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 Ballet Jörgen’s Canadian adaptation of The Nutcracker at Peterborough’s Showplace Performance Centre, Megan Murphy and Kate Suhr’s seasonal reprisal of The Verandah Society at the Peterborough Theatre Guild, the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra’s “Season of Lights” holiday concert at Emmanuel United Church, the Foley family’s annual “A Cozy Christmas” benefit concert at Showplace, the Sultans of String’s “Christmas Caravan” concert at Cobourg’s Victoria Hall, and violinist Victoria Yeh’s “Timeless” winter solstice concert at Peterborough’s Market Hall.
Ballet Jörgen returns to Showplace Performance Centre with its Canadian take on a seasonal classic
VIDEO: “The Nutcracker: A Canadian Tradition” trailer (2018)
In the realm of seasonal stage favourites, The Nutcracker sits rightfully on the throne.
When Pyotr Tchaikovsky scored his two-act classical ballet in 1892 based on a short story by Alexander Dumas, he had already gifted the world his magnificent Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty. But The Nutcracker arguably remains his most widely beloved work, proof of that found in its perennial Christmas season staging by dance companies around the globe.
Toronto-based Ballet Jörgen has been bringing its unique Canada-themed version of The Nutcracker to stages across the country for years. So it is that “The Nutcracker: A Canadian Tradition” returns to the Showplace Performance Centre in downtown Peterborough on Wednesday (December 11).
Set to Tchaikovsky’s magnificent score by Ballet Jörgen co-founder and artistic director Bengt Jörgen, and born from a collaboration with Kleinburg’s McMichael Canadian Art Collection, with well in excess of 100 costumes made of richly coloured fabrics, “The Nutcracker: A Canadian Tradition” is as much as feast for the eyes as it as delight for the ears.
The production’s 30-foot backdrops highlight 20th century Canadian landscapes, including Franklin Carmichael’s “Church and Houses at Bisset” (1931), Tom Thompson’s “Snow in the Woods” (1916), and L.L. Fitzgerald’s “Trees and Wildflowers” (1922) as we tag along on Klara’s magical dream journey as she arrives in Canada and experiences winter landscapes filled with snowflakes, lumberjacks, Mounties, and creatures of the woods.
Since Jörgen launched his company with Susan Bodie in 1987, Ballet Jörgen has produced hundreds of original creations, with many of those — including “The Nutcracker: A Canadian Tradition” — created with wholesome family entertainment front of mind. Simply put, this is a great opportunity to show the kids there’s a vibrant and exciting world beyond their iPad screens.
Tickets to the 7:30 p.m. performance cost $59.50, $47 for children under 12, at www.showplace.org.
Pals Megan Murphy and Kate Suhr are “Up To Snow Good” at the Peterborough Theatre Guild
VIDEO: “The Verandah Society: Up To Snow Good”
Two of my favourite humans, and by many accounts two of many of your favourite humans as well, are Megan Murphy and Kate Suhr.
Besides being ridiculously talented, both are blessed with bigger-than-life personas that captivate one from the get-go. Whenever we’ve chatted, which is never enough, both Murphy and Suhr have had me from hello.
Back in the summer of 2020, as we fretted over lockdowns and vaccines and all the rest, Murphy and Suhr created The Verandah Society. Born to perform, be it via song or storytelling, the pair saw an opportunity to connect with the live entertainment-starved by bringing their talent to them, their stage being front porches, backyards, farm properties and patios, all while adhering to lockdown regulations.
Among those impressed with their passion and their work was 4th Line Theatre managing artistic director Kim Blackwell — a pretty influential person to impress. That led to the 2021 staging of The Verandah Society in Residence at 4th Line’s Winslow Farm venue near Millbrook.
That collaboration has since evolved, the result being 4th Line’s presentation of the world premiere of “The Verandah Society: Up To Snow Good”, which opens on Wednesday (December 11) at the Guild Hall, the home of the Peterborough Theatre Guild on Rogers Street in Peterborough’s East City, and runs for seven performances until Sunday (December 15).
Created by Murphy and Suhr and directed by Blackwell, the Christmas-themed show serves up heartwarming and quite funny original storytelling alongside foot-tapping music featuring the pair’s inspiring vocals. And they come not alone, with guests including veteran 4th Line musical director, composer, and musician Justin Hiscox, their good pal singer-songwriter Melissa Payne, and the always-entertaining Dan Fewings.
As Murphy recently assured kawarthNOW’s Megan Gallant, the show will feature “lots of fun, lots of joy, lots of reflection, and a little bit of permission to indulge a couple of the complicated feelings that come during the holidays.” Those are all pretty good things to discover under the tree.
Performance dates are December 11 to 15 at 7 p.m., with at 1 p.m. matinee on December 13 and 2 p.m. matinees on December 14 and 15. General admission tickets are $40 ($30 for children and youth five to 16 years old) and are available at www.4thlinetheatre.on.ca.
Peterborough Symphony Orchestra joined by award-winning choir to celebrate the holidays at Emmanuel United Church
VIDEO: “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” – Elmer Iseler Singers
Joining the long and impressive list of local ensembles serving up a holiday season treat is the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra, which presents its “Season of Lights” holiday concert on Saturday (December 14) at Emmanuel United Church at George and McDonnel streets in downtown Peterborough.
With music director and conductor Michael Newnham at the helm as always, the orchestra is being joined by the Juno award-winning Elmer Iseler Singers to perform a traditional holiday favourites for orchestra and choir.
Securing the Elmer Iseler Singers for this concert is quite a coup for the PSO. Founded in 1979 by Dr. Elmer Iseler, the choral ensemble is in the midst of its 46th season. Now under the direction of artistic director Lydia Adams, it has performed across North America and international. In 2019, a recording collaboration with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra brought a Grammy Award nomination and a Juno Award.
The orchestra will perform instrumental music including The Nutcracker Suite, the prelude to the opera Hansel and Gretel, and Bob Krogstad’s Christmas carol arrangement “The Bells of Christmas”, with the Elmer Iseler Singers joining the orchestra to sing the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah, Howard Cable’s “A Merry Christmas Medley”, John Debney’s “Elf” suite from the motion picture, and more — including an audience sing-along with the choir at the end of the concert.
A huge bonus here is the setting of Emmanuel United Church and its fine acoustics. That big orchestra sound promises to be quite something. Add in the voices of the Elmer Iseler Singers and quite something is a given.
Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. concert range from $33 to $55 ($12 students) for assigned seating and are available thepso.org/season-of-lights. As usual, Newnham will deliver a pre-concert talk at 6:45 p.m., so arrive early for the full experience.
The Foley family gets all cozy for Christmas again at Showplace Performance Centre
Just a couple of months removed from its September staging of Foley’s East Coast Pub, the uber-talented Foley family is at again, headlining its annual “A Cozy Christmas” holiday benefit concert on Sunday (December 15) at Showplace Performance Centre in downtown Peterborough.
This is the 21st year for Foleys’ celebration of the Christmas season, with all proceeds again benefiting Hungerpiller Christian Academy, a school in Payneville, Liberia that Theresa Foley works with.
It was back in 2007, and again in 2008, that she visited the West Africa school with Peter Brown. Working alongside Thunder Bay-based Lifewater Canada, they founded Humanwave with the goal of raising money to bring safe water wells to communities in need.
Emceed by the always-engaging Hugh Foley, the lineup features The Woodhouse Crooks, Bridget Foley and the Gospel Girls, Asante (Theresa Foley, Sheila Prophet, and Norma Curtis), Colleen Anthony, the Foley-Anthony-Vandermey kids, and Amelia Foley, with special guests Bob Trennum, Lizeh Basciano, the Celtic Pub Band, and Banish Misfortune (Tanah Haney and John Hoffman) also in the mix.
That’s a whole of lot talent delivering favourite holiday classics and new songs as well, all for a good cause.
Tickets to the 2 p.m. show cost $25 ($15 for students) and are available at showplace.org. Arrive early and check out the Christmas Village in the lower-level Cogeco Studio for vendors and a silent auction.
Sultans of String bring their Christmas Caravan to Cobourg’s Victoria Hall
VIDEO: “A Django Christmas” – Sultans of String
For more than a decade, the Juno award-nominated band Sultans of String have served up their signature style of world music with a genre-hopping fusion of Celtic reels, flamenco, jazz, Arabic, Cuban, and South Asian rhythms.
For their “Christmas Caravan” tour over the holidays, which includes a stop at the Concert Hall at Victoria Hall in Cobourg on Thursday, December 19, the band will bring its signature sound to well-known festive classics including “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”, “Jesous Ahatonhia” (with newly translated Indigenous lyrics), “Greensleeves” and “Silent Night” with a Turkish Twist, a flamenco-style “Jingle Bells”, as well as “A Django Christmas” inspired by the legendary gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt.
At their Cobourg concert presented by Ken Prue of Loft Cobourg Jazz, the Sultans of String — featuring founder Chris McKhool on violin, Kevin Laliberté on guitar, Drew Birston on bass, Rosendo Chendy on percussion, and Eddie Paton on guitar — will be joined by guest vocalist Rebecca Campbell, nyckelharpa player Saskia Tomkins, Cuban percussionist Alberto Suarez, multi-instrumentalist Ken Whiteley, and more.
General admission tickets for the 7 p.m. concert are $44 plus tax and service fee, and are available online at tickets.cobourg.ca, by phone at 905-372-2210, or by emailing kenprue@gmail.com.
Victoria Yeh’s “Timeless” winter solstice concert again provides a most welcome respite
VIDEO: Victoria Yeh’s “Timeless” trailer
With the days just before Christmas promising to be hectic as always, all the more reason to treat yourself for a concert experience that will provide a welcome respite from the madness.
To that end, Peterborough-based electric fusion violinist Victoria Yeh will again deliver in a big way, again headlining “Timeless, her remarkable celebration of the winter solstice guaranteed to lift spirits on the darkest day of the year in downtown Peterborough at the Market Hall Performing Arts Centre.
Billed as “an evening of the violin through the ages,” the concert on Saturday, December 21st will see Yeh perform with the 11-piece string ensemble Spirit Awakens Orchestra and her own jazz quartet. She will be joined by special musical guests John Kraus (clarinet) and Mike Graham (guitar). Also featured are conductor Cheryll Chung from Toronto, Grammy award-winning bassist Steve Lucas, and David Hines (formerly with Amanda Marshall),
Yeh will be performing selections by Vivaldi, Piazzolla, and Chopin along with original music from her jazz fusion albums Spirit Awakens and Timeless.
When we chatted in December of last year before her staging of this same concert, Yeh provided a terrific overview of the aim behind it.
“In this age of social media highlight reels, we live in a time where we have unreasonable expectations of happiness,” she said. “But everything in life is impermanent. I wanted to honour that by creating space for people in happiness, sorrow, celebration and even grief to come together during the holidays.”
Yeh is presenting “Timeless” some two years to the day since she headlined her first Peterborough concert at The Theatre On King, having moved to East City just six months prior. During the time since, she has firmly and rightly established herself on the city and regional live music landscape as a gifted violinist who has much to share with more surely to come.
Tickets to the 7:30 p.m. concert cost $40 for assigned regular seating or $60 for assigned cabaret table seating, and are available at tickets.markethall.org.
Ticket holders can also access exclusive downtown pre-show specials at Amandala’s Restaurant (705-749-9090) and The Boardwalk Board Game Lounge (705-742-7529) in downtown Peterborough.
Encore
- If you’re wrestling with what to pick up as that perfect Christmas stocking stuffer, Peterborough Musicfest’s ever-popular Diner’s Book is a great option. Featuring money-saving deals at 80 restaurants, pubs and food providers in Peterborough and across the region including Northumberland, the $30 book has a value of $1,000. If you use it once or twice over the course of 2025, it will have paid for itself. Better yet, by purchasing a book or two, you’re supporting the continued provision of free music concerts at Del Crary Park each summer. You can purchase the Diner’s Book at www.ptbomusicfest.ca/shop or stop by the customer service kiosk at Lansdowne Place.
- As this is my final encoreNOW of 2024, I want to wish you and yours all the best of the holiday season. In fact, I’ll even go as far as to wish you what my folks taught me to wish family and friends years ago — Merry Christmas. As we look to 2025, I hope you, like myself, will look for and follow-up on what’s sure to be numerous opportunities to support the many musicians, actors, artists, filmmakers, dancers, and other creative presenters in our midst. If the recent near-miss regarding the reduction in grants provided to Peterborough arts organizations taught us anything, it was we needed a reminder of just how much the arts has added, and continues to add, to the quality of our collective lives in Peterborough and the region.
encoreNOW is taking a break for the holidays and will return in the new year..
