Every Thursday, we publish live music and performance events at pubs and clubs in Peterborough and The Kawarthas based on information that venues provide to us directly or post on their website or social media channels. Here are the listings for the week of Thursday, August 25 to Wednesday, August 31.

If you’re a pub or club owner and want to be included in our weekly listings, please email our Nightlife Editor at nightlife@kawarthanow.com.

The Peterborough Symphony Orchestra (PSO) is holding auditions for area musicians who would like to play with the orchestra during its 50th anniversary season.

PSO Music Director and Conductor Michael Newnham will be auditioning volunteer musicians on Wednesday, September 14, 2016, beginning at 7:30 p.m. The pre-scheduled auditions will take place at Trinity United Church (360 Reid St., Peterborough).

Interested musicians can reserve a timeslot by calling the PSO at 705-742-1992 or emailing info@thepso.org. Musicians will receive further details about what to prepare for the auditions at the time of reservation.

Musicians auditioning for the PSO should be capable of performing at a level equivalent to Royal Conservatory of Music Grade 7, and be available during the performance season to practice their individual part and attend weekly rehearsals with the orchestra during the 2016/17 season from from November 2016 through May 2017.

The PSO, a non-profit charity located in downtown Peterborough at 159 King Street, is comprised of 40 volunteer musicians and professional string section leaders.

For almost 50 years, the orchestra has been a cultural cornerstone of the Peterborough community and has a reputation as one of the finest community-based orchestras in Canada. PSO musicians are the heart of the organization and are essential to its success.

For more information, visit www.thepso.org.

If you still require proof the summer that is will all too soon be the summer that was, the dawning of Peterborough Musicfest’s final presentation of its 19-concert schedule provides all the evidence you need.

It seems like only yesterday that Serena Ryder opened the concert series’ 30th anniversary season. At the time, August 24 and the series finale featuring High Valley was a distant thought. But now here we are, with the critically acclaimed country music brother duo of Brad and Curtis Rempel set to take to the Fred Anderson Stage.

Born and raised in a Mennonite community in Blumenort, Albert, the Rempel boys — with third brother Bryan originally in the mix — were destined to remain together in some form. As Brad told Gayle Thompson of www.theboot.com just this past June, family was, and remains, at the centre of the brothers’ universe.

“We love getting together,” Brad says. “We grew up singing a lot together, singing in church and every Christmas.”

“When I was four years old, our family made a little gospel record at our church. Our dad was pulling the engine out of a tractor on the farm and the phone rang, and it was some scam artist, basically, from Nashville, saying, ‘Hey, I saw your boys on MP3.com and for $60,000, if you wire me the money, I can turn them into big stars.’ Dad always says, ‘If he would have seen the tractor I was working on, he never would have asked me for $60,000.'”

“But it got the wheels turning,” Brad admits. “Mom and Dad mortgaged their farmland and flew us down here (Nashville) and spent a lot of money on helping us record and stuff.”

That investment paid off handsomely in 2007 with the release of Broken Borders, High Valley’s debut album, which claimed Album of the Year and Country Song of the Year (“Back To You”) Covenant Award honours from the Gospel Music Association (GMA) of Canada.

Three years later, that early momentum morphed into something even more special as High Valley’s follow-up self-titled album garnered a 2012 Juno Award nomination for Country Album of the Year as well as an astounding five GMA awards.

Just two years later, the busy brothers released their third studio album, Love Is A Long Road, with the single “Have I Told You I Love You Lately” charting well. But it remains 2014’s County Line that has made High Valley a household name in country music circles.

With Bryan having departed the group to focus on family, leaving the duo of Brad and Curtis to carry on, County Line produced six Top Ten country radio singles, including “Make You Mine”, which was awarded gold record certification by Music Canada. It didn’t hurt matters that the single features the talents of Ricky Skaggs.

“Make You Mine” – High Valley

“One could argue the picture this duo paints is too familiar but their arrangement (of Make You Mine) makes this an urgent listen,” wrote music critic Billy Dukes for www.tasteofcountry.com. “It’s fun that touches your soul and that is very rare on country radio.”

“The first time we ever played it live, it was special and we knew that we had something,” Brad says of the single.

“Now we feel that we can do what we’ve always done but somehow people are calling it progressive, or they’re calling it throwback, or they’re calling it the new sound, or whatever. To us, it’s just what we’ve always done but yet it’s brand new at the same time, and that’s what makes us the most excited about it.”

“If we were doing something that was making people excited but it didn’t feel like what we had always done, it would be a little bit of a letdown. This feels like we’ve taken all those years and what we’ve done to bring it to 2016. It just feels right.”

Anchored by the strong reception to “Make You Mine”, County Line was nominated for a 2012 Juno Award in the Country Album of the Year and also won High Valley a Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) award as Group or Duo of the Year. The latter marked the brothers’ ninth CCMA award nomination since 2010 and second win, the first coming in 2013 as Interactive Artist of the Year.

High Valley arrives in Peterborough on the tail end of an extensive tour that has featured numerous dates in Canada and across the border. Prior to kicking off that journey, Brad expressed the brothers’ anxiousness to get out there.

“We’re very excited. People were already starting to sing Make You Mine back to us. We were like, ‘Man, this is the real deal.'”

“County Line” – High Valley

Peterborough Musicfest has presented 19 free-admission concerts during its milestone 30th anniversary season.

Overseen by general manager Tracey Randall and staff, a board of directors, and numerous volunteers, Peterborough Musicfest’s stated mission is to “provide diverse, affordable live music to enrich cultural and economic prosperity in our community.”

For more information on this concert and/or the 2016 season, visit www.ptbomusicfest.ca or phone the Peterborough Musicfest office at 705-755-1111.

This fall marks Showplace Performance Centre’s 20th year as Peterborough’s most prestigious performing space, and Len Lifchus and Pat Hooper are producing a unique musical to celebrate.

The director/producer team who brought Cats to the city is now bringing the 1978 Tony award-winning musical Ain’t Misbehavin’ to the stage for four performances starting September 30th.

A tribute to the music of American jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer Thomas “Fats” Waller, Ain’t Misbehavin’ will not only act as a 20th anniversary celebration for Showplace, but also double as a fundraiser with after-cost proceeds going to support the non-profit organization itself.

“It’s a fundraiser in the sense that probably 95% of the proceeds will go toward Showplace,” says director Len Lifchus. “The only real cost is the royalties. Everybody is volunteering their time and costuming the show from their own closets.”

“Our intent is to celebrate what the community built,” Len says. “Showplace is not a municipal theatre. It’s a community-built theatre.”

Fats Waller performing his 1929 composition Ain’t Misbehavin’ (with lyrics by Andy Razaf) in the 1943 film Stormy Weather

A celebration of the Harlem musical renaissance of the ’20s and ’30s, Ain’t Misbehavin’ made its Broadway debut in 1978. An instant hit with audiences, the original production starred Irene Cara, Nell Carter, Andre DeShields, Amelia McQueen and Ken Page.

Spotlighting the music of Fats Waller, Ain’t Misbehavin’ features a broad selection of the jazz legend’s compositions, from standards like “Honeysuckle Rose” and “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter”, to many of his forgotten gems such as “Fat and Greasy” and “If You’re a Viper (The Reefer Song)”, and of course the title song.

“The idea of doing Ain’t Misbehavin’ came during the production of Cats, when I had joked with [Showplace general manager] Ray Marshall that I should grab music director Bill Crane and do another show,” Len reveals.

“The original idea was to do Ain’t Misbehavin’ in the [Nexicom Studio]. But Bill and I met with Ray and chatted about it, and Ray said he wanted Ain’t Misbehavin’ in the main theatre for the 20th anniversary season.”

Len and Pat — along with music director Bill Crane — are now busy preparing the show for its September opening. As Showplace’s stage is almost always booked by the performances the theatre brings in, Bill rehearsed the chorus at his home in June until the theatre became available in July for rehearsals.

Len and Pat’s version of Ain’t Misbehavin’ isn’t without some fairly significant changes. The first is that, while the original show had only five cast members, this production will feature 14 performers.

“Bill and I talked about it and we decided that we were going to have more than five characters,” Len says. “So we invited 14 Peterborough talents to appear in it. This cast was by invitation. There were no auditions. It just kind of fell into place.”

Making up the cast is an impressive ensemble of local talent: Nate Axcel, April Boyce, Roy Braun, Danny Bronson, Karen Ruth Brown, Jane Darling, Natalie Dorsett, Gillian Harknett, Tim Jeffries, Darcy Mundle, Gail Rowat, Tim Rowat, Larry Smoot, and Esther Warren.

The most notable change is that, while the original show featured African American performers, Len and Pat’s production has an all-white cast. However, Len doesn’t feel that race should be the focus of the show and is quick to address this change.

“People have asked if we are doing a white version of a black show,” Len admits. “I say that it’s a celebration of the music of Fats Waller. Each of the cast don’t play characters — they play themselves.”

“We really don’t want people to think about colour. We want people to think about the incredible talent of Fats Waller and about what he could do during a time of incredible discrimination.”

Ain’t Misbehavin’ marks Len and Pat’s first return to the theatre since Cats and many of the performers also appeared in that show.

“I generally work with all the same people,” Len says. “My stage managers and actors are the ones that I’ve used in the past, because you build on those relationships.”

“You already know your strengths and weaknesses so you can play off each other,” adds producer Pat Hooper. “If you get someone new, it’s like starting all over again.”

In fact, Len and Pat have known and worked with one another for over 10 years after they met through the United Way. Their long-time association makes them a perfect director/producer team.

“We work very well together, but I believe that the director is not the producer.” says Len. “There’s a song about reefers in the show and Pat’s challenge is to find us a humongous cigar that’s twice the size that they used in the original show. Pat has her job, and my job is to say ‘Pat, find me herbal cigars’ … and then I go away and they magically appear.”

“And if he doesn’t back off, I tell him,” Pat adds.

Ain’t Misbehavin’ is already creating a buzz about town. The next big musical to hit the Peterborough stage, the show will fall perfectly in place to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Showplace. As Len states, the show is really a celebration of the people who have come together to make Showplace the hub of Peterborough arts and entertainment for two decades.

“We are using this show as a way to demonstrate the talents of the staff and volunteers at Showplace,” Len concludes. “This is the Showplace family coming together to have a party.”

Ain’t Misbehavin’ runs from September 30th to October 2nd, featuring two 8 p.m. shows on October 30th and September 1st, and 2 p.m. matinees on October 1st and 2nd. Tickets are $28, and $15 for students and are on sale now at www.showplace.org.