encoreNOW is a bi-weekly column by Paul Rellinger where he features upcoming music, theatre, film, and performing arts events and news from across the Kawarthas.
This week, Paul highlights the 2024-25 season opener for the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra, Sarah McLachlan’s concert at the Peterborough Memorial Centre, Canadian folk-pop icon Murray McLauchlan’s tour stop at Port Hope’s Capitol Theatre, Shipyard Kitchen Party’s musical theatre recount of the Great War years, “Songs We Remember” featuring the Peterborough Pop Ensemble, and yet another murder mystery waiting to be solved at Bobcaygeon’s Lakeview Barn.
Peterborough Symphony Orchestra opens its new season
VIDEO: David Jalbert performs Piano Sonata No. 3 by Sergei Prokofiev
When you have a decades long hard-earned reputation as being one of the finest community-based orchestras in the country, the pressure to maintain that status is ever present.
That said, the Michael Newnham-led Peterborough Symphony Orchestra (PSO) has never rested on its laurels, much to the benefit of its healthy subscriber base.
Rather, the focus has been, and remains, to consistently raise the bar via a combination of taking making ambitious musical choices, the recruitment and retention of superb classically-trained musicians, and the inviting of acclaimed guest performers.
This Saturday (November 2) at Showplace Performance Centre, the PSO will open its 2024-25 season with “Romantic Flames,” the highlight of which will be Canadian virtuoso pianist David Jalbert’s performance of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3. In performing what’s regarded as one the most technically challenging piano concertos in the standard classical piano mode, Jalbert will play pretty much non-stop for the entire piece — a formidable exercise for both him and the PSO ensemble.
Named one of the 15 best Canadian pianists by CBC, Jalbert is both a national and international prize winner, with six Opus Awards on his mantle. He’s also been nominated for six Juno Awards. This marks his third guest performance with the PSO.
Opening the program is a composition by Andrew Balfour, a Juno-nominated Cree composer and conductor from Winnipeg. The PSO will perform Pyotr’s Dream, a Tchaikovsky-inspired piece he wrote in 2029 as commissioned by Toronto-based Tafelmusik. Also featured is Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8, composed in 1889 and premiered the following year in Prague.
Tickets to the 7:30 p.m. performance cost $33, $48 or $55 depending on seat location; $12 for students for all seats. To order, visit www.showplace.org. Meanwhile, for a look at the PSO’s new season lineup, visit thepso.org.
Sarah McLachlan gives “Fumbling With Ecstasy” its full due
VIDEO: “Circle” by Sarah McLachlan
I’ve caught some terrific concerts at the Peterborough Memorial Centre over the years. I know many reading this have done also.
Bryan Adams, Foreigner, and Elton John come to mind quickly, along with a very unexpected visit from comic Jerry Seinfeld, which marked the closest I’ve ever come to having a laughing fit “accident” in public.
This Saturday (November 2), Grammy and Juno Award-winning singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan will join that impressive list as she continues her tour celebration of the 30th anniversary of her iconic 1993 album Fumbling Towards Ecstasy.
The Halifax native launched her music career in 1987 but Fumbling Towards Ecstasy — her third studio recording — broke her internationally. Featuring the hit singles “Possession,” “Hold On,” “Ice Cream,” and “Good Enough,” the album topped Canadian charts and was certified platinum. McLachlan would later claim three Grammy Awards, but this is the album that established her as a musical force well worth our collective attention.
The concert will see McLachlan perform Fumbling Towards Ecstasy in its entirety, along with other selections spanning her career. Equally well known for her philanthropy, she’s donating $1 from every ticket sale to the Sarah McLachlan School of Music, an outreach program in Vancouver that provides music education for inner city kids.
Tickets to the 7:30 p.m. concert, opened by the acoustic harmony trio Tiny Habits, cost $51 to $121 plus taxes and fees. To order, visit tickets.memorialcentre.ca.
A musical theatre remembrance of the Great War years
VIDEO: “100 Years From Now – An Original Musical of the Great War” trailer
This year marks 110 years since the start of what was proclaimed “the war to end all wars”: a four-year mud-encased conflagration that claimed a combined 17 million military and civilian lives. It was and still is widely known as The Great War, but there was nothing even remotely great about it.
As Remembrance Day nears and we pause to remember and honour those Canadians who served in that war, and those conflicts that unfortunately followed, the stories of those who fought, and those who loved them, are again at the centre of a number of musical and stage tributes.
Billed as “An Original Musical of the Great War,” 100 Years From Now will be performed Friday, November 8th at Peterborough’s Market Hall.
Presented by the Shipyard Kitchen Party, a troupe that blends traditional instrumentation with humour, artistry, and history to tell uniquely Canadian stories, the production sees two brothers and the women they love recount their triumphs and tragedies during the years of World War I.
Based on the inspiring life of Mae Belle Sampson, one of the first women to enlist in the Canadian Army Medical Corps, 100 Years From Now combines an original folk music score with dramatic storytelling and archival imagery, taking its audience on a musical journey from Georgian Bay to Vimy Ridge and beyond.
Of note, Shipyard Kitchen Party, featuring John Eaton, Sacha Law, and Jason Murphy, will be joined by Peterborough’s own Victoria Yeh, a highly acclaimed classically trained electric violinist whose talent, on any given day, is well worth the cost of admission alone.
Tickets to the 7:30 p.m. performance cost $51 at www.markethall.org.
Murray McLauchlan’s tour road leads to the Capitol Theatre
VIDEO: “The One Percent” – Murray McLauchlan
Somebody at True North Records was on the ball back in 1970, signing Murray McLauchlan to the company’s growing roster of performers.
The Scotland native (he moved to Canada at age five) produced right from the get-go on his way to establishing himself as a folk-pop music icon right alongside the likes of Gordon Lightfoot and Bruce Cockburn.
On the strength of 20 albums, McLauchlan has claimed 11 Juno Awards, hosted the very popular Swinging on a Star weekly CBC radio program for five years and, in 1993, was appointed to the Order of Canada. Among his numerous singles are several of the timeless variety, such as “The Farmer’s Song,” “Whispering Rain,” “On The Boulevard,” “Down By The Henry Moore,” and “Try Walkin’ Away.”
McLauchlan produced new music as recently as 2021, the result being his latest album Hourglass. Making up for pandemic lost time, he’s now back on the road, performing new music and the standards that remain so well loved. That tour brings him to Port Hope’s Capitol Theatre on Friday, November 8th.
It’s not all too often we get the chance to spend a few hours in these parts with an artist who has the pedigree that McLauchlan has earned. Frankly, it’s too good to pass up. Tickets to the 7:30 p.m. concert cost $77.50 at capitoltheatre.com.
Peterborough Pop Ensemble sings songs too good to forget
VIDEO: “This Is the Army Mr. Jones” – Peterborough Pop Ensemble in rehearsal
Tonight was our first rehearsal of the 2024-2025 season. We are so excited to be preparing for our upcoming show, and cannot wait for you to come hear us on Nov. 10th!
Posted by Peterborough Pop Ensemble on Sunday, September 8, 2024
One of Peterborough’s most beloved musical institutions is again marking Remembrance Day via a performance of the music that did much to keep up the spirits of military members and civilians before, during and after World War Two.
On Sunday, November 10th at Westdale United Church on Sherbrooke Street West, the Peterborough Pop Ensemble presents Songs We Remember. Jazz, big band, and swing will be prominent as the ensemble takes its audience on a nostalgia-soaked journey back to a tough time when what we heard did much to dictate how we felt.
I have nothing but admiration for the Peterborough Pop Ensemble, which rebounded from the 2019 passing of beloved conductor Barbara Monahan. It would have been easy to fold the tent but the ensemble persevered, and today honours Monahan with every performance it gives. If there’s a clearer local example of “the show must go on,” I’m not aware of it.
Admission to the 2 p.m. concert is by donation (cash or card). Do be generous.
Another whodunit to be solved at the Lakeview Arts Barn
Things will once again be as interactive as it gets at Bobcaygeon’s Lakeview Arts Barn when Globus Theatre presents Murder at the Snowball Ball fom November 13 to 23.
The interactive dinner theatre experience takes its audience to the highlight of Winterton’s social calendar, when the townsfolk are dressed to impress and ready to regale each other with glad tidings and the usual small-town gossip. All is good until one guest is murdered, leaving the audience to solve the case while figuring out which of the ball guests is treading on thin ice.
Now in its 20th season, Globus Theatre was established by Sarah Quick and James Barrett. Since 2006, the Lakeview Arts Barn has been home to theatrical, musical, and comic presentations staged where cattle once roamed the 150-seat space. Globus Theatre has produced an impressive 10 world premieres and 15-plus Canadian premieres at its Bobcaygeon home since the cows vacated.
Performance dates are November 13 for private group bookings, with public performances from November 14 to 16 and 21 to 23, with the dinner and show starting at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $100, available at www.globustheatre.com for tickets.
Encore
- Peterborough’s Electric City Culture Council (EC3) has come bearing gifts in the form of $57,143 divided up among 28 local artists. Mini-development grants up to $1,500, and project, production and presentation grants up to $3,500 are awarded annually, jointly funded by EC3 and City of Peterborough, the latter contributing $50,000. A call for applications back in June saw 66 applications received by the August 20 deadline. A five-member peer assessment jury than evaluated each application.
- One of the highlights of the 2024 Peterborough Musicfest season was undoubtedly the mass sing-along party hosted by Choir! Choir! Choir! If you missed it, well, you have two chances to join in the fun this Saturday (November 2) at Port Hope’s Capitol Theatre. Presented by Kawartha Metals as a fundraiser for Northumberland County’s SONG (Sounds of the Next Generation), the 2 p.m. matinee’s focus is ’80s songs while anthems are on the menu for the 7:30 p.m. show. They teach; you sing with your pals and community. For tickets, visit capitoltheatre.com.
