While rain sprinkled down just enough to be annoying, the prospect of warm summer nights ahead emerged from the mist Tuesday morning (May 14) at Peterborough’s Millennium Park.

Before a sizable crowd gathered just outside The Silver Bean Café, Peterborough Musicfest revealed most of the stage lineup for its 37th summer season of free-admission concerts at Del Crary Park.

Musicfest general manager Tracey Randall and board chair Tracy Condon provided opening remarks before emcee Vince Bierworth revealed the acts date by date.

Including three concerts announced earlier this year — country recording artist Tenille Townes opening the festival on Saturday, June 29, alt-rock band Metric on Wednesday, July 17, and rap-rock band Down With Webster on Wednesday, July 31 — there’s a total of 16 shows scheduled.

Here’s Peterborough Musicfest’s summer lineup, with acts still to be determined and announced for Wednesday, July 10, Saturday, July 27, and Saturday, August 10.

• Tenille Townes – Saturday, June 29
• Road Apples – Monday, July 1
• Aysanabee (with Cale Crowe) – Wednesday, July 3
• Tim Baker/Great Lake Swimmers – Saturday, July 6
• I Mother Earth – Saturday, July 13
• Metric – Wednesday, July 17
• The Beau Dixon Band – Saturday, July 20
• Rêve – Wednesday, July 24
• Down With Webster – Wednesday, July 31
• Elton Rohn – Saturday, August 3
• Dwayne Gretzky – Wednesday, August 7
• Choir! Choir! Choir! – Wednesday, August 14
• David Wilcox – Saturday, August 17

One of the three open dates will see a Motown tribute band headline, the exact date dependent on negotiations for acts for the open dates and which act is available for which date.

“There are still some surprises on here (the festival schedule) for me — just seeing it all in its entirety, it’s pretty hard not to be totally excited for this summer,” said Condon. “I can’t say enough about our sponsors, coming back year after year to keep these concerts free. That just speaks to much to the Peterborough community.”

Admitting she’s “a country girl,” Condon is counting down the days to Tenille Towne’s festival-opening performance on June 29.

Meanwhile, Randall says the search for bands and subsequent negotiations on band fees starts early in the year and, with a few open dates on the schedule, continues.

“We have 16 artists in the lineup and we’re expecting 19, so we’re still working on it. We have three (government-provided) grants yet to be confirmed and about 20 per cent of sponsorships yet to come in.”

With band fees having risen, Randall says the challenge of providing a high-quality lineup consistent with past seasons remains a big one.

“There are many for-profit festivals around the region, with us being the only not-for-profit festival. Those festivals set the precedent for the rates. We have an advantage to having Wednesday night shows. The mid-week rate really helps me when negotiating for a premier band to come, when it’s already touring with weekend dates.”

This season’s concerts will again be performed on a temporary stage brought in by the City of Peterborough. The plan is eventually construct a permanent stage to replace the former Fred Anderson Stage, which was torn down in 2023 after the city declared it unsafe the previous year just before Peterborough Musicfest returned to Del Crary Park following the pandemic.

Launched July 1, 1987 under the name Festival of Lights with concert series founder Fred Anderson at the helm, Peterborough Musicfest remains Canada’s longest-running free admission outdoor summer concert series.

Overseen by Randall and a board of directors, free admission concerts are possible due to corporate sponsorships — most of which come from local businesses including kawarthaNOW — and multiple levels of government funding, fundraising initiatives such as Invest In Musicfest, and private donations.

Earlier this month, Peterborough Musicfest released figures evaluating the economic impact of the festival at $4.3 million, while nearly $1.2 million in wages and salaries were supported by the economic activity generated by the festival.

kawarthaNOW is proud to be a headline sponsor of Peterborough Musicfest’s 2024 season.

The Peterborough Symphony Orchestra (PSO) will take the audience on a romantic musical voyage from Egypt to Vienna with “Sea You”, the orchestra’s final concert of its 2023-24 season on Saturday, May 25th at Showplace Performance Centre in downtown Peterborough.

With critically acclaimed Canadian pianist Sheng Cai as guest artist, the PSO will perform works by French composer Camille Saint-Saens and German composers Felix Mendelssohn and Johannes Brahms.

“This concert, designed to be a big thank-you and send-off for the summer vacation, will be a thrilling season ending featuring the entire PSO,” Michael Newnham, the PSO’s music director and conductor, tells kawarthaNOW.

The evening begins with Felix Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, which the German composer wrote in 1828 when he was just 19 years old. The overture was inspired by two contrasting poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who was widely regarded as the greatest and most influential writer in the German language.

“It describes a ship in the middle of the ocean which is not moving because there has been no wind for days,” Newnham explains. “This concert overture perfectly describes the peaceful but dangerous calm of the sea, followed by movement — first in the flute and then in the rest of the orchestra — giving the feeling of wind pushing on the sails and a joyful journey to the final destination.”

Goethe’s two poems were extremely popular at the time — they also inspired fellow German composer Beethoven’s 1815 cantata of the same name — and Mendelssohn’s audience would have been familiar with both poems and able to follow the musical progression of the overture.

For the second piece of the evening, Newnham says “We are welcoming pianist Sheng Cai to play a jewel of a piece by the late Romantic composer Camille Saint-Saëns.”

Cai will be the soloist in the PSO’s performance of Piano Concerto No. 5 in F major, Op. 103, the fifth and final piano concerto of French composer Camille Saint-Saens. Written in 1896 when Saint-Saens was 61, the piece is popularly known as “The Egyptian” for two reasons.

“It was begun during a sea voyage to Egypt and then finished in Luxor,” Newnham says, referring to the Egyptian temple city which is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world. “It has all kinds of exotic elements in it, where the piano and orchestra sometimes imitate sounds and instruments heard in Northern Africa during his trip. It makes me think of Jules Verne’s Phineas Fogg.”

Saint-Saëns, who frequently took winter vacations in Egypt, said the three-movement piece represented a sea voyage. The composer was himself the soloist for the 1896 premiere of the work, which was a popular and critical success.

For the PSO’s performance of the piece, there could be no better soloist than the highly praised Canadian pianist Sheng Cai, who is making his first visit to the PSO.

When he was just 15 years old, Cai won the top prize at the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) Competition and Toronto Symphony’s competition. He has since performed a broad spectrum of concerto repertoire, from Mozart to 21st-century composers, with invitations to over 50 orchestras worldwide as guest soloist. The 34-year-old pianist’s solo recitals are far too numerous to list, but he has performed at many prestigious venues and he is also a passionate recording artist.

Cai began his studies in Canada and U.S., where he was a student at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and the Juilliard School’s pre-college division in New York. He received his Bachelor of Music Degree under full scholarship at The New England Conservatory in Boston. His teachers and mentors include pianists Anton Kuerti, Gary Graffman, and Russell Sherman.

VIDEO: “The Egyptian” performed by Sheng Cai (2019, Qintai Concert Hall, Wuhan, China)

Following an intermission, the PSO’s final performance of the 2023-24 season — a season that Newnham describes as “unusually successful” — is “one of the most iconic and recognizable symphonies that exists.”

German composer Johannes Brahms wrote his Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 over two decades, finally premiering the four-movement work in 1876 when he was 43 years old. He was first inspired to write the symphony at the age of 21, after hearing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

Brahms was a merciless self-critic, and he destroyed draft after draft of the symphony that did not meet his exacting standards. He also felt pressure from his friends and the public that he would continue “Beethoven’s inheritance” and produce a symphony of commensurate dignity and intellectual scope.

Despite Brahms’ concern about the quality of the symphony, it was an immediate critical success, with distinguished German conductor Hans von Bülow calling it “Beethoven’s Tenth.”

The symphony has since become a perennial favourite of audiences and orchestra musicians alike, and sits at the very core of the Western orchestral music canon.

“Brahms’ First is music of strength, beauty, and tenderness, with some of the greatest melodies ever written,” Newnham says. “To me, this is one of the absolute pillars of the symphonic repertoire, combining to perfection the head and the heart.”

VIDEO: Except from Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 (2008, Berliner Philharmoniker)

“Sea You” begins at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 25th at Showplace Performance Centre at 290 George Street North in downtown Peterborough.

A pre-concert “Meet the Maestro” talk takes place at 6:45 p.m., where Newnham takes the Showplace stage for an intimate chat about the evening’s program.

Tickets for the concert — which are selling fast — are $33, $48, or $55, depending on the seat you choose, with student tickets costing $12 for all seats. Tickets are available in person at the Showplace Box Office from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, and one hour before the concert, or online anytime at showplace.org.

kawarthaNOW is proud to be a media sponsor of the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra’s 2023-24 season.

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 A Year with Frog and Toad at Port Hope’s Capitol Theatre, The Electric City Players’ inaugural production of Macbeth at Peterborough’s Market Hall, legendary Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn’s concert at Lindsay’s Academy Theatre, the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra’s final concert of the 2023-24 season at Showplace, a staged reading of Surrender, Dorothy at the Guild Hall in Peterborough’s East City, the world premiere of British playwright Peter Quilter’s new comedy The Dating Game at Bobcaygeon’s Lakeview Arts Barn, and a double shot of pop music hit-making at both Market Hall and the Academy Theatre courtesy of Dan Hill and Andy Kim.

‘A Year with Frog and Toad’ is time well spent at Port Hope’s Capitol Theatre

It has been a long school year. The kids have worked hard but now there’s a light at end of the tunnel. What better time to treat them to a fun time out on the town?

And what better town to do just that then Port Hope, where the historic Capitol Theatre is bringing Arnold Lobel’s beloved children’s book series to its stage from May 17 to June 2.

Written by Willie Reale, with music penned by his brother Robert, A Year with Frog and Toad was first produced in Minneapolis in 2002. It opened on Broadway the following year, breaking new ground as the first children’s theatre production to do so, earning three Tony Award nominations in the process.

The play chronicles the story of two friends — the very chipper Frog and the rather grumpy Toad — through four fun-filled seasons. Alongside other animals of the forest, they plant gardens, go swimming, rake leaves, go sledding and, most importantly, learn life lessons.

For this production, the very capable Fiona Sauder is at the helm as director. A multiple Dora Mavor Moore Award recipient, Sauder co-founded Toronto-based Bad Hats in 2015 “to champion artists with an appetite for collaborative working models and stories that implore our curiousity.” Close to 10 years on, mission well accomplished as classics like Peter Pan, Alice In Wonderland, and Narnia have received the full Bad Hats treatment.

There’s ample opportunity to take in this production with 17 performances scheduled. Ticket prices range from just $5 to $50, making a great time out for you and the kids even more palpable. For show dates and performance times, and to order tickets, visit capitoltheatre.com.

‘Something wicked this way comes’ as new Peterborough theatre company debuts

If you’re a spanking new theatre company looking to stage your inaugural production, is it wise to tackle something as challenging and complex as a Shakespearean classic?

Perhaps, perhaps not, but either way that’s exactly the course that The Electric City Players community theatre arts collective has settled upon as it prepares to bring Macbeth to Market Hall for four performances from May 23 to 25.

There have been many Fleming College and Trent University partnerships that have born fruit, with the co-founding of this new addition to Peterborough’s cultural landscape by Fleming professor Jacqueline Barrow and Trent professor Andrew Loeb promising similar success.

For Macbeth, a large ensemble cast is in place, some of whom will be very familiar to local theatre audiences. For Peterborough’s MacQuarrie family, it’s a family affair, as mom Siobhán takes to the stage with her of her four kids. The long list of credits is as inclusive as it is impressive, with 12 noted for their portrayal of … dead bodies.

The Bard’s shortest tragedy, Macbeth tells the tale of a Scottish warrior-chief who meets three strange sisters on his way home from battle who tell him of a prophecy that could lead to unimaginable power. Aware of his duty but unable to ignore his ambition, he plots a murder with his brilliant wife. What follows may tear his fragile kingdom, and perhaps the world itself, apart.

Asked why The Electric City Players is staging Macbeth for its inaugural show, Barrow says “We wanted to choose a play that was accessible to a wide variety of audiences, and that could be reimagined for a modern audience. We think Macbeth was the perfect place to start.” Hey, who are we to argue?

Curtain is 7 p.m. on May 23, 24 and 26, with a 2 p.m. matinee May 25. Visit www.markethall.org to order tickets. Meanwhile, for more information about the company and to meet the cast, check out www.electriccityplayers.com.

Yes, he’s a Canadian music legend, and Bruce Cockburn is coming to Lindsay

VIDEO: “Into the Now” – Bruce Cockburn

The word ‘legend’ is thrown around a lot — so much so that eventually its effect in terms of attracting our attention starts to fade.

But there are times when it does work perfectly. For example, if you’re talking about someone who has, over the course of five decades, written more than 350 songs, recorded 34 albums, and taken home 13 Juno Awards and an Order of Canada medallion, ‘legend’ has to be in the conversation.

At age 78, Bruce Cockburn is indisputably a Canadian folk/rock legend who is showing no sign of slowing down. Quite the opposite as he tours across Canada and the United States this year — a hectic pace that includes a May 24 performance at Lindsay’s Academy Theatre.

Cockburn made his first solo appearance in 1967 at the Mariposa Folk Festival and returned two years later as a headliner. The early 1970s brought Canadian music industry acclaim in the form of multiple Juno Awards, including three straight wins as Folk Singer of the Year.

In 1979, “Wondering Where The Lions Are” introduced Cockburn’s considerable talent to a wide U.S. audience. The following decade brought continued momentum, a trajectory fuelled by heavy radio play songs such as “Lovers In A Dangerous Time,” “If I Had A Rocket Launcher,” and “If A Tree Falls.”

But what earns Cockburn that ‘legend’ tag is his work off the stage. His work on behalf of organizations such as Oxfam, Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders and Friends of the Earth has earned him unparalleled respect.

As he says, “We can’t settle for things as they are. If you don’t tackle the problems, they’re going to get worse.” Amen to that.

Tickets to Cockburn’s 8 p.m. performance cost $67 and can be purchased at www.flatoacademytheatre.com.

A romantic voyage sets sail in the form of the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra’s “Sea You”

VIDEO: “The Egyptian” performed by Sheng Cai

Are you ready for the ultimate nautical romantic experience?

As it winds down its five-concert 2023-24 season, the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra sure is, closing things out with a concert entitled “Sea You” on Saturday, May 25th at Showplace in downtown Peterborough.

Featuring multiple award-winning Canadian pianist Sheng Cai performing The Egyptian, French composer Camille Saint-Saens’ final piano concerto, the audience will journey from Egypt to Vienna in the program’s first half.

After intermission, the orchestra will perform Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 — heralded as an undisputed masterpiece in the realm of romantic symphony music.

As always, conductor Michael Newnham will seek to educate via his trademark pre-concert talk at 6:45 p.m., followed by the performance at 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online at www.showplace.org.

The pitfalls of online dating examined in ‘Surrender, Dorothy’

While Peterborough Theatre Guild is in the midst of its final production of its 2023-24 season with Girl In The Goldfish Bowl, which runs for three more performances from May 16 to 18, the theatre company isn’t done quite yet.

On Sunday, May 26th, the Guild will present the last of six staged readings featured since November as part of its Beyond The Stage series.

Surrender, Dorothy by Liz Best tackles online dating — something most of us over 50 would never consider. Well, meet Ally, who, as a widow in her 50s, meets someone online. She insists on sharing her joy and online experience with four seasoned friends.

What follows is a hilarious and touching examination of the murky, ambush-laden search for connections, even love, as played out online. The result is five clever women supporting each other in taking risks, all while learning to live again, even when their hearts are broken.

Based on the playwright’s own online dating experiences, the play’s title is inspired by a scene from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, where the Wicked Witch of the West flies on her broomstick to write the two-word phrase across the sky.

Tickets to the 2 p.m. performance at the Guild Hall at 364 Rogers Street in Peterborough’s East City cost $12 and can be ordered online at www.peterboroughtheatreguild.com.

Step carefully: more dating landmines abound at the Lakeview Arts Barn

Ah, it’s spring and dating is again in air, this time at the Lakeview Arts Barn in Bobcaygeon where Globus Theatre presents British playwright Peter Quilter’s new comedy The Dating Game from May 29 to June 8.

The tale centres around Richard and Julia, both recently divorced and in their 50s and 60s. As each begins the search for a new partner by going on blind dates, a series of unexpected, eccentric and volatile romantic liaisons where absolutely nothing goes to plan make their predictable appearance. Yes, it’s a familiar storyline but one that rarely fails to conjure up reminisces of the rocky road many of us travelled before finally meeting ‘The One.’

“Choosing new lovers can be like selecting deck chairs on the Titanic,” reads the play’s online description. Isn’t that what makes dating fun?

Evening performances take place at 8 p.m. May 29 to June 1 and June 4 to 8, with 2 p.m. matinee performances on June 1 and 6. An optional dinner is available at 6 p.m. before the evening performances.

Tickets are $50 for the show only, or $100 for dinner and theatre, and are available at globustheatre.com.

Why settle for one classic Canadian pop star when you can have two?

VIDEO: “Sometimes When We Touch” – Dan Hill

We close out this edition of encoreNOW with more Canadian music nostalgia, this time a double shot in the form of Dan Hill and Andy Kim.

The pair is touring together, making an “In Story and Song” stop at both Lindsay’s Academy Theatre on May 29 and Peterborough’s Market Hall on June 1.

Hill had two major international hits with “Sometimes When We Touch” and “Can’t We Try” (with Vonda Shepard). He released his self-titled debut album in 1975 and 12 studio albums followed. Inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2021, Hill received a Grammy Award five years earlier as co-producer of Celine Dion’s album Falling Into You.

VIDEO: “Rock Me Gently” by Andy Kim

Montreal-born Kim, meanwhile, had an earlier start in 1968 when he co-wrote “Sugar, Sugar” with Jeff Barry. It was the most successful bubblegum pop single of all time, and Kim sang on the recording as part of The Archies, a fictional band of studio musicians linked to the 1968–69 US Saturday morning TV cartoon The Archie Show. The international hit “Baby, I Love You” followed in 1969, before 1974’s “Rock Me Gently” solidified his standing as one of Canada’s premier pop music singers-songwriters.

This is a rare opportunity to enjoy the timeless music of two Canadian greats touring together. Odds are the stories exchanged are going to be as entertaining as the music, if not more.

Tickets to their May 29 show at the Academy Theatre cost $52, with the June 1 show at the more intimate Market Hall costing $65. Both shows begin at 7:30 p.m. For tickets, visit www.flatoacademytheatre.com and www.markethall.org.

Encore

VIDEO: Joslynn Burford on YourTV Peterborough

• You may know her as one-half of The Hippie Chicks duo (also featuring Tami J Wilde), but Joslynn Burford is a pretty good solo performer too. That’s being recognized with a summer residency at Bar Vita in Peterborough. Blues, rock, classic country, jazz, pop, alternative — Burford can handle them all, and typically with a huge smile and kind word for everyone. She’ll be at the George Street North restaurant June 22 to 28, July 20 to 26, and August 17 to 30. All are 7:30 pm starts.
• The seventh edition of the Kawartha Craft Beer Festival returns to Del Crary Park May 31 to June 1. Yes, Virginia, there’s beer, but there’s also a generous offering of live music on the Friday evening (May 31) and all day Saturday (June 1). Among those performing are Pop Machine, Cheryl Casselman, Blue Hazel and, closing things out, Melissa Payne. Tickets and more information about the Bobcaygeon Brewing Company-sponsored festival can be found at kawarthacraftbeerfestival.com.
• Staying with summer festivals, the Lakefield Literary Festival has released details of it 2024 program. Set for July 19 and 20 in the village, a number of renowned authors are in the mix, including local author and playwright Drew Hayden Taylor. And back is the very popular free-admission Children’s Tent in Cenotaph Park. The festival was held as a one-off in 1995 and here we are close to 30 years later. Former Lakefield residents and authors Margaret Laurence, Catherine Parr Traill, and Susanna Moodie would no doubt approve. The full lineup and ticket information is available at lakefieldliteraryfestival.com.