This Week In Art/Culture/Entertainment
By John Swartz
Saturday May 3 is a busy day with three events happening. At 1 p.m. the Orillia Museum of Art and History is opening the annual International Women’s Day Show. This 28th version has art from 132 artists from across Canada on display.
The theme this year is Home. The show is not juried, so there will be a range of skill levels involved. The opening reception is from 1 to 5 p.m.
OMAH has a few other things going on. They are currently taking submissions for display at the Orillia Recreation Centre’s Stack Gallery on the main concourse and for the Green Room at the Opera House. There is a theme, and it’s Art of Summer. That sounds pretty broad, but what they are looking for is work related to summer theater. This is a juried show. Find submission details online.
Remember the Streets Alive Letters year? How can you forget, most of them are still a round hanging out in various places about town. The letter M needs new artwork and OMAH is accepting designs to redo it. Artists need to submit a detailed rendering of what they have in mind along with a brief description. Designs need to be submitted (form is online) and there is a $1,000 honorarium for the artists with the winning design.
A little further out, OMAH will have two different exhibits to show their acquisitions of items for Gordon Lightfoot’s estate and items they already have in their holding. Gordon Lightfoot: Turning Back The Pages will be a permanent exhibition.
The second show, Voices Through Time: A Mariposa Journey, features photography by Edwin Gailits (1970s era) and, Deb Halbot who has been taking photos since the Mariposa Folk Festival returned to Orillia in 2000. Both exhibits will open June 14.
An exhibit to also see is Perspectives Through Their Eyes, featuring work of art students from Twin Lakes and Orillia Secondary Schools. This exhibit is up until May 19.
At other galleries, Peter Street Fine Art is featuring work from the Bayside Artists group of Barrie. Hibernation Arts has new works by Renee van der Putten and Gayle Scofield to see.
Later That Same Day
Almost, we’re jumping ahead to Sunday because I came up with a good segue after the Saturday concerts, and I’m not changing it.
Lance Anderson is the name on the marquee for the Orillia Concert Association’s last concert of their season on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. he won’t be alone with John Johnson on saxophone and Russ Boswell on bass to play a program of the music of Duke Ellington and Count Basie.
It’s going to happen at the Opera House at 2:30 p.m. Lance is well known for putting together retrospective shows of some of the most influential musicians of our lifetime; The Band, Joe Cocker, Sly Stone and the monumental Oscar Peterson are some of the incredibly enjoyable shows he’s put together. He’s able to get the best musicians in Canada to join him recreating the art of those people.
I expect this show to be as fantastic. He is, after all, working with some of the most recognizable and standard setting music of the 20th century. You can get tickets online. Bring a chequebook and get season tickets for next year. Season tickets have been only $90 and will likely that or something close to that next year. Frankly there isn’t a better ticket deal anywhere.
There are two concerts to choose from on Saturday. The Orillia Concert Band is doing a program of music by Canadians, or which has a connection to Canada. It’s at St. Paul’s Centre starting at 7:30 p.m.
Two pieces in particular are by Howard Cable. Right off the top is his arrangement of O Canada, which the band, in its Orillia Wind Ensemble years, played soon after it was written. The band will also do Hockey Night In Canada, which was also fresh off the printer back in 2002 At that earlier concert both were conducted by Cable.
Following the anthem warmup, the band will play David Foster’s Winter Games, which was written for the 1988 Olympic Games in Calgary.
Autumn Debassige is the band’s guest performer and she will sing My Heart Will Go On, which of course was made famous by a Canadian and was used in a movie by a Canadian director. She will also do Gord’s If You Could Read My Mind and Old Dan’s Records. When she does those two tunes, one in each half of the concert, Brad Emmons will accompany her.
You can get tickets online or at the door.
At the Opera House the premier Gordon Lightfoot tribute band will be in concert. The things that makes them better than the others (and I do not consider the actual Lightfoot Band a tribute band since that one has all the original musicians in it) are twofold. One is John Stinson does a fantastic job singing the songs. The other is all the Orillians in the band (Steve Eyers, Liz Anderson, and new addition Alex Andrews).
Third, make that three things, are the connections some band members have to Gord. Of course Steve is Gord’s nephew, Eric Kidd learned to play guitar from Red Shea, and Bob Doidge (a new addition to the band) was Gord’s recording producer. Bob was partners with Daniel Lanois in Grant Avenue Studios. With Lanois and on his own he’s had his hand in many great Canadian and international artist’s recordings.
Steve McEown will join them to sing the tune he wrote for Gord. I can’t get out of this without mentioning my friend, Bruce Campbell who will be playing drums. He’s one of the best drummers in Simcoe County.
It’s not too late to get tickets. The main floor has a couple left and there’s room on the balcony. You can get them online.
Speaking of Gord
Thursday was the 2nd anniversary of Gord’s passing. The Lightfoot Days Festival committee organized a remembrance, which, with this second time around and their commitment to the festival, I think will become an annual event, as it should be.
The idea was to have it at Tudhope Park by the statue, but it was moved this year to Higher Ground (second floor at Brewery Bay Food Company) because of the weather.
Steve Porter, Jeff Monague and the Brant Street Session sang some tunes. Mayor Don McIsaac, Daphne Mainprize and John Winchester all had some things to say.
This year is also the 10th anniversary of the installation of the statue, Golden Leaves, and I was invited to say a few things about the statue and the day. Some of you might recall I was the emcee of the unveiling, and I produced two documentaries about the making of it. I spent two days revisiting, checking my notes and what I wrote about it, and watched the 2nd documentary all over again, just to make sure my memory of things was good.
And then I left my notes at home. I managed to recall about half of what I planned to say. The tricky part of these kinds of things is remembering the order, which is why you should never speak publicly without bullet points and key phrases. Even experienced speakers forget things. Of course I forgot things, but Daphne and John said I did great and that leaves the door open for another time to fill in the gaps I left out.
Steve sang The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and Jeff did Christian Island. We all had a good time.
The Shorts
- The next Orillia Vocal Ensemble concert is May 21 at St. Paul’s Centre at 7:30 p.m. They will be joined by the Orillia Community Children’s Choir and their guest performer is David Jefferies. As usual admission to OVE concerts is by donation and proceeds will go to the Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Orillia.
- St. Paul’s Centre has a couple events this month. May 9 the Red Dirt Skinners are in concert and you can get tickets online. May 24 at 2 p.m. they will be showing the documentary YINTAH, which means land in the Wet’suwet’en language. It tells the story of the Wet’suwet’en people asserting sovereignty; it’s free to attend.
- Arts Orillia has a concert happening May 15 at the Opera House at 7 p.m. Sleepy Jan is Karlie Cole (bass/vocals), Alison Ford (drums), Matt Waring (guitar), and Dylan Court (uitar/vocals); joining them is Lincoln Barager and Still Deciding (Journey Henderson,-Herbert, Liam Finney, Christian Ouellette and Trey Morris); that’s a step up because Lincoln, Journey and Liam played the Arts Orillia fundraiser a few weeks ago and they didn’t have a band name then; they are a project band from Twin Lakes Secondary School that formed for a program Arts Orillia is running. Tickets are $10 at the door.
- Anne Walker’s Coulson Concerts series is happening again this summer. The schedule is; Tannis Slimmon and Lewis Melville May 25, Katherine Wheatley and James Gordon June 22, Gathering Sparks (Eve Goldberg and Jane Lewis ) July 27 and Anne September 28. All concerts are at 2 p.m. and you can get tickets online.
- North Simcoe Arts has a new bursary for post-secondary art students. Five $1,000 awards will be made each year from the Harry Mason Future Artist Bursary. Students can apply online until June 6, 2025.
- The celebration of life for Suds Sutherland is June 22 at Hawk Ridge Golf Club from 1 to 4 p.m. There will be a graveside service at 11 a.m. at St Andrew’s St. James’ Cemetery the same day.
- The Canada Day committee has updated their website and it’s time to sign on as a volunteer, or apply to be a vendor.
- Quayle’s Brewery has Ron Whitman playing May 3; Rebekah Hawker May 4; Cam Galloway May 8; Emma Walker May 9; and B. Knox May 10… the Hog ‘N Penny has an afternoon jam session every Sunday with Sean Patrick and others … Picnic has Mitch Szitas playing Sunday afternoon… Wild Wing will have live music in the early evening every other Wednesday; Chris Lemay plays May 14 and 26.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia and Images Supplied) Main: Classic Lightfoot Live
