Nothing is better than combining music and food while having a little getaway — or maybe a luxurious staycation. That’s why Peterborough violinist Victoria Yeh has launched a curated live concert series that promises to elevate a simple night out into a complete experience.

Running from September to December, Yeh’s “Travel by Sound” is a six-concert music series in Peterborough and Cobourg that features musical theatre, jazz fusion, orchestra, and classical music. With support from Kawarthas Northumberland Tourism, Travel By Sound is giving both locals and visitors the opportunity to turn each show into a whole experience, including exclusive pre-show specials at local eateries, discounts for overnight stays at local accommodations, and more.

“It’s about really enjoying where you’re going and getting to see more of a city than you normally do,” says Yeh, who is producing the series.

Raised in Edmonton with most of her career spent in Toronto, Yeh moved to Peterborough a year ago with her husband Trevor Hesselink and their 13-year-old child. Classically trained since she was four years old, Yeh eventually began getting into jazz and fusion — which she describes as “the intersection of rock and jazz” — in high school and has now performed on electric violin from coast to coast.

On top of performing, Yeh is also an internationally acclaimed recording artist, film composer, and music teacher, specializing in adults and intermediate to advanced youth. Although she says she’s been busy with the construction of her new home, she’s been working away at bringing her one-of-a-kind concert experience to Peterborough and the Kawarthas.

As part of the experience for the Travel by Sound shows in Peterborough, ticket holders will be able to get pre-show dinner specials at Amandala’s, an upscale restaurant in downtown Peterborough, and discounted hotel stays at the near-by Holiday Inn Peterborough Waterfront.

For the Cobourg shows, ticket holders will have access to pre-show specials at Arthur’s Pub, a casual English pub that often features live music, and discounted hotel stays at the Best Western Plus Cobourg Inn & Convention Centre, where Arthur’s Pub is located.

“I have a lot of people that come from out of town to see my shows,” says Yeh, who regularly performs around Peterborough. “I love being able to help them find a great place to eat and find a good place to stay so that they can actually experience the region.”

The concept for Travel by Sound began during the pandemic. Yeh wanted something unique to make the virtual concerts she was doing more engaging for her online audience. She would begin the show by introducing the city or region where she was performing and, during an intermission between performances, she would go on some sort of adventure that offers a large tourism appeal, like fly-fishing, kayaking, or snowshoeing through the Bruce Trail.

“Even as a musician, it was difficult for me to sit through like a whole virtual production,” she explains. “Even people who are locals don’t often go to the things in their own city that all the tourists do. I wanted to help people discover the great things that were happening in their local community.”

Following the pandemic, she decided to bring back the Travel by Sound concept and name for another series, although now people get to experience it in person.

“It’s totally fitting even as a live experience because you’re travelling with music,” Yeh says. “These are anchor cultural events that are a big reason that people will travel, so why not make it a bigger experience?”

VIDEO: “Tom Thomson’s Wake” trailer

The Travel By Sound series kicks off on Saturday, September 23rd at Showplace Performance Centre in Peterborough with an original folk musical from Shipyard Kitchen Party titled Tom Thomson’s Wake. Two years after renowned painter Tom Thomson’s mysterious death, his friend Larry Dickson, his mentor A. Y. Jackson, and his lover Winnie Trainor gather to share their memories of Algonquin Park’s most famous resident. But did any of them really know the man? Through their diverging songs and stories, a new portrait of the iconic Canadian artist emerges.

Along with the three actors, the production features high-definition imagery of artworks by Thomson and the Group of Seven, with an original folk music score performed by five musicians including Yeh on violin.

The musical will also be performed at Victoria Hall in Cobourg on Saturday, September 30th as part of the Travel by Sound series. The Peterborough and Cobourg stops are two of many performances of “Tom Thomson’s Wake” happening throughout southern Ontario this fall.

VIDEO: “Take It Off The Top” by Dixie Dregs performed by Paul DeLong’s ONE WORD

Next in the Travel by Sound line-up is a performance by Canadian drum legend Paul DeLong’s jazz fusion quintet ONE WORD at Peterborough’s Market Hall on Thursday, October 26th. Led by the Juno award-winning DeLong, best known for his multi-platinum success with rocker Kim Mitchell, and featuring Yeh on electric violin, ONE WORD plays classic fusion music from the ’70s including works by the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report, Chick Corea’s Return to Forever, jazz violist Jean-Luc Ponty, the late guitarist Jeff Beck, and more.

“That type of music is music that really no one is playing live,” Yeh notes. “It’s very, very progressive and very difficult. It’s extremely challenging music for all of us to play, and these are world-class musicians.”

Along with DeLong on drums and Yeh on electric violin, ONE WORD includes Marco Luciani on keyboards, Grammy nominee Steve Lucas on bass, and Mike Murray on guitar.

“ONE WORD is a real powerhouse band, so that’s a night to get your socks knocked off.”

Since Yeh was recently appointed the new concertmaster of the Northumberland Orchestra & Choir (NOC), two performances are featured as part of the Travel by Sound series. On Saturday, November 4th, NOC’s season premiere at the historic Trinity United Church in Cobourg will feature last year’s winner of Markham’s Yip Music Festival, which brings together talented young musicians and singers through musical performances.

Then, on Sunday, December 17th, for the second performance in the series, NOC will return to Cobourg for a matinee concert at 2 p.m. at the Best Western Plus. Back by popular demand, the orchestra is presenting a “dine and dance” concert, playing classic waltzes and more.

For the last concert in the Travel by Sound series, Yeh will be celebrating the winter solstice with her concert Timeless, which she originally performed on the winter solstice last year to a sold-out crowd at The Theatre On King in downtown Peterborough. This year, she’ll be at the much larger Market Hall on Thursday, December 21st to perform music from Piazzolla’s Four Seasons in Buenos Aires, Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, and the world premiere of her own composition “Winter in Canada.”

The second half of the evening will feature new music from Yeh and Peterborough guitarist and composer Mike Graham, with whom she performs regularly (the two will also be performing at the Peterborough Folk Festival at Nicholls Oval Park in August).

“Last year it was very much violin through the ages, so we went from classical to my original fusion,” explains Yeh. “This time it’s ‘Timeless’ as around the world, but also with violin in various forms from classical to electric violin.”

The Timeless concert also features The Spirit Awakens Orchestra, an 11-piece string orchestra with concertmaster Natalie Wong and conductor John Kraus.

Through her Travel by Sound series, Yeh says she is excited to use music to connect people and place while also supporting communities in Peterborough and the Kawarthas.

“You can’t underestimate the economic role of arts and culture for any community, so why not jump on these opportunities and just make it happen even more?” she asks.

More information about Travel by Sound, including tickets and discounts, can be found at travelbysound.com. You can learn more about Yeh at victoriayeh.com and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

This branded editorial was created in partnership with Victoria Yeh. If your organization or business is interested in a branded editorial, contact us.

If comfort food for 4th Line Theatre’s soul is a thing, The Cavan Blazers continues to nourish in a remarkable and significant way.

Written by founder Robert Winslow well before the Millbrook outdoor theatre company had a name, what has become 4th Line’s flagship production has been staged six times since 1992, the most recent staging being 12 years ago.

Now, as 4th Line’s 31st season continues, The Cavan Blazers returns from August 1 to 26, chronicling the 19th-century conflict between Cavan Township’s Protestant and Catholic Irish settlers.

To say that battle was a nasty dispute between two opposing factions would be an understatement. Sprinkle in hate-fuelled violence and you get the idea. Threatened by the fledgling establishment of a Catholic settlement, the eponymous Cavan Blazers — a Protestant vigilant gang wholly committed to preventing it — went to war against its proponents.

Years after he wrote the script, Winslow says The Cavan Blazers has well withstood the test of time while holding down a special place in his heart.

“It got us on the map right off the bat,” Winslow reflects during a media day event held Wednesday (July 19) at the scenic Winslow Farm, home of 4th Line Theatre off Zion Line (formerly 4th Line) near Millbrook.

“It created the (4th Line) mandate,” Winslow adds. “It created the standard that we’ve followed ever since. If you’re going to write a play for 4th Line, you’ve got to do a certain amount of research. You maybe should try to find a local connection. All the different elements that make 4th Line unique were in that first play.”

Speaking to the seventh coming of The Cavan Blazers, Winslow says the play’s message remains relevant in a world where conflict is, on varying levels, is rampant and very much in the news.

“At the end of the play, when Dane Swain says to Patrick McGuire ‘We should have talked,’ the audience goes ‘Yes, you should have talked’ and then sort of laughs,” says Winslow, who is reprising his role as Justice John Knowlsen.

“It’s an interesting point that maybe when there’s conflict between individuals, groups, nations, whatever, a dialogue would probably de-escalate things or help find the way to a solution,” Winslow says.

While the play deals with a serious historical conflict, there’s a reason why it remains one of 4th Line’s most popular productions.

“The play actually has a lot of humour in it, a lot of lightheartedness, so it’s entertaining,” Winslow notes. “But the message, I think, is still significant.”

4th Line Theatre managing artistic director Kim Blackwell has an equally long and cherished attachment to The Cavan Blazers. She first directed the production for its 2004 remount and is back in that capacity.

“I directed it 19 years ago, which is a generation — my daughter was two years away from being born — so it is strange but interesting to have a 30-year relationship with one play,” says Blackwell, who also served as assistant stage manager for the play’s first staging.

“It’s light on women’s stories but that’s why you pair it with something like The Tilco Strike (4th Line’s current production on until July 22) which has much more of a women’s focus. But it is what it is and I really do honour what it is.”

Blackwell agrees with Winslow’s assessment of the play’s takeaway for audiences.

“It’s a very prescient play in terms of what’s going with Ukraine and Russia, or thinking about Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland or Rwanda. Places where people who live next door to each other turn on each other — neighbours who look exactly the same.”

“In Belfast, during the troubles, there were walls between streets of people. By virtue of being Catholic or Protestant, it made you the enemy. When designing the set for this (staging), I really delved into the murals and graffiti of Northern Ireland during the 1970s and 1980s. You’re going to see a lot of that represented on the stage.”

“I don’t want anyone to think of it as museum piece. I’ve being saying, just jokingly ‘It’s not your grandmother’s Cavan Blazers.'”

Delighted to be back at the farm is JD ‘Jack’ Nicholsen. He portrays Patrick Maguire, who “has this dream of building a Catholic church in Cavan” where Protestants rule the religious roost.

“Unfortunately, he only has 27 Catholics in his community and there are well over 100 Protestants, so he’s a little outnumbered,” Nicholsen points out. “I love the complexity of playing somebody who has an altruistic dream. He’s doing this for his people and for the love of his family and all of his history.”

“At the same time, he’s putting a lot of people in grave danger. He has incensed the Cavan Blazers who are hell bent on removing all Catholics from the community. At the time the play takes place, they had been at it for more than 200 years.”

While Nicholsen has not portrayed Maguire before, he acted in Maja Ardal’s Wishful Seeing at 4th Line last summer and, overall, has appeared in five productions at the Winslow Farm.

“The audience here is a very different than at an indoor theatre,” assesses Nicholsen, who acting career spans more than 30 years. “They’re allowed to vocalize a bit more. They’re a little but more laid back. They’re allowed to get a little bit more involved.”

“The energy off of them is extraordinary. When I was doing Carmel (staged in 2019 and the third play by Robert Winslow and Ian McLachlan about the Barnardo children), I played a bad guy. By the end of the show, they were hissing and booing me. They really hated me and I was like ‘Yes!'”

VIDEO: JD ‘Jack’ Nicholsen and Katherine Cullen perform a scene from “The Cavan Blazers”

Winslow, meanwhile, is excited about this restaging of the play that inaugurated 4th Line Theatre all those years ago, but terms his excitement as being “different” this time around.

“I don’t think you can duplicate the original thing. We had no idea how it would be received. Would people come? Would they not come? Would they hate it? Would they love it? Would it alienate the community or would they accept it? It was exciting in that way, but it was unique.”

For her part, Blackwell says there’s no added pressure to do right by what amounts to Winslow’s ‘baby.’ Rather, she says, “I treat it with the right amount of reverence and acknowledge the fact that I really like the play.”

“It’s a fascinating story. It’s a story with lots of echoes, so it doesn’t take a lot for me to give it its due. If the audiences come in droves, then we’ll know that the recipe is still there.”

Sponsored by Miskin Law, The Cavan Blazers also stars Katherine Cullen, Colin A. Doyle, Thomas Fournier, Matt Gilbert, Justin Hiscox, Mark Hiscox, Ken Houston, Robert Morrison, Kelsey Powell and Julia Scaringi, among others.

Behind the scenes, musical direction is by Justin Hiscox, with choreography by Rachel Bemrose, costume design by Korin Cormier, fight direction by Edward Belanger, sound design by Esther Vincent, and design by Blackwell — a role she also filled for the 2004 production.

Tickets are $50 ($45 for children and youth ages five to 16), with $38 tickets available for preview nights.

You can order tickets by visiting www.4thlinetheatre.on.ca, calling 705-732-4445 (toll free at 1-800-814-0055), emailing boxoffice@4thlinetheatre.on.ca, or in person at 4th Line Theatre’s box office at 9 Tupper Street in Millbrook.

kawarthaNOW is proud to be a media sponsor of 4th Line Theatre’s 31st season.

Globus Theatre in Bobcaygeon has become known for its original murder mysteries, and the professional theatre company’s 20th anniversary season is no exception with the premiere of The Great Palm Tree Beach Tiki Bar Tragedy opening on Wednesday (July 19) and running for 10 performances until July 29 at the Lakeview Arts Barn.

Written and directed by artistic director Sarah Quick, this comedic murder mystery dinner theatre show stars Quick along with some of Canada’s best improvisers and performers: Kevin Sepaul (Drayton Entertainment, Charlottetown Festival), Jennine Profeta (Girls Nite Out, Second City), and Canadian Comedy Award winners Dave Pearce (SlapHappy, The Strombo Show, CBC), Connor Thompson (Lusty Mannequins, Second City, CBC), and Kerry Griffin (SlapHappy, Second City, Bad Dog Theatre Co.).

“We have produced over a dozen original murder mysteries to date,” Quick says. “We used to do them solely in the off-season but, two years ago as we were pivoting all over the place, we produced one in the summertime and it was a smash hit. We like the variety it brings in terms of staging and theatricality.”

A hilarious interactive show where theatre patrons use their detective skills to solve a mystery while enjoying food and drink in the dining room at the Lakeview Arts Barn, The Great Palm Tree Beach Tiki Bar Tragedy is set during the official opening of Tata’s Tiki Bar, the largest-ever tiki bar on the fictional island of Hotcajun.

Not only has everyone in Hotcajun been invited to the grand opening, tourists have jetted in from around the world. But there’s trouble in this tropical paradise for one reveller, as rest and relaxation turn into terror and tragedy — somebody is a cold-blooded killer.

There are five prime suspects in the murder mystery, each played by one of the company of performers.

Tata’s Tiki Bar owner Tabitha Tahabra is a recent widow and wealthy socialite who is the life and soul of every party, but is also a ruthless businesswoman who loves fame and power. Casey James, the tiki bar host and events manager, encourages everyone to have “a good time, all the time” with cocktails, impromptu dance breaks, party game participation, and fun.

Roger Goodsort and Allison “Ally” Goodsort are enthusiastic brother-and-sister tourists, raring to try everything, who are visiting Hotcajun from its twin town of Bobcaygeon. Stu Studly, the mayor of Hotcajun, is a ladies man who recently appeared on the island’s version of The Bachelor and will do anything to increase tourism to the island.

Humphrey Hardacre is a former city financier who left the corporate world to run Joe’s Crab Shack next door to the tiki bar, changing his name to Avyana and spending his time surfing, meditating, and playing the bongos.

During The Great Palm Tree Beach Tiki Bar Tragedy, audience members of all ages are encouraged to play along and get into character by dressing in their best tropical vacation attire and creating an identity as one of the guests at the official opening of Tata’s Tiki Bar. They could be a tour guide, a famous pop star, a travel writer, an Instagram influencer, a limbo or snorkelling champion, an annoying tourist, a jetsetter, a cool surfer dude, a sunscreen salesman, a local reporter, a politician, or a group of cocktail connoisseurs … the possibilities are endless.

While participating as a character is entirely optional, Globus Theatre promises it will enhance the murder mystery experience.

“Our company of performers are some of the funniest people you will find anywhere and are great at involving those audience members that want to participate … and leaving alone those that don’t,” Quick says. “I write them the setting and the scenario and they take it from there.”

The Great Palm Tree Beach Tiki Bar Tragedy begins at 6:30 p.m. from Wednesday, July 19th to Saturday, July 22nd and again from Tuesday, July 25th to Saturday, July 29th, with an additional matinee performance beginning at 12:30 p.m. on July 29. Doors open at 6 p.m. for the evening performances and at 12 p.m. for the matinee performance.

Seating for The Great Palm Tree Beach Tiki Bar Tragedy is set up in cabaret style with eight people per table. After everyone has arrived and the show begins, theatre-goers will spend the first half hour meeting the prime suspects and mingling with other guests, enjoying canapes while they get into detective mode. The mystery will then begin, and anything can happen at anytime in the 45 minutes before the buffet dinner is served (with a side of murder of course).

After a 30-minute dinner break, the mystery continues with more opportunities to question the prime suspects and guess the culprit. When dessert arrives 30 minutes later, it’s time to examine the evidence before coffee is served and the solution to the mystery is revealed.

Tickets for The Great Palm Tree Beach Tiki Bar Tragedy are $90 (plus tax and fee) and are available by calling the Globus Theatre box office at 705-738-2037 or online at globustheatre.com.

When it comes to the multi-faceted appeal of the Haliburton Highlands as a seasonal destination, those in the know … know.

The region’s tourism promoters make no secret of the many wilderness adventures and on-water experiences offered, not to mention the numerous festivals and special events that dot the calendar. A quick tour of the Haliburton Highlands tourism website at myhaliburtonhighlands.com is as much an eye opener for the uninitiated as it is re-affirmation for the converted.

But look more closely. Try to find a date between now and the end of September when live music isn’t featured at any one of several venues in Haliburton, be it at the newly opened 150-seat The Music Room at Castle Antiques & Cafe in the village of Haliburton, the historic Dominion Hotel in Minden, or the Bonnie View Inn overlooking Lake Kashagawigamog. Then there are the numerous and more intimate patios that pair live tunes with their menu specialties.

Thom Lambert is certainly well aware of the wealth of live music entertainment that calls the Haliburton Highlands home.

A 30-year resident of the region and digital content creator for Haliburton County, he’s a past-president of Haliburton Folk Music Society, for which his wife is the current artistic director. A musician himself, Lambert doesn’t qualify himself as an active performer (“When I do a gig, I usually put up a Facebook post that reads ‘Here’s my yearly gig.'”). Rather, he says, he’s “a music organizer” — a passion that has seen him and his wife host concerts at their home.

On the Haliburton Highlands tourism website, live entertainment listings are hiding in plain sight. The chronologically dated rundown of who’s playing where confirms an indisputable fact: Peterborough isn’t the centre of the Kawarthas universe when it comes to live music. Haliburton has it going on too.

“We’ve been pushing it (the live music) maybe a little bit more than we typically would just because there’s so much happening but we’re not really making a concerted effort to get the word out,” says Lambert, adding “We certainly want people to know.”

There is, says Lambert, more for people to know.

“Without having hard numbers, we probably have 30 per cent more performances (this summer) than we would in a typical summer,” says Lambert.

“We have a brand new dedicated venue open (The Music Room) that has a full lineup — a very, very good lineup. Through the summer and fall, they’re doing concerts every two or three weeks, and fairly major acts too. The (Haliburton Forest Festival’s) Women of the Forest Concert Series, which was defunct during COVID, resurfaced this year.”

While the post-pandemic resurgence of live music isn’t unique to the Haliburton Highlands, it’s perhaps even more important for a region whose economic health depends seasonal residents and tourists as well as locals.

“I think what also happened is a lot of our stakeholders, whether they’re accommodators or, quite often, bars and patios, recognized that music is a good way get a crowd. It seems like everybody jumped on the boat this year. You’ve got your formal ticketed events but then you’ve got more informal patio events.”

Anyone who asks Lambert how he would describe Haliburton County to the uninitiated receives what he terms his “escalator pitch.”

“It’s cottage country with culture,” he says. “There’s lots of cottage country in Ontario. There are lots of place with lakes and trees and rocks. The difference is we have this incredibly robust and diverse arts community. That’s a big part of our identity as a destination.”

“Music is one part of it — visual arts is another part of it,” Lambert explains. “There’s theatre pretty much every night all summer. We have an opera studio (Highlands Opera Studio). How many rural cottage country communities have an opera studio? I think a lot of people were shocked when they first opened an opera studio here, but it has really thrived and become an integral part of the late summer arts scene.”

While the region boasts of its fair share of homegrown musicians, it welcomes many from distant points. That opens the door to a unique live music experience for both audience and performer.

“It’s one thing to see Emily Burgess or Rick Fines in a great little bar in Peterborough, but it’s a whole other thing to see them on a lakeside patio,” assesses Lambert.

“Rick is here in a few weeks, playing at our lakeside amphitheatre (at Head Lake Park), outdoors where you’re watching the sunset behind him as he plays. You get to bring a picnic with you. Your kids get to run around and go swimming while you’re listening to the music. It’s a very different vibe than it is in an urban setting.”

“Emily, pre-COVID, did a residency here at one of our traditional resorts (Bonnie View Inn). She was there every Wednesday night for most of the summer. She said it’s more relaxing, it’s more interactive.”

“If Rick sees someone he recognizes in the audience, he’s like ‘Hey Bob, how are you?’ It’s a very different vibe. People are more relaxed and the music comes across in a slightly different way — a little less formal. You’re more likely to see some improvisation, maybe stuff that they wouldn’t normally do, or done in a slightly different way.”

Lambert notes that Haliburton’s population of about 20,000 swells to 40,000 to 60,000 with the arrive of seasonal residents. There’s a sizable captive audience for live music and top-of-their-game performers are aware of that and increasingly taking advantage.

A look at this summer’s live music schedule bears that out. Suzie Vinnick (July 24 at the Dominion Hotel and August 29 at Head Lake Park), Great Lake Swimmers (August 11 at Abbey Gardens), John McDermott (August 12 at Abbey Gardens), and Susan Aglukark (August 13, also at Abbey Gardens) are among those bigger-name acts making the trek.

“I think our local performers are elevated a little bit because they’re exposed to such a high quality of music,” says Lambert, adding ‘I go out and see a show and I’m like ‘I need to go home and practice.'”

Fines and Burgess are two local musicians returning to perform in the Haliburton Highlands this summer, with other Peterborough-based musicians including SJ Riley and The Weber Brothers Band also lined up to perform.

“We have our local bands and duos and singers/songwriters. I think the whole thing is notched up a little bit because they feel they have to hold their own in that ecosystem.”

Noting there’s a now a prevalent “sense of opening up” post-COVID, Lambert says restaurants and hotels capable of hosting live music are taking advantage.

“The Dominion Hotel is probably the most active presenting venue in the entire county,” he says. “The current owner has been presenting for years. He presents super top-notch acts — seven or eight (local performer) shows a week — and sometimes Juno-nominated blues artists twice a day on the weekend.”

Other venues in the Haliburton Highlands presenting regular live music this summer include The Rockcliffe – Moore Falls in Minden, Hollow Valley Resort in Dorset, and Haliburton Highlands Brewing and the Bonnie View Inn, both in Haliburton.

“I tell our accommodators you’ve got to talk about something other than the fact that you have comfortable beds. Somebody’s not driving past a hundred other places between here and the GTA because your beds are comfortable. I think a lot of places are looking at that and saying ‘Yeah, music is a good way to position myself in this destination.'”

“It must be working for those operators that are hosting musicians. They’re business people. They wouldn’t be forking out anywhere from $250 to $500 (for performers) if they weren’t getting that back.”

Noting Haliburton is “one of the very, very few small destinations that has a destination management plan,” Lambert says the challenge is being “kind of limited in terms of capacity. We’re not the Muskokas. We don’t have hotels — we have traditional inns, we have B&Bs.”

“The core of the plan is if it’s a good place to live, it’s a good place to visit. The nice thing about music is you’re attracting a higher-value visitor as opposed to someone who is driving through, grabbing an ice cream cone, and then going on their way to Bancroft or Algonquin Park or somewhere else. We want people to come and experience the place. Music is one of the best ways to experience a place.”

For more information on all things Haliburton County, visit myhaliburtonhighlands.com.