees and the communities that welcome them in the ongoing global fight against coronavirus.
This musical charity fundraiser was initiated by Shlomo Mintz, the renowned violinist and conductor as a response from Bravo Niagara! founders Christine Mori and Alexis Spieldenner's invitation to collaborate on a virtual performance. That performance included several works including the Concerto for Four Violins by Vivaldi, together with musicians from several orchestras based here in Canada as well as in New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The concept then grew to include professors, concert artists and students from as many as 29 countries, with all the music being recorded remotely in each artists' respective homes.
All donations from the concert will go to UNHCR and you can still donate by going to the UNHCR website. You can also view the concert on YouTube by going to www.BravoNiagara.org.
The Niagara Symphony Orchestra announced this week they have appointed a new Interim Executive Director in order to guide the organization through this difficult period for any arts organization, but especially one already looking for a new Executive Director.
Ms. Gerry Callaghan joins the NSO on contract, bringing years of experience in operations and change management, primarily in the financial services industry, along with several years experience with a local community orchestra. Ms. Callaghan will be with the NSO for the next few months as the orchestra and Maestro Bradley Thachuk lay out plans for the coming 20/21 season starting this fall.
While one person arrives on board, another leaves. It was also announced this week Annie Slade will be concluding her time with the NSO as of this weekend following a 5-year journey with the orchestra, helping with the transition from Brock University to their new home downtown at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre. Annie will be off to pursue her Master's Degree in the field of Arts Leadership through Queens University this fall.
Finally the latest concerts in the ongoing #NiagaraPerforms online concert series hosted by the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre have been announced. The virtual concerts, held each Sunday afternoon at 4 and Thursday evening at 7 have so far attracted more than 20,000 livestream patrons to date.
The latest lineup looks like this:
Singer-songwriter Ariana Gillis - Sunday, May 31st, 4 pm.
Niagara's premiere jazz pianist John Sherwood - Thursday, June 4th, 7 pm.
Singer-songwriter Whitney Pea - Sunday, June 7th, 4 pm.
Shaw Festival Artistic Director Tim Carroll and members of the Shaw ensemble - Thursday, June 11th, 7 pm.
Tony Dekker of indie folk act Great Lakes Swimmers - Sunday, June 14th, 4 pm.
Superstar Canadian soprano Measha Brueggergosman and Bravo Niagara! Festival of the Arts - Thursday, June 18th, 7 pm.
Celebration of Nations Artistic Director Michele Elise Burnett & Artistic Producer Tim Johnson - Sunday, June 21st, 4 pm.
Yellow Door Theatre's Artistic Director Andorlie Hillstrom - Thursday, June 25th, 7 pm.
Local artists Lori Cullen & Kurt Swinghammer - Sunday, June 28th, 4 pm.
All of these #NiagaraPerforms virtual concerts can be viewed via the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre website and YouTube channels.
So I told you we'd go from sad to glad, right?
Have a great week, and stay safe!
Saturday, May 30th, 2020.
Saturday, May 30, 2020
Saturday, May 23, 2020
As retailers start to reopen after COVID-19, do this...
We've seen some baby steps towards what will become the New Normal in society in the last week; namely, some stores and businesses starting to reopen again after the Covid Curve has started to flatten if not decline to any great extent.
Here in Ontario, stores with street entrances will be allowed to open now provided they follow strict guidelines to protect both the public and their employees. That means any store within a mall will have to wait for now.
What this means to you and me is we can access more locally and hopefully rely on the internet a little less. But will we?
I have fears that will not necessarily be the case as people are either A.) still afraid to shop in traditional bricks & mortar shops or B.) simply have gotten used to the convenience of ordering online and having it ready for pickup or delivered right to your door.
The former concern may be reduced over time, although for the time being I understand completely people who feel that way. Especially those with compromised immune systems or otherwise cannot easily access a traditional store for some reason. This has become an increasingly scary time and fears are not necessarily unfounded when it comes to community transmission of the virus.
The latter point, that people are now accustomed to ordering online, presents us with a far greater problem. And it is one I am afraid time will not erase. If anything it could grow exponentially over the coming years.
Working as I do sorting parcels and such for mail delivery at the Canada Post depot here in St. Catharines early in the morning, I see first hand the effects of rampant online shopping. Everything from golf clubs to gaming chairs to backup generators have come through the depot for delivery in recent months.
Most popular items to order online regularly still appear to be toilet paper, cat litter and oddly, wine.
I can understand perhaps the attraction of ordering wine online, as just yesterday afternoon while out on my weekly errands I passed the LCBO store in the plaza I was at in the north end and the liquor store had by far the longest lineup to enter. But I'm not convinced this is the best course of action to take.
With the avalanche of orders for inane things coming in from China, I wonder what people are thinking when say, I see a single sponge being ordered online from China. Don't laugh. It happens with great regularity.
Yes it is convenient and yes, the selection is usually great. But consider this: if we continue to order online at our present pace we could very well face the realization it is the only way to acquire things, as most stores will have closed up shop.
I know, it is perhaps a little far-fetched at the moment, but look at the bankruptcies we're seeing at an alarming rate these days: Neiman-Marcus, J.C. Penny and others in the States and Pier One Imports and many others in North America as a whole.
Shopping on Amazon can be a very rewarding experience if you're careful, but Amazon being the only retailer of choice for many people is simply not healthy, for a lot of reasons. Eventually that will be all we have and I can't see that being for the better in the long run.
There is a fairly recent phenomenon called "show-rooming", where people will go into a traditional store to actually see an item and then go home and order it at a cheaper price online. Sometimes from the online portal of the same retailer but not always. You can only take advantage of that luxury for so long before the local store simply doesn't exist anymore.
Working in a CD store many years ago shortly after the dawn of the internet, I used to have people regularly come into the store trying to find a piece of music they heard on the radio. We would do the legwork usually calling the radio station that played the piece (if indeed they knew the station) and get the details for the customer. Often they were grateful and would then order the CD from us, but in later years we were increasingly frustrated by people who would use us as a library of sorts to search out the information and then take it and go home and order the CD online from somewhere else.
Eventually we wisely decided to take a different course of action and simply say we knew what they heard and say yes, we can get it for you, without actually telling them the details. Not the best thing to do but it did cut down on the number of so-called "show-roomers".
The point I'm trying to make here is simple. Local retailers count on us - you and me - to stay in business. Today especially as they slowly start to reopen after being closed for the better part of two months or longer, they need our business more than ever.
I realize not everyone has been working steadily during this pandemic and for many of them shopping now is simply not in the cards when they still have monthly bills they have to somehow pay. But for those of us who can, who do plan to shop in the near future, I can't stress enough just how important it is to shop local.
Your local shopkeepers depend on your - and my - business in order to survive. If you are not comfortable entering the shop yet, that's fine. Arrange for someone else to pick it up or even take advantage of curbside pickup or delivery options if at all possible.
Please consider this as we start to reopen. Amazon may always be there but your local retailer may not always be, unless we make it worth their while to stay open.
Thanks for your time and have a great weekend!
May 23rd, 2020.
Here in Ontario, stores with street entrances will be allowed to open now provided they follow strict guidelines to protect both the public and their employees. That means any store within a mall will have to wait for now.
What this means to you and me is we can access more locally and hopefully rely on the internet a little less. But will we?
I have fears that will not necessarily be the case as people are either A.) still afraid to shop in traditional bricks & mortar shops or B.) simply have gotten used to the convenience of ordering online and having it ready for pickup or delivered right to your door.
The former concern may be reduced over time, although for the time being I understand completely people who feel that way. Especially those with compromised immune systems or otherwise cannot easily access a traditional store for some reason. This has become an increasingly scary time and fears are not necessarily unfounded when it comes to community transmission of the virus.
The latter point, that people are now accustomed to ordering online, presents us with a far greater problem. And it is one I am afraid time will not erase. If anything it could grow exponentially over the coming years.
Working as I do sorting parcels and such for mail delivery at the Canada Post depot here in St. Catharines early in the morning, I see first hand the effects of rampant online shopping. Everything from golf clubs to gaming chairs to backup generators have come through the depot for delivery in recent months.
Most popular items to order online regularly still appear to be toilet paper, cat litter and oddly, wine.
I can understand perhaps the attraction of ordering wine online, as just yesterday afternoon while out on my weekly errands I passed the LCBO store in the plaza I was at in the north end and the liquor store had by far the longest lineup to enter. But I'm not convinced this is the best course of action to take.
With the avalanche of orders for inane things coming in from China, I wonder what people are thinking when say, I see a single sponge being ordered online from China. Don't laugh. It happens with great regularity.
Yes it is convenient and yes, the selection is usually great. But consider this: if we continue to order online at our present pace we could very well face the realization it is the only way to acquire things, as most stores will have closed up shop.
I know, it is perhaps a little far-fetched at the moment, but look at the bankruptcies we're seeing at an alarming rate these days: Neiman-Marcus, J.C. Penny and others in the States and Pier One Imports and many others in North America as a whole.
Shopping on Amazon can be a very rewarding experience if you're careful, but Amazon being the only retailer of choice for many people is simply not healthy, for a lot of reasons. Eventually that will be all we have and I can't see that being for the better in the long run.
There is a fairly recent phenomenon called "show-rooming", where people will go into a traditional store to actually see an item and then go home and order it at a cheaper price online. Sometimes from the online portal of the same retailer but not always. You can only take advantage of that luxury for so long before the local store simply doesn't exist anymore.
Working in a CD store many years ago shortly after the dawn of the internet, I used to have people regularly come into the store trying to find a piece of music they heard on the radio. We would do the legwork usually calling the radio station that played the piece (if indeed they knew the station) and get the details for the customer. Often they were grateful and would then order the CD from us, but in later years we were increasingly frustrated by people who would use us as a library of sorts to search out the information and then take it and go home and order the CD online from somewhere else.
Eventually we wisely decided to take a different course of action and simply say we knew what they heard and say yes, we can get it for you, without actually telling them the details. Not the best thing to do but it did cut down on the number of so-called "show-roomers".
The point I'm trying to make here is simple. Local retailers count on us - you and me - to stay in business. Today especially as they slowly start to reopen after being closed for the better part of two months or longer, they need our business more than ever.
I realize not everyone has been working steadily during this pandemic and for many of them shopping now is simply not in the cards when they still have monthly bills they have to somehow pay. But for those of us who can, who do plan to shop in the near future, I can't stress enough just how important it is to shop local.
Your local shopkeepers depend on your - and my - business in order to survive. If you are not comfortable entering the shop yet, that's fine. Arrange for someone else to pick it up or even take advantage of curbside pickup or delivery options if at all possible.
Please consider this as we start to reopen. Amazon may always be there but your local retailer may not always be, unless we make it worth their while to stay open.
Thanks for your time and have a great weekend!
May 23rd, 2020.
Saturday, May 16, 2020
Some virtual music offerings during COVID-19
As I wrote last week, there are signs of optimism and creativity amongst the local music and arts scene in Niagara as a result of the current COVID-19 pandemic. More indications of such creativity and resilience on the part of local artists manifested itself in many of the press releases I received this week, so let's take a look at what's new.
First up, Bravo Niagara! for the Arts actually held an online event this past Thursday I didn't receive word on prior to my blog post last week, but it is still relevant now. They've introduced Bravo Niagara! AMPLIFIED, a new virtual video recording series designed to bring their family of artists together with local audiences. The artists involved go beyond the Bravo Niagara! roster that have or will be performing in their inventive concert series locally.
The first project in the series was "We are the World", featuring over 150 artists and students recording remotely from their respective homes. The concept of course harkens back 35 years to the original iconic We are the World recording written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, and produced by Quincy Jones.
As Bravo Niagara! notes on their website, the words still ring true today: "Now more than ever, music has the power to uplift our spirits and give hope for a better day." How true.
Headlining the performance is superstar Measha Brueggergosman along with Quincy Jones protege Emily Bear and Bakithi Kumalo, who of course performed on the iconic Paul Simon album "Graceland" years ago. Also appearing are the Laura Secord Secondary School concert choir and the Chorus Niagara Children's Choir.
Now the premiere of this new version took place this past week but you can still watch it on their website, at www.bravoniagara.org.
As mentioned in an earlier post here, Suitcase in Point Theatre is partnering with a wide array of regional and national artists to deliver part one of the reimagined In the Soil (p)Arts Festival, ITS Online!
Of course the original three-day celebration was to take place throughout downtown St. Catharines between June 5th and 7th, but that annual arts and culture festival had to be scrubbed due to COVID-19, so the new online version will be presented throughout the rest of the year online, with Part One premiering this coming Friday May 22nd at 6 pm.
Part One of the reimagined online series will continue until Sunday, June 7th, and will literally feature something for everyone, including music, comedy, dance, aerial, theatre and comedy performances, dance parties, panel discussions, family-friendly arts making workshops, a collage party and more. And it's all online. Amazing.
For more details of events coming up in Part One, go to their website, www.inthesoil.on.ca.
If you plan to catch any or all of the events online, In The Soil suggests ordering in from one of your favourite local restaurants to complete the experience and help out our great restauranteurs that make St. Catharines a destination for foodies of all kinds. Nice touch.
Just yesterday the 2020 TD Niagara Jazz Festival announced their hugely popular local jazz festival has not been cancelled either. Rather it has also been reimagined into what they term a "Virtually Possible" version of the event, culminating in the ever-popular Summer Mardi Gras event on Saturday, July 18th.
Between now and then, there will be nine virtual "Big Easy-centric Sessions" as they put it, curated and hosted by musician and New Orleans resident Christopher Butcher of Heavy Weights Brass Band fame. The nine virtual sessions will explore the art, history, food, famous locations and especially the music of New Orleans. Think of it as a sort of "Mardi Gras 101" that culminates in the big event itself on July 18th.
The first of the nine New Orleans sessions will premiere this coming Tuesday, May 19th from 6 to 7 pm, featuring New Orleans' own "Windex Pete". You can catch it on the TD Niagara Jazz Festival Facebook and YouTube channels.
In addition to the Mardi Gras event, the Festival will also be live-streaming their weekly "LIVEStream.LOVE.JAZZ series hosted by Juliet Dunn every Friday and Saturday night during this period of self-quarantine, social distancing and beyond.
For more details on all events go to www.niagarajazzfestival.com.
Finally, the #NiagaraPerforms free online concert series launched last month by the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in downtown St. Catharines has announced some new dates.
Tomorrow afternoon at 4 pm local favourites Vox Violins, made up of Beth Bartley and Mark Clifford will perform their lively brand of music drawing from Celtic fiddle tunes, Canadian folk ballads, blues and much more.
The Garden City Comedy Festival kicks off next Thursday, May 21st at 7 pm featuring director David Green performing a live stand-up comedy performance with special guests Thomas Calnan and Fiona O'Brien.
Local musician, songwriter and producer Joe Lapinsky will guide the audience through a wide range of music spanning his varied career, including some new, never-before-heard songs. That performance takes place next Sunday afternoon, May 24th at 4pm.
Finally, Niagara's premiere choral group Chorus Niagara with Artistic Director Robert Cooper will host a watch party of the recent premiere by Chorus Niagara of "Who We Are" by local composer Glen Rhodes along with "Earth and Fire" from the Elements Suite by Katerina Gimon. Both were performed and filmed previously in Partridge Hall at the FirstOntario PAC and will be presented Thursday May 28th at 7 pm.
You can check out all the performances on the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre's Facebook and YouTube channels.
That's it for this week. Keep well and wash your hands, be careful and remain optimistic. We will get through this together.
Have a great weekend!
May 16th, 2020.
First up, Bravo Niagara! for the Arts actually held an online event this past Thursday I didn't receive word on prior to my blog post last week, but it is still relevant now. They've introduced Bravo Niagara! AMPLIFIED, a new virtual video recording series designed to bring their family of artists together with local audiences. The artists involved go beyond the Bravo Niagara! roster that have or will be performing in their inventive concert series locally.
The first project in the series was "We are the World", featuring over 150 artists and students recording remotely from their respective homes. The concept of course harkens back 35 years to the original iconic We are the World recording written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, and produced by Quincy Jones.
As Bravo Niagara! notes on their website, the words still ring true today: "Now more than ever, music has the power to uplift our spirits and give hope for a better day." How true.
Headlining the performance is superstar Measha Brueggergosman along with Quincy Jones protege Emily Bear and Bakithi Kumalo, who of course performed on the iconic Paul Simon album "Graceland" years ago. Also appearing are the Laura Secord Secondary School concert choir and the Chorus Niagara Children's Choir.
Now the premiere of this new version took place this past week but you can still watch it on their website, at www.bravoniagara.org.
As mentioned in an earlier post here, Suitcase in Point Theatre is partnering with a wide array of regional and national artists to deliver part one of the reimagined In the Soil (p)Arts Festival, ITS Online!
Of course the original three-day celebration was to take place throughout downtown St. Catharines between June 5th and 7th, but that annual arts and culture festival had to be scrubbed due to COVID-19, so the new online version will be presented throughout the rest of the year online, with Part One premiering this coming Friday May 22nd at 6 pm.
Part One of the reimagined online series will continue until Sunday, June 7th, and will literally feature something for everyone, including music, comedy, dance, aerial, theatre and comedy performances, dance parties, panel discussions, family-friendly arts making workshops, a collage party and more. And it's all online. Amazing.
For more details of events coming up in Part One, go to their website, www.inthesoil.on.ca.
If you plan to catch any or all of the events online, In The Soil suggests ordering in from one of your favourite local restaurants to complete the experience and help out our great restauranteurs that make St. Catharines a destination for foodies of all kinds. Nice touch.
Just yesterday the 2020 TD Niagara Jazz Festival announced their hugely popular local jazz festival has not been cancelled either. Rather it has also been reimagined into what they term a "Virtually Possible" version of the event, culminating in the ever-popular Summer Mardi Gras event on Saturday, July 18th.
Between now and then, there will be nine virtual "Big Easy-centric Sessions" as they put it, curated and hosted by musician and New Orleans resident Christopher Butcher of Heavy Weights Brass Band fame. The nine virtual sessions will explore the art, history, food, famous locations and especially the music of New Orleans. Think of it as a sort of "Mardi Gras 101" that culminates in the big event itself on July 18th.
The first of the nine New Orleans sessions will premiere this coming Tuesday, May 19th from 6 to 7 pm, featuring New Orleans' own "Windex Pete". You can catch it on the TD Niagara Jazz Festival Facebook and YouTube channels.
In addition to the Mardi Gras event, the Festival will also be live-streaming their weekly "LIVEStream.LOVE.JAZZ series hosted by Juliet Dunn every Friday and Saturday night during this period of self-quarantine, social distancing and beyond.
For more details on all events go to www.niagarajazzfestival.com.
Finally, the #NiagaraPerforms free online concert series launched last month by the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in downtown St. Catharines has announced some new dates.
Tomorrow afternoon at 4 pm local favourites Vox Violins, made up of Beth Bartley and Mark Clifford will perform their lively brand of music drawing from Celtic fiddle tunes, Canadian folk ballads, blues and much more.
The Garden City Comedy Festival kicks off next Thursday, May 21st at 7 pm featuring director David Green performing a live stand-up comedy performance with special guests Thomas Calnan and Fiona O'Brien.
Local musician, songwriter and producer Joe Lapinsky will guide the audience through a wide range of music spanning his varied career, including some new, never-before-heard songs. That performance takes place next Sunday afternoon, May 24th at 4pm.
Finally, Niagara's premiere choral group Chorus Niagara with Artistic Director Robert Cooper will host a watch party of the recent premiere by Chorus Niagara of "Who We Are" by local composer Glen Rhodes along with "Earth and Fire" from the Elements Suite by Katerina Gimon. Both were performed and filmed previously in Partridge Hall at the FirstOntario PAC and will be presented Thursday May 28th at 7 pm.
You can check out all the performances on the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre's Facebook and YouTube channels.
That's it for this week. Keep well and wash your hands, be careful and remain optimistic. We will get through this together.
Have a great weekend!
May 16th, 2020.
Saturday, May 9, 2020
Some musical hope amongst the ruins of COVID-19
There is music available online during this current pandemic, and that is going a long way to help some of us through a very difficult time without a lot of the Arts we typically rely on to sustain us. So this week, a little bit of good news to share that hopefully will lift your spirits as much as they did mine.
I received an email last month from Margaret Gay, Artistic Director of The Gallery Players of Niagara, reminding me and by extension all of you about the new CD release by the Eybler Quartet and the planned launch party that was to take place in St. Catharines tomorrow afternoon. I say planned, of course, because that had to be scrubbed due to the Coronavirus lockdown we're still currently enduring, but it will be going ahead nevertheless with the new recording now available through Gallery Players' website at www.galleryplayers.ca.
The Toronto-based quartet, internationally-renowned for their varied performances and pioneering efforts in presenting music by hitherto obscure composers of the past such as Vanhal, Backofen and of course their namesake Eybler, have done it again with their latest recording. The new release features the music of Viennese composer Franz Asplmayer, who lived from 1728 to 1786.
Never heard of Franz Asplmayr? Not to worry; most people including myself hadn't.
But the Eyblers had, and they are presenting the first-known recording of the entirety of his Six Quartets, Op. 2, published in 1769. It was group violist Patrick Jordan who stumbled upon a copy of the modern edition of these quartets by American musicologist Dennis C. Monk in a used bookstore in Toronto back in 2006. They sat on a shelf collecting dust in Jordan's home for awhile, before he found the first edition parts in the Bibliotheque National de France five years ago. From then to now the Eyblers have been studying and ultimately perfecting their performances of the works and have now released the premiere recordings of the Quartets.
In his day Asplmayr was a busy musician and prolific composer in several genres, producing at least 41 symphonies, 43 string quartets and 70 trios, but during his lifetime he was best known for his works for the theatre, including at least 25 complete ballets, of which 11 survive, and the first German-language melodrama.
The Eybler Quartet is made up of violinist Julia Wedman and violist Patrick Jordan, both members of the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra; violinist Aisslinn Nosky is concertmaster of the Handel and Haydn Society, and cellist Margaret Gay is Artistic Director of the Gallery Players of Niagara as well as being much in demand as both a modern and period instrument players.
The new recording is also available for download from the iTunes and Google Play stores.
Meantime concert pianist Daniel Vnukowski has been keeping busy during the pandemic with live streamed performances throughout the month of April, reaching over a million hits on Facebook and over half-a-million video views. He is not letting up in the month of May, either, and his next live stream concert comes up at 3pm today. If you miss it you can check out the archive of past broadcasts and catch it there.
Vnukowski is based now in southern California but his roots are here in Canada, and in fact he founded the Collingwood Summer Music Festival last year to bring live concert music to a beautiful part of Ontario situated on the south shore of Lake Huron. He performs regularly around the world but of course now, due to COVID-19 he is performing digitally through his website and Facebook.
The New Classical FM radio station in Toronto is currently re-broadcasting the virtual concerts on their station as well.
The live streams are sponsored by Fazioli, who have provided Vnukowski with their largest grand piano, the celebrated F308, which in fact is the largest grand piano in the world. It has several features not found on other concert grands and is the choice of many classical pianists the world over.
The general public cannot access the live streams, but you can if you become a member. It's free if you register for the full HD broadcasts on his official website, or in lower resolution they can be accessed on his Facebook page.
Again, the next performance is today at 3 pm.
Speaking of concert pianists who favour the Fazioli, I have become a regular viewer of Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt's daily performances on Twitter and Facebook the past month or so. On Twitter you'll find Angela at @HewittJSB, by the way.
Ottawa-born Hewitt is without a doubt the finest exponent of the music of J.S. Bach alive today, with her many recordings for Hyperion records as well as earlier recordings from CBC Records regularly receiving rave reviews.
I met Angela at the Windsor Arms Hotel in downtown Toronto I believe it was 1985 after she won the International Bach Piano Competition earlier that year and secured a debut recording contract with DGG. Members of the press including your humble scribe had lunch with a very young Angela and for myself, I was very much taken by her poise and demeaner even back then.
The first time I saw Angela perform live was at the River Run Centre in Guelph several years ago as she performed to a typically packed house and was as always tremendously gracious both on stage and off.
Now living in a comfortable flat in London, Angela is feeding her - and our - love of great classical music with daily pieces recorded on her phone and uploaded to both Facebook and Twitter. They are short, as Twitter has a limit of 2:20 for audio recordings. Just last week Angela compiled all the performances together, all 40 of them, and they are available for viewing now as well.
I sat in on a video conference and virtual performance from her flat just this past week as Angela talked to Canadian broadcaster Eric Friesen about the current situation and highlights of her career thus far. It was a most enjoyable hour in the afternoon remembering such a storied career that shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. The conference was coordinated with Ottawa's Chamberfest, where Angela regularly comes back to perform and in fact was scheduled again for this year.
Incidentally, her CDs are available through her online shop on the Angela Hewitt website and she'll even autograph it for you. I have my dibs on a 2-disc set on the site and plan to order it for myself shortly.
That should give you some musical food for thought during these difficult times...
Have a great weekend and stay strong. We are all in this together!
May 9th, 2020.
I received an email last month from Margaret Gay, Artistic Director of The Gallery Players of Niagara, reminding me and by extension all of you about the new CD release by the Eybler Quartet and the planned launch party that was to take place in St. Catharines tomorrow afternoon. I say planned, of course, because that had to be scrubbed due to the Coronavirus lockdown we're still currently enduring, but it will be going ahead nevertheless with the new recording now available through Gallery Players' website at www.galleryplayers.ca.
The Toronto-based quartet, internationally-renowned for their varied performances and pioneering efforts in presenting music by hitherto obscure composers of the past such as Vanhal, Backofen and of course their namesake Eybler, have done it again with their latest recording. The new release features the music of Viennese composer Franz Asplmayer, who lived from 1728 to 1786.
Never heard of Franz Asplmayr? Not to worry; most people including myself hadn't.
But the Eyblers had, and they are presenting the first-known recording of the entirety of his Six Quartets, Op. 2, published in 1769. It was group violist Patrick Jordan who stumbled upon a copy of the modern edition of these quartets by American musicologist Dennis C. Monk in a used bookstore in Toronto back in 2006. They sat on a shelf collecting dust in Jordan's home for awhile, before he found the first edition parts in the Bibliotheque National de France five years ago. From then to now the Eyblers have been studying and ultimately perfecting their performances of the works and have now released the premiere recordings of the Quartets.
In his day Asplmayr was a busy musician and prolific composer in several genres, producing at least 41 symphonies, 43 string quartets and 70 trios, but during his lifetime he was best known for his works for the theatre, including at least 25 complete ballets, of which 11 survive, and the first German-language melodrama.
The Eybler Quartet is made up of violinist Julia Wedman and violist Patrick Jordan, both members of the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra; violinist Aisslinn Nosky is concertmaster of the Handel and Haydn Society, and cellist Margaret Gay is Artistic Director of the Gallery Players of Niagara as well as being much in demand as both a modern and period instrument players.
The new recording is also available for download from the iTunes and Google Play stores.
Meantime concert pianist Daniel Vnukowski has been keeping busy during the pandemic with live streamed performances throughout the month of April, reaching over a million hits on Facebook and over half-a-million video views. He is not letting up in the month of May, either, and his next live stream concert comes up at 3pm today. If you miss it you can check out the archive of past broadcasts and catch it there.
Vnukowski is based now in southern California but his roots are here in Canada, and in fact he founded the Collingwood Summer Music Festival last year to bring live concert music to a beautiful part of Ontario situated on the south shore of Lake Huron. He performs regularly around the world but of course now, due to COVID-19 he is performing digitally through his website and Facebook.
The New Classical FM radio station in Toronto is currently re-broadcasting the virtual concerts on their station as well.
The live streams are sponsored by Fazioli, who have provided Vnukowski with their largest grand piano, the celebrated F308, which in fact is the largest grand piano in the world. It has several features not found on other concert grands and is the choice of many classical pianists the world over.
The general public cannot access the live streams, but you can if you become a member. It's free if you register for the full HD broadcasts on his official website, or in lower resolution they can be accessed on his Facebook page.
Again, the next performance is today at 3 pm.
Speaking of concert pianists who favour the Fazioli, I have become a regular viewer of Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt's daily performances on Twitter and Facebook the past month or so. On Twitter you'll find Angela at @HewittJSB, by the way.
Ottawa-born Hewitt is without a doubt the finest exponent of the music of J.S. Bach alive today, with her many recordings for Hyperion records as well as earlier recordings from CBC Records regularly receiving rave reviews.
I met Angela at the Windsor Arms Hotel in downtown Toronto I believe it was 1985 after she won the International Bach Piano Competition earlier that year and secured a debut recording contract with DGG. Members of the press including your humble scribe had lunch with a very young Angela and for myself, I was very much taken by her poise and demeaner even back then.
The first time I saw Angela perform live was at the River Run Centre in Guelph several years ago as she performed to a typically packed house and was as always tremendously gracious both on stage and off.
Now living in a comfortable flat in London, Angela is feeding her - and our - love of great classical music with daily pieces recorded on her phone and uploaded to both Facebook and Twitter. They are short, as Twitter has a limit of 2:20 for audio recordings. Just last week Angela compiled all the performances together, all 40 of them, and they are available for viewing now as well.
I sat in on a video conference and virtual performance from her flat just this past week as Angela talked to Canadian broadcaster Eric Friesen about the current situation and highlights of her career thus far. It was a most enjoyable hour in the afternoon remembering such a storied career that shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. The conference was coordinated with Ottawa's Chamberfest, where Angela regularly comes back to perform and in fact was scheduled again for this year.
Incidentally, her CDs are available through her online shop on the Angela Hewitt website and she'll even autograph it for you. I have my dibs on a 2-disc set on the site and plan to order it for myself shortly.
That should give you some musical food for thought during these difficult times...
Have a great weekend and stay strong. We are all in this together!
May 9th, 2020.
Saturday, May 2, 2020
The COVID-19 Pandemic claims another Arts victim
There was some troubling news in the Canadian arts community this week with the announcement the Stratford Festival has decided to put the entire 2020 season on hold.
The word came Monday morning from Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino, Executive Director Anita Gaffney and Board Chair Carol Stephenson. In a press release the three expressed obvious regret for the decision, and acknowledged it is devastating news for both the Festival and the City of Stratford.
Not only does it put on hold the entire season for the time being, but also the planned opening this season of the new Tom Patterson Theatre. That being said, I think most would agree they would rather wait for a more auspicious time to celebrate the opening of a new venue rather than right after the pandemic has ended. That might not be a view shared by others but for me, leave it until next year to unveil the new venue and make the whole season a real celebration.
There are obvious repercussions from the announcement, of course. Earlier in the season about 500 Festival workers both on stage and off were laid off indefinitely due to the pandemic, and they will now likely lose their entire season's work as well. Beyond that, the Festival is an economic engine for the entire region, driving about $135-million in economic activity each and every year. It is no exaggeration to say that, like in Niagara-on-the-Lake with the Shaw Festival, thousands of people and literally hundreds of business owners rely on both Festivals for their livelihood.
For Stratford, they note in their release this week they have not ruled out the possibility of mounting specially-scheduled fall or holiday programming if and when public health conditions allow. Still and all, it will never make up for the shortfall in revenue the season would otherwise generate for both the Festival and the City of Stratford.
It is a bitter pill, to be sure, and there will be more to come. But at the end, whenever that may be, the Arts will help us all to heel and recover from the current situation.
Meantime over at the Shaw Festival, it was also reported this week by esteemed arts reporter John Law in the Niagara Falls Review layoff notices have finally been sent out by the Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Not the entire company, mind you, as some are currently working from home or other remote locations while taking a 25-per-cent wage cut.
The Festival has continued to pay its 400 members through the pandemic but as of now, about 20 part-time and seasonal workers have received layoff notices. While acting ensemble members are still rehearsing at home and still receiving 100 per-cent of their pay, there is an escape clause for the Festival if they need it.
Executive Director Tim Jennings told John Law the company has now instituted a two-week notice to terminate their contracts for this season, although he hopes to extend it each week as the season progresses. Not great news for the acting company but really, it appears to be the only option available at the moment short of terminating all their contracts outright.
Unlike Stratford, Shaw has not cancelled their entire season yet. They are still going with a shortened season planned to start up again at the beginning of July, pending public health announcements that will allow such gatherings at that point as well.
There could be another delay in the season beyond that but no-one is saying anything yet, and cancelling the season outright as was done this week in Stratford is not in the cards at the present time, it seems.
So far only one show has been cancelled outright, "Mahabharata", a collaboration between Shaw and Toronto's Why Not Theatre.
Finally this week, the #NiagaraPerforms livestream series developed by the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in downtown St. Catharines continues with another two weeks of performances announced on Thursday.
The series launch earlier this month has been quite successful, all things considered, with more than 8,000 livestream patrons viewing the series to date. It is a modest start but an important one, as those staying at home are exploring other options for entertainment at this time. FirstOntario PAC has stepped up to the plate with some innovative programming to keep people connected and entertained during the pandemic.
Tomorrow afternoon at 4, multi-award-winning roots and blues singer Suzie Vinnick will perform in the Hear! Here! Niagara Music Series, at the sponsor B4 Networks' Fonthill boardroom. Next Thursday at 7 pm, local jazz artists Juliet Dunn and Peter Shea of the TD Niagara Jazz Festival will share music from their home studio in the north end of St. Catharines. Next Sunday, May 10th, Spencer Burton will perform from his home in Fenwick, and on Thursday, May 14th Carousel Players' Artistic Director Monica Dufault will share a reading of Peg and the Yeti by Kenneth Oppell. The 7 pm reading will be followed by a demonstration of how to make your own Yeti craft at home.
All of the Hear! Here! Niagara Music Series performances are available for viewing through the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre's website and YouTube channels.
Things may not be perfect right now, but the arts community is showing their collective resilience and creativity in so many ways at the moment. And when this is all over, to quote William Shakespeare himself, we'll look forward to a time when we can "live, and pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh."
That time for many of us can't come soon enough.
Have a great weekend and keep well!
May 2nd, 2020.
The word came Monday morning from Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino, Executive Director Anita Gaffney and Board Chair Carol Stephenson. In a press release the three expressed obvious regret for the decision, and acknowledged it is devastating news for both the Festival and the City of Stratford.
Not only does it put on hold the entire season for the time being, but also the planned opening this season of the new Tom Patterson Theatre. That being said, I think most would agree they would rather wait for a more auspicious time to celebrate the opening of a new venue rather than right after the pandemic has ended. That might not be a view shared by others but for me, leave it until next year to unveil the new venue and make the whole season a real celebration.
There are obvious repercussions from the announcement, of course. Earlier in the season about 500 Festival workers both on stage and off were laid off indefinitely due to the pandemic, and they will now likely lose their entire season's work as well. Beyond that, the Festival is an economic engine for the entire region, driving about $135-million in economic activity each and every year. It is no exaggeration to say that, like in Niagara-on-the-Lake with the Shaw Festival, thousands of people and literally hundreds of business owners rely on both Festivals for their livelihood.
For Stratford, they note in their release this week they have not ruled out the possibility of mounting specially-scheduled fall or holiday programming if and when public health conditions allow. Still and all, it will never make up for the shortfall in revenue the season would otherwise generate for both the Festival and the City of Stratford.
It is a bitter pill, to be sure, and there will be more to come. But at the end, whenever that may be, the Arts will help us all to heel and recover from the current situation.
Meantime over at the Shaw Festival, it was also reported this week by esteemed arts reporter John Law in the Niagara Falls Review layoff notices have finally been sent out by the Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Not the entire company, mind you, as some are currently working from home or other remote locations while taking a 25-per-cent wage cut.
The Festival has continued to pay its 400 members through the pandemic but as of now, about 20 part-time and seasonal workers have received layoff notices. While acting ensemble members are still rehearsing at home and still receiving 100 per-cent of their pay, there is an escape clause for the Festival if they need it.
Executive Director Tim Jennings told John Law the company has now instituted a two-week notice to terminate their contracts for this season, although he hopes to extend it each week as the season progresses. Not great news for the acting company but really, it appears to be the only option available at the moment short of terminating all their contracts outright.
Unlike Stratford, Shaw has not cancelled their entire season yet. They are still going with a shortened season planned to start up again at the beginning of July, pending public health announcements that will allow such gatherings at that point as well.
There could be another delay in the season beyond that but no-one is saying anything yet, and cancelling the season outright as was done this week in Stratford is not in the cards at the present time, it seems.
So far only one show has been cancelled outright, "Mahabharata", a collaboration between Shaw and Toronto's Why Not Theatre.
Finally this week, the #NiagaraPerforms livestream series developed by the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in downtown St. Catharines continues with another two weeks of performances announced on Thursday.
The series launch earlier this month has been quite successful, all things considered, with more than 8,000 livestream patrons viewing the series to date. It is a modest start but an important one, as those staying at home are exploring other options for entertainment at this time. FirstOntario PAC has stepped up to the plate with some innovative programming to keep people connected and entertained during the pandemic.
Tomorrow afternoon at 4, multi-award-winning roots and blues singer Suzie Vinnick will perform in the Hear! Here! Niagara Music Series, at the sponsor B4 Networks' Fonthill boardroom. Next Thursday at 7 pm, local jazz artists Juliet Dunn and Peter Shea of the TD Niagara Jazz Festival will share music from their home studio in the north end of St. Catharines. Next Sunday, May 10th, Spencer Burton will perform from his home in Fenwick, and on Thursday, May 14th Carousel Players' Artistic Director Monica Dufault will share a reading of Peg and the Yeti by Kenneth Oppell. The 7 pm reading will be followed by a demonstration of how to make your own Yeti craft at home.
All of the Hear! Here! Niagara Music Series performances are available for viewing through the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre's website and YouTube channels.
Things may not be perfect right now, but the arts community is showing their collective resilience and creativity in so many ways at the moment. And when this is all over, to quote William Shakespeare himself, we'll look forward to a time when we can "live, and pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh."
That time for many of us can't come soon enough.
Have a great weekend and keep well!
May 2nd, 2020.
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