This Week In Art/Culture/Entertainment
By John Swartz
Saturday night the Orillia Youth Centre has a fundraising concert at St. Paul’s Centre with The Sadies at 7 p.m. Opening the show is Terra Lightfoot. Both have done concerts for the youth center before.
The Sadies played the last fundraiser held at Fern Resort. I spoke with youth center director, Kevin Gangloff last week and we both agree the theater at Fern is a great venue, but he’s been unable to book the room when the groups he wants to perform are available. That concert was a year and a half after the sudden death of Dallas Good. The rest of the band, which includes Dallas’s brother Travis, carried on. They are kind of a Surf/Punk/Country/Rock band played at 11 on the Marshall amps. Don’t worry, it will only feel like 10 ½ at St. Paul’s and it’s a clean volume, which when properly EQ’d and balanced is not unfriendly to your ears.
Terra Lightfoot also did a youth center concert. It was the first concert anyone held post-pandemic at the Sunset Barrie Drive-In back in 2020. And if you haven’t seen her perform or the name is new to you, no she’s not. My middle name is Clair, I know you had that question.
Kevin said their fundraising efforts of the past year have been fantastic. Just with concerts this year $16K has been raised. Their Smile Cookie Campaign at Orillia Tim Horton’s raised $97K.
The youth center has other concerts happening soon; Kevin Seconds, Lenny Lashley’s Gang Of One, and Nixon Boyd play October 10 at Creative Nomad, and October 11 at the youth center; Danny Michel with special guest Roger Harvey play at the youth center October 22. You can get tickets for a, or all, concerts online; there is still room at the Sadies concert, even though they have already sold more tickets than they would be able to if it were at Fern.
Sunday what promises to be a spectacular concert is happening at St. Paul’s. The Orillia Silver Band will do a program of mostly classical music with their guest soloist Kyung-A Lee.
They did a similar concert in 2023 at the Opera House with the main pieces of music being. Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Libertango by Astor Piazzolla.
So those things are concertos, alternating sections of music with the soloist, but with an orchestra, not a brass band. Lots of classical music has been transposed to other types of music ensembles and styles, this is not new. However, there are people out there who are thinking – but a band?
The OSB’s conductor wrote new arrangements and I was surprised (not that he arranges too), but how he chose the voicings to make the music sound probably as much as the original composers intended.
At that concert I also heard something for the first time, the Opera House piano played in balance. I have remarked that it doesn’t seem to project the lower register in balance with the middle and upper, and I have said so to some of the people who played the instrument. Kyung-A played it with a balance between the upper and lower register I had not heard before.
For Sunday’s concert she will open the show on solo with pieces by Chopin, Glinka and Rachmaninoff. Then Karen Richards on flute and Kim Barlow on clarinet will join her for Clair de lune, and Rhapsody on Carmen by Michael Webster.
Then the band gets their turn playing Prelude on Tallis by Peter Graham, and the Little Suite for Brass by Malcolm Arnold. Kyung-A will return to join the OSB to do Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major. I think this is going to be a fantastic concert. You can get tickets for the 3 p.m. concert online.
Mariposa Folk Festival Stuff
A few things. Recently they made a Facebook post warning of some fishing emails. I called and spoke to Chris Hazel to get more details. It turns out a third party, let’s call them scammers, has been emailing other arts organizations and people connected to the music biz and festivals offering to sell data, email lists and ticket buyer information from the MFF and other groups. Essentially they are posing as data brokers.
This is a non-starter, unlike Facebook and just about every website you go to, Mariposa (and SUNonline/Orillia) does not sell their data to anyone. They wanted to make that clear, so don’t worry your information, which is already floating around, did not come from Mariposa. You should still worry, but not on Mariposa’s account.
Next, they too have a concert this fall. Their annual Mariposa-in-Concert series starts November 29 at St. Paul’s with Juno Award winner and past festival performer Aysanabee. JD Crosstown will open the show. Chris said ticket sales have picked up the last couple weeks. I expect it will sell out like their other concerts do. You can get tickets online right now.
This week, September 25, the auction of photos from the Voices Through Time: A Mariposa Journey exhibition at the Orillia Museum of Art and History will close at 6:30 p.m.
And there will be a party at OMAH starting at 5 p.m.
The photos in the exhibit were taken by Edwin Gailits in the 70s, and Deb Halbot during the Orillia Part Two run of the festival. You can see the photos and register to bid here.
Rebekah Hawker will be playing her great music. She played the festival in 2024 and did a youth center gig this year. The exhibit will stay up until the 27th if you can’t make it the 25th.
The MFF is involved in a concert as promoters to celebrate Neil Young’s 80th birthday Nov. 12 at Massey Hall. The MFF artistic director, Spencer Shewen, is also the producer of the concert. Several acts, including these MFF past performers: Jim Cuddy, Kathleen Edwards, Sarah Harmer, Joel Plaskett, Serena Ryder, Julian Taylor, Tom and Thompson Wilson, and Donovan Woods, plus Big Sugar’s Gordie Johnson, and one of Orillias’ favourite performers and youth center fundraiser Skye Wallace make up the bulk of the list of acts paying tribute to Neil. I’d link how to get tickets, but it was on the verge of selling out (only about 8 tickets left) while I was talking with Chris Hazel (they’d only been on sale for a little more than an hour).
And last, for now, tickets for next summer’s festival go on sale in October.
Culture Day, Now Days
The Orillia Public library is jumping in on October 4 with a guided tour of the library’s art collection , which is significant. They have a couple Carmichaels, I think two Shillings, some Luscious O’Briens and sculptures. It’s at 10:30 and 11:30 a.m.
The tour will be lead by the library’s director of corporate and operational services, Melissa Robertson, who has a master’s in fine arts degree. You need to register and you can do that online.
On October 2 an event is happening at Creative Nomad Studios starting at 6 p.m.
There will be an exhibit by the Arts Orillia Animation Art and Photography Collage Youth Lab and a storytelling and a visual storytelling exhibit presented by North Simcoe Arts. Light refreshments are provided by the Orillia Native Women’s Group.
There is an oral storytelling program with Ty the Poetess and LifteD, the Orillia & Area Black Community Association, and a preview from Mariposa Arts Theatre’s production of Jesus Christ Superstar. They have room for you to tell a story. They’d like you to register your participation before hand, and there is an open mic happening as well.
Why Music Works
Cole Mendez has a lecture happening at St. Paul’s Centre September 23 at 7 p.m. The two-hour program is called, The Harmony of Creation: Philosophy of Music Lecture.
It’s billed as “a spiritual introduction to the history & philosophy of music—sound, harmony, Logos, and triadic thinking as paths to awakening and meaning.” OK, but what does that mean? Don’t worry I asked.
It’s like a Cole’s Notes version of the development of music, and how composers made things work on you. This would normally be a semester, or two or four at a university. It’s more complicated, but the bullet points Cole uses are:
- How music has been understood across civilizations and philosophies
- The roles of sound, resonance, harmony, and dissonance as cosmic and human realities
- How the triad and Trinitarian thought offer a breakthrough beyond modern dualisms
One way of thinking about it, which may or may not be discussed, is how and why composers used the pentatonic scale as a device, a trope, to signify the music is meant to be Oriental in nature. We hear it and immediately think of the Orient.
Cole is a member of The Free Label (who performed this summer at Mariposa), and was taught by Blair Bailey and Lance Anderson, and at York University.
You can get tickets online
The Shorts
- MAT’s Film Nights at the Galaxy have started. The next one is Jane Austen Wrecked My Life Sept. 24 at 4 and 7 p.m.; Santosh plays Oct. 8 and A Nice Indian Boy is Oct. 22.
- Helping Hands has a gala fundraiser at Casino Rama Sept. 27 with JP Cormier performing. You can get tickets online.
- Cards and Coasters (2nd floor, 58 Mississaga Street East) has a coffeehouse/open mic happening Sept. 27 at 7 p.m. Anyone can perform and it doesn’t have to be music; poetry, comedy, and readings are welcome. Music has to be acoustic. There’s a cover and you can cover it online.
- Peter Seitz and Dan McCoy (St. Paul’s music director) have devised a new method to teach music. They have a new six-week program running at St. Paul’s (it started this week, but they say anyone can drop in at any time) that formed the basis for a music education book. The U of T is using the method and conducting a study on its effectiveness. (I don’t feel like a guinea pig). It’s at 4 to 5 p.m. each week and it’s free to attend.
- Anne Walker’s 3rd series of summer concerts at the Coulson Church (Horseshoe Valley Road) ends Sept. 28 with her own gig. She is also debuting her album, Sunny and Blue. Joining her are Angie Nussey, Ray Dillard, Dave MacMillan, Neil Walker and Katie Lem.
- Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital Foundation has a gala happening Nov. 15 at Lakehead University. Music is by John Amato singing jazz standards. You can get tickets online.
- Meredith Moon has a new album out this week. You can listen to From Here to the Sea online.
- Derick Lehmann has two events happening. The annual Trunk or Treat at ODAS Park happens Oct. 26 and it’s time to register your trunk (it’s free even though you click the ticket link). In November he has a 90s Dance Party on the 15th, also at ODAS Park and you can get tickets here.
- Quayle’s Brewery has Burke Erwin playing Sept. 20; Kat Chabot Sept. 21; Marlon Gibbons Sept. 25; Sidney Riley Sept. 26 and Chris Lemay Sept. 27… the Hog ‘N Penny has the Kempencelts playing Sept. 20 and an afternoon jam session every Sunday with Sean Patrick and others.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia and Images Supplied) Main: The Sadies.
