This Week In Art/Culture/Entertainment
By John Swartz
The North Simcoe has two things of note to talk about. First they announced the winners of the annual Harry Mason Bursary. Their plan was to award 5 $1,000 bursaries to students headed to college, but this year they awarded 6.
The winners are Abby Howard, who is leaving Orillia Secondary to attend Wilfrid Laurier University to work on a Bachelor of Music in Contemporary Voice. Abby was in just about every music ensemble while in high school, most of them playing trumpet. Of all the people playing trumpet around here, I think she has developed the best tone, but she’s going to sing and use her degree to become a registered music psychotherapist.
Tristan Douglas is already a student at Sheridan College, and intends to continue in the fall working on a Honours Bachelor of Film and Television degree. He is prolific writer already and appeared at the last Gathering: Festival of First Nations Stories and was one of the more dynamic speakers and has already won some awards for his short stories. He would like to work in Hollywood and will continue to write his short stories for children and is working on a novel.
Katelyn Wilson was also an Orillia Secondary student is going to Sheridan College to study art fundamentals. She eventually wants to work at Disney as an animator. Her art has on display at Starry Night, and at the Orillia Museum of Art and History where she also helped to curate an exhibit.
Molly Macmillan was Patrick Fogarty Catholic Secondary School student will attend the University of Toronto in the fall to work on a Theatre and Drama Studies degree. She want to act on the major stages and in film. She has performed in youth productions and was the choreographer for the Frozen Jr. production.
Helena McLeod also wants to act. The former Orillia Secondary student will attend St. Clair College in the fall for Music Theatre Performance. She has performed in school plays, stage managed and was the student director of High School Musical.
Audrey Buchanan is also a former Orillia Secondary student. She will be going to York University to study Theatre Creation and Design. She performed in Duck Soup and school plays and wants to act in plays with social significance.
Congratulations to those students and good luck with your studies. NSA is looking for people to serve on its bursary review committee. Interested parties with some experience in arts can email communications@northsimcoearts.ca. Students can apply for next year’s bursaries in the spring and details will be posted on the NSA website.
So that time is up for this year, now it’s time to nominate people for the annual Art and Culture Awards. Awards, which, with the exception of the Qennefer Browne Achievement Award, are meant to recognize outstanding achievement in the past year.
There are four other categories:
The Creative Experience Award is for an event. Aside from the obvious one, the Mariposa Folk Festival, there have been a few that come immediately to mind as worthy nominees. The Orillia Concert Band’s 40th anniversary concert last spring brought all the previous conductors to one place to stickhandle the music played. St. Paul’s Centre was filled more than any other OCB concert of late and there were several standing ovations throughout the evening.
The Scottish Festival, won last year and I’m not sure if that means they can’t win again, but the last minute pivot from an outdoor extravaganza to an indoor one at the legion was about a creative as can be.
Often overlooked, by me too, is the annual Roots North Music Festival. Every year they put together a great lineup for two shows at St. Paul’s Centre, plus a number of acts performing at other venues. This past year’s festival included, as it usually does, someone from the area on the performance menu. And with performances by the Doghouse Orchestra, Meredith Moon and Mary Frances the festival once again gave us something beyond the normal fare to be grateful to have enjoyed.
I was about to move on and then recalled the fundraising concerts for the Orillia Youth Centre. Kevin Gangloff produces these and has become the premier concert promoter in the area by bringing in acts very few of us know and creating new fans for those musicians. Then there’s the money raised, which is somewhere above $100K for the past year.
Hxmesweethxme puts on concerts from time to time to raise funds for the Jake Beers Bursary and this past spring they did one for Mariposa House Hospice with Samantha Windover, Steven Henry, Michael Martyn and Ronnie Douglas performing. Nobody felt they weren’t entertained impressively.
The next award is the Youth Voice in Arts and Culture Award, which is for people under the age of 25. On this count I can’t think of many specific people who could be nominees, but it seems to me Samantha Windover might make the cut; she has had a great year getting bigger gigs further afield, and has an album coming out in the fall.
The Equity and Inclusion in the Arts & Culture Award is for, ”an artist, initiative, or organization advancing inclusivity, accessibility, and social awareness through arts and culture. This award honours those transforming public, digital, or shared spaces into vibrant, expressive, and culturally significant environments.”
The only group I can think of is Mariposa Arts Theater who’s annual Queer Cabaret expanded forom one to two to three days in a three short years.
The Community Impact Through Arts and Culture Award is for an individual or group that uses arts and culture as a tool, “for education, social connection, wellness, or community advocacy.’ The Rama Pow Wow certainly fits, I think. This annual event attracts people from far and wide and is probably the most colourful and demonstrative event we have.
Last is the Quennefer Browne award. This s for a life time of contribution and achievement and I can think of no other person than Steve Orr as a nominee. Well I can, but Steve has for many years generously put his money to work for several groups making it possible for the rest of us to be entertained. Seriously there would be many concerts and events that would less than they were if not for Steve.
The nomination form is available now online. The awards night is November 25 at Creative Nomad Studios.
Scottish Festival
It’s a shame the festival had to move indoors. While there wasn’t the nasty or prolonged bad weather predicted, it was not a great day to be outside.
Moving indoors meant the parade was cancelled, as was the reenactment, which the new neighbours since last year across Lightfoot Drive have yet to find out what they missed.
The Barrie Pipes and Drums, along with the legion’s band performed. I will likely not ever get tired of hearing the Barrie band because they have a pretty good drum section and they performed twice, once on each floor of the legion.
This year I got the most enjoyment out of the highland dancers. There appeared to be two contingents, each with a range of ages and watching the youngest try to remember the next move, with heads on swivels watching the older dancers, was a show in itself.
The 48th Highlanders Military Band was pretty good too. They opened with Chuck Mangione’s Birdland, which I’ll bet the majority never heard before, but judging by the foot tapping and head bopping they liked very much.
Saturday In The Park
The Saturday concert at the Aqua Theatre was very well attended. The act was Chase Heaslip and his band. The sound was good, the music well played. I’m just not a fan of modern country music which can’t decide if it wants to rock or pop, with a passing familiarity with country (usual by way of lyrical content).
Paul Baxter’s photo booth made its first appearance of the summer season. Scott Olgard was there with his family and his little boy is showing signs he’s going to be a drummer, which I’m sure his parents will enjoy the process
I spoke with Derick Lehmann about how Friday nights are going with the movies and he said there were about 300 people watching Back to the Future last week.
The Aqua theater schedule looks like this: Movies in the Park has School of Rock on August 7, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial August 21 and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse Of the Black Pearl September 4. Each has a rain date for the following Friday. The Saturday evening schedule has Songs and Stories (for kids) with Lacie Marchand August 1 (starts at 3:30 p.m.), a showcase of Orillia Youth Centre musicians August 8, Turbo Street Funk August 15 and three acts – Sleepy Jan, Consenting Adults and Nate Mills August 22. Showtime is at 6:30 p.m. Sunday evening has the Newmarket Citizens’ Band playing August 2, the Barrie Concert Band August 9, The Baytowne Big Band August 16 and the Simcoe County Band August 23. Concerts start at 6:30 p.m.
The Shorts
- Bleeker another new tune they’ve made a video for in advance of a full album coming soon. Outside was shot in various locations around town. They have been making some very good videos for the new batch of tunes they’ve put out. They will also be opening for The Trews at Casino Rama for a Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital Foundation fundraiser in October. You can get tickets for that show here. The foundation is also running a 50/50 draw in conjunction with the concert and you can get a ticket online.
- Something different is happening at the legion Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. called Life is Sad. The blurb says, “evening devoted to the beauty of melancholy through folk music” and if you know Nate Mills is involved, than you know it won’t be all tears. He’s performing along with Ellis, Dogmouth, Dylan Court, and Wm Matt Miller and video by Tyler Grace. Admission is $15.
- Paso Por Paso has a fundraiser with comedian Martha Chaves Sept. 27 at St. Paul’s Centre. This comes with a light lunch. The show is at 3 p.m. and all proceeds go to supporting Maya communities in Guatemala. Call 705-955-7760 for tickets.
- Mariposa has a couple concerts in the fall with tickets on sale now. Oct. 20 Joel Plaskett will be at St. Paul’s Centre. Nov. 21 a different sort of thing happens at the Opera House. The Organ Summit features Lance Anderson, Matt Weidinger and Cole Mendez, along with two members of Matt’s band, The Tonewheels, Chris Latta (guitar) and Mike Rajna (drums). They will answer the question, what is better than having a Hammond B3 organ on stage? Two B3s. Lance, Matt and Cole will rotate on the keyboards all night long. Get tickets for Joel here, and for Lance and company here
- Some concerts happening at the Opera House include the Daniel Lanois Trio Aug 1 (tickets), the Old Dance Hall Players do Don’t Sweat the Fall Stuff Sept. 11 (tickets) the Orillia Jazz Fest has two events in October; on the 16th a showcase of original compositions developed by Orillia high school students during Arts Orillia’s youth jazz workshop with Alondra Vega and Jacob Thompson and other performances, happens (tickets), and Oct. 17 Jane Bunnett and Maqueque play Cuban jazz (tickets), and the Lightfoot Band is in Oct. 29 (tickets)
- The Orillia Museum of Art and History has two new exhibits The Many Faces of Paul Shilling: A Retrospective. and Awaken The Spirits. – art by Rama’s Drake Williams; other exhibits to see are a textile show, From Hand to Heirloom: The Art of Craft , and the permanent exhibit of Gordon Lightfoot’s personal effects… Cloud Gallery has their Great Big Summer Show for all of August.
- Quayle’s Brewery has Jaclyn Kenyon playing July 31; Ron Whitman the afternoon Aug 1 and Wesley Covey the evening, Michael Martyn (afternoon) and Darcy Windover (evening) Aug. 2; Leah Leslie Aug. 3; Choir Revolution is in Aug. 6; Barry Mulcahy Aug. 6; and Eric Cloutier Aug. 7 … Kensingtons has an open mic led by Timmy Kehoe every Tuesday night… The ANAF Club has the Debbie D Band playing Aug. 1; the Sunday jam is at 2 p.m. … No Great Mischief plays the Hog ‘N Penny Saturday night.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia and Images Supplied) Main: 2026 Orillia Scottish Festival.
