This Week In Art/Culture/Entertainment
By John Swartz
First the earth shattering news, Rush is doing a short tour staring in June 2026. They have a stand-in for Neil. Her name is Anika Nilles. She is from Germany and played with Jeff Beck. The band will also have a couple additional musicians on the stage, but they are un-named at this time. I’m sure one or two – dozen, of you looking in will want to get tickets (they play the Scotiabank Arena on Aug 7 and 9) and you can get those details here.
On with the rest of the show.
Friday Night Kevin Gangloff has assembled a great line up for another fundraising concert for the Orillia Youth Centre. Kevin Seconds headlines a show at Creative Nomad Studios which includes Lenny Lashley and Nixon Boyd. Kay Silver and Ethan Mask are opening the show.
It’s hard to come to terms with the idea Lenny Lashley played a previous fundraiser for the youth center almost a year ago last October. It feels like it was only a couple months ago. The memory of that show is still pretty fresh.
What amazed me was how many of the almost 100 people on hand for that gig knew the lyrics, whether lines, verses or choruses, to so many of his tunes. So many of those instances involved great lyrics and melodies that stick. As a punk rocker form Boston, it should be no surprise that a lot of his tunes are protest songs. Timmy Kehoe will be along to accompany Lenny.
It’s good pairing with Seconds who also comes out the Punk Rock scene from the other coast. He is founder of the band 7 Seconds which was influential in the early 80s. He has his fair share of protest tunes.
Opening the show is Nixon Boyd who I am waiting patiently for the release of his album. I’ve heard several of the tunes at previous youth center concerts when he did them solo, but then was blown away when I heard those same tunes when he did them with a band at the Mariposa Folk Festival last summer.
There are tickets available online for Friday’s show, and for Saturday’s repeat at the youth center.
While you are on that page, you might notice there are some other fundraising concerts happening. Danny Michel and Roger Harvey are doing one show only at the youth center October 22; Ronnie Douglas, Angie Nussey, Bonnie Milne, and Roger Harvey are at Creative Nomad Studios October 24; Roget Harvey and Alex Kaye Black are at Paper Planes Play Café October 25; and Jet Lips, Guilhem & The Bamboo Bones and Brat Stepson are at Creative Nomad November 13.
Take The Tour
Still with the hard to believe it’s this late in the year already; I’m trying to wrap my head around this weekend is Thanksgiving, which means it’s also Images Studio Tour time.
There are 26 artists showing their works at 15 studios Most of the studios are located within spitting distance of Horseshoe Valley Road. There are no venues in Orillia this year, but Orillia artists, Xavier Fernandes and Mike Bailey will be set up at Horseshoe Resort, and I guess you could say The Allens, Pam and Paul, Tony Bianco and the late Dave Beckett are close enough.
You’ll find paintings, woodworkings, photographs, jewellery, clothing and pottery artworks. If you like to take photos, bring your camera, since most of the galleries are in Oro-Medonte, you find along the way what I think are some of the best settings for fall photography.
The studios are open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Monday. You can find a map and more information about the artists here.
Concerts
Everybody has a concert coming up. The Orillia Silver Band, hot off their recent outing with pianist Kyung-A Lee a little more than two weeks ago has a another happening October 19 at St. Paul’s Centre.
For this, concert band members take centre stage as soloists in this program called Prospects. The OSB will do music about places around the world. The centerpiece of the dance card is a piece by James Curnow called Prospects. It’s in 6 movements and has themes from Latin America, Japan, Celtic Scotland, Africa, and North American jazz/funk.
Other music they’ll do is Holst’s Moorside Suite (from which the famous March is from), and Ashokan Farewell, both tunes you will know. You can get tickets for the 2 p.m. concert online.
The Orillia Concert Band has their first of their concert season October 25 at St. Paul’s. They will be joined by the Orillia Big Band. If your eyes are sharp you’ll notice many of the players are the same people in both bands. This is a fundraiser for The Mariposa House Hospice. The dance card won’t be finalized until later this week, so look in next time for highlights of what tunes they’ll play. You can get tickets for the 7:30 p.m. concert online.
The Cellar Singers start their season October 26 at St. James’ Anglican Church. Their concert is built around two pieces by Mozart – Requiem and Vesperae Solennes de Confessore (Solemn Vespers for a Confessor). You can get tickets for this and their next concerts online.
Next up is Mariposa Arts Theatre’s season opener, Jesus Christ Superstar, beginnning a two week run November 6. Not a concert? The recording from the musical was a double album, or about 60 minutes long.
I met Maggi Robertson, who plays Mary, last week at the Culture Days event at Creative Nomad Studios. She was there to sing I Don’t Know How To Love Him and when that happens during the play it’s going to be outstanding; she’s got a beautiful voice.
There is so much good music in this play. Here’s some trivia about the cast recording. Did you know, or remember Ian Gillan (Deep Purple) sang the role of Jesus and Murray Head (Chess – One Night In Bangkok) was Judas and Yvonne Elliman (If I Can’t Have You) was Mary. Musicians on the recording included Tim Rice (who wrote the lyrics as a backup singer), Neil Hubbard (Roxy Music), Henry McCullough (Wings), Karl Jenkins (classical composer – DeBeers diamond commercial music, band member BBC recording of Tubular Bells), and Kenny Wheeler (Canadian Jazz trumpet great).
You can, and should get tickets now online.
Lightfoot
We’re still on concerts. The Lightfoot Band is playing the Opera House October 30 as part of this year’s Lightfoot Days Festival. There’s a bit of time, so I’ll deal with the other things related to the festival later.
If you haven’t heard, this is Gord’s band, not a bunch of others cashing in (we’ll make an exception for Classic Lightfoot Live). The singer is Andy Mauck and he’s great singing the tunes. You will not get any closer to Gord’s music than with this band.
You can get tickets online.
Jazz Festival
Yup, still on concerts. The Orillia Jazz Festival is barrelling down on us. The headline performance is by the Oscar Peterson Centennial Quartet. They are called that because it would have been Oscar’s 100th birthday this year.
The band is Robi Botos on piano, Mike Downes on bass, Jim Doxas on drums and Ulf Wwakenius – who in Oscar’s quartet for ten years – on guitar. Oscar’s daughter, Céline Peterson is the emcee and will have some stories about Oscar to share, Heh, I’m not gloating, but the drummer is the music director. You can get tickets for the October 18 concert at the Opera House online.
The night before is another Jazz Fest gig. It’s an indoor/outdoor thing. It starts in the courtyard between the Opera House and the Orillia Public Library. The music is by Liam Finney, Lincoln Baragar (Twin Lakes students who played at Arts Orillia Fundraiser the first night of the ice storm and at Starry Night) and Wide Arches. Then things move inside for a party/dance with DJ Accomplice. Get tickets online.
The Shorts
- Mariposa Folk Fest 2026 tickets just went on sale; you can also get tickets online for their Nov. 29 concert with Aysanabee and JD Crosstown at St. Paul’s Centre online.
- The City is taking submissions for new displays of art at the Orillia Recreation Centre. There are two exhibits. One is the Stack Gallery (next to the check in counter) and the focus is for art made by those in the ‘all abilities’ community. That’s the new term for those who have disabilities and submissions from the disabled are what is being sought. The other is for a change up of art in the Indigenous display and the work considered is obviously from Indigenous artists. You can find more details and how to submit online.
- Makers Circle is now open in the former Hibernation Arts storefront on Peters Street. I was in and the walls are already full with new art by artists new to me. There’s some interesting stuff by Lexi Dance-Cassidy, MJ Page, and Claire Lalonde.
- MAT’s Film Night at the Galaxy has A Nice Indian Boy Oct. 22.
- 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.
- Mariposa House Hospice has a fundraising concert Oct. 19 at Braestone with the Doghouse Orchestra. Get tickets online.
- Derick Lehmann has a 90s Dance Party on the Nov. 15 at ODAS Park and you can get tickets here.
- At OMAH see a permanent exhibit of their acquisition of items from Gordon Lightfoot’s estate, Gordon Lightfoot: Turning Back The Pages, in the small gallery on the main floor; the main gallery has the spectacular Yours To Uncover: An Ontario Road Trip featuring the work of Peter Fyfe and John Notten; a new exhibit, John Gould: Travels Of The Mind And Body is up now, the opening reception is Oct. 25 at 1 p.m.; also see Tracing Places: Advertising In Orillia; get tickets for OMAH’s Music For The Museum event, November 1, Jacquie Dancyger Arnold, Hugh Coleman, Ross Arnold, Blair Bailey, Laura Kelly, and Gail Spencer are performing… Peter Street Fine Arts guest artist is Rick Barrett.
- A few Halloween things: Orillia Square Mall has the Horror-Fest Show Oct. 18 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. produced by Dr. Comics with guests Friday the 13th director Tom McLoughlin, and actor James Stokes, panels, movies and a cosplay contest. Admission is $20; In Coldwater Witches Walk happens from 5 to 9 p.m. Oct. 17; and starting Oct. 16 the Coldwater Mill and Scream Shack have a series of events happening the rest of the month – you can find out more and book times here… Downtown Orillia has the Monster March Costume Parade Oct. 25 starting at 11 a.m. from the parking lot opposite Seto’s.
- Quayles Brewery has a comedy night Oct. 10 with Todd Graham, Isabel Zaw-Tun, John Mostyn and Daniel Shaw (tickets)
- Quayle’s Brewery has Jamie Drake playing Oct. 9; Jojo is in Oct. 10; Grant’s Tomb plays early and Burke Erwin late Oct. 11; JJ Blue is in Oct. 12; Mark Gunn Oct. 16; J Ezs Oct. 17 … the Hog ‘N Penny has Michael Martyn playing Oct. 10; James Gray is in Oct. 11; Vince Therrien Oct. 17; and they have an afternoon jam session every Sunday with Sean Patrick and others… Meredith Warboys is at Picnic Oct. 9; Odd Marshall is in Oct. 16… the ANAF Club has an acoustic jam Oct. 9; Jamie Drake and the Thuderstealers play Oct. 11; there is an afternoon jam Oct. 12… the legion has a Halloween dance with the Renaissance Band Oct. 25, get tickets at the bar.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia and Images Supplied) Main: Kevin Seconds, Lenny Lashley and Nixon Boyd play Creative Nomad Studios October 10.
