Antonin Dvorak didn’t want to write a cello concerto. He thought the instrument wasn’t up to the task of taking a solo role. But one of his best friends, a cellist, kept pestering him and in 1895 he gave in. A monumental piece “It is a monumental piece,” says Nelson cellist Jeff Faragher. “At the [...]
Jude Davison is turning his CD release concert for Outskirts of Eden on April 1 into a fundraiser for Japan. He’s hoping Nelson businesses will pitch in and help him raise $20,000 to help provide clean water for the city of Onagawa. And on top of that, he’d like to be able to pay his [...]
The USCC Talent Night is an annual Doukhobor cultural event held at the Brilliant Cultural Centre in Castlegar. Jenna Semenoff of IntheKoots went to this year’s event on March 12. “I attended or participated when I was younger. I used to be in a choir and sing,” she says. “That’s what the whole community is [...]
KHAOS opera is continuing its heroic journey from Nelson, B.C., and ancient Greece into uncharted territory. Two Nelson artists, writer Nicola Harwood and composer Don Macdonald, have been commissioned by the Amy Ferguson Institute to write a full-length opera. Its world premiere will take place in Nelson in the spring of 2012. They’ve been working [...]
The 63-voice vocal group Corazon will kick off an evening of high school age musicians, singers, and poets on March 5 at the United Church in Nelson. Proceeds from Social Justice 12 Presents a Night of Local Talent will go toward projects in the Sierra Leone village of Yamandou. Money raised by this LV Rogers class [...]
It’s not every day you see a rapper and a Doukhobor youth choir on the same stage back to back. Add singer-songwriters, dancers, and poets, none of them over 20 years old. That was A Night of Local Talent at the Capitol Theatre in Nelson, presented by the Quest for Community Program at Mount Sentinel [...]
Kootenay opera lovers have been flocking to Trail for the past year, ever since Lisa and Jason McGrail, the new owners of the Royal Theatre, decided to install a full satellite system and a state of the art digital projector and bring in live high definition broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera. On December 11, a [...]
“It’s warm, it’s real, it’s pure, it’s rustic, it’s community, and it feels really good.” That’s Norm Richard summing up his feelings for the acoustic music sessions he’s been organizing at Ellison’s Market Cafe in Nelson every Saturday for three years. I’ve known about these afternoon concerts at Ellison’s for a long time but I [...]
One of the best things about the annual Christmas Pantomime at the Capitol Theatre is the family part: there are lots of kids in the huge (more than 50 this year) casts, but under a certain age you can’t be in the production unless you have an adult (your parent) with you. So parents join up [...]
On my first glimpse of the choir in The Armed Man I felt proud, because I could see many Corazon members up there. They made up a fifth of the 55-voice choir specially auditioned for this performance. (Any past or present parent of a Corazon member will understand what I mean by pride– our kids’ [...]