PrettyInScarlett

Having missed the Spring 2012 Ottawa International Writers' Festival, it was good to get into the autumn events. Sadly I couldn't make the Ottawa premiere of Midnight's Children (of which have heard only positive reviews!), but started my autumn festival with the All In A Day Songwriters' Circle. Being a relative newbie to Ottawa, I know of Lynn Miles by name but not a whole lot more. Friday 26th was both a celebration of her quarter-century making music and for me, an educative evening as well. A thoroughly entertaining evening with lots of clips from CBC Radio archives, messages from friends and a cross-section of Miles' prodigious output. I particularly enjoyed 'Love Doesn't Hurt', 'Hockey Night In Canada', and You Don't Love Me Anymore', as well as a guest appearance by Sarah Slean performing 'The Right Words'. Of the New Science series, Jacob Berkowitz ' presentation of The Stardust Revolution was really interestin...

Lang Lang with Anita Pari Like many National Arts Centre regulars, the idea of a Lang Lang concert sounded fantastic... except that for me the Gala tickets are rather too expensive. As a result the turnout for today's masterclass with young artists Anita Pari (Ottawa), Alexander Malikov (Calgary), and Tina Chong (Banff) in Southam Hall was pretty good. No surprises that there were photographers and a TV camera all over the stage... so much so that during Lang's analysis of Malikov's rendition of  Transcendental Étude No 8 'Wild Hunt' (Liszt), someone shouted at the cameraman to move. To my mind they seemed a little intrusive on the performances, but none of the artists seemed to take any notice. Lang Lang with Tina Chong Up first and for me the best performance was Anita Pari with the captivating Ballade No 1 by Chopin. In comparison, Malikov's performance did not have anywhere near as much projection. Final performer Tina Chong seemed ...

After Vinyl Tap Stories, the exciting mix of music and words at this autumn's Writers Festival kept the audience enthralled. I didn't see the Marshall McLuhan Centenary event on Friday 21st October, but heard some of the accompanying music by Hilotrons ' Mike Dubue. The Marshall McLuhan Concerto , performed on cello, electric guitar, vibraphone with effects, was indeed captivating.  Moving straight into the following event, Musical Language: The Songwriting Circle (presented by CBC's Alan Neal ) proved very popular; Louise Burns , Ann Vriend , Matthew Barber and Emm Gryner together supplied first-class entertainment; Ambre Mclean was also there to perform 'So Over', the winning song from the All In A Day competition . Fitting in with the theme, they are all singer-songwriters, but within that the songs showcased on Friday encompassed indie-folk-alt country, different styles of guitar accompaniment and piano-based songs. Out of all 4, I most enjoyed Ann ...

In anticipation of this autumn's Writers' Festival M and I headed out to Southminster United Church for ' Vinyl Tap Storie s' with the legendary Randy Bachman . Known to me by reputation through songs such as 'You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet' but without having heard his Vinyl Tap radio programme, it was interesting to see and hear the man behind the hits. Southminster United Church looked pretty much full as 7pm came and host Laurence Wall came onstage. The evening started by scene setting in 1960s Winnipeg and covered Bachman's early musical life with plenty of humourous 'on the road' stories. Most of the remaining time was spent discussing the origins of songs such as 'American Woman' and 'Taking Care of Business'. A very appreciative audience warmly applauded anecdotes and snippets of music. The 'B.B. King story' was one of my particular favourites, as well as the 'piano man' story related to 'Taking Care...

Summer is pretty much here and with it a plethora of festivals. Firstly, to recap, M and I finally made the Canadian Tulip Festival on its last weekend. As well as tulip-related events, there was a live music stage, food tent and market - a lesson for next year to go earlier! Friday 20th May we turned up for the Capital Sounds evening. The schedule featured local bands, only slightly disrupted by a thunderstorm. We saw The New Records; Claude Munson and The Storm Outside; and Shannon Rose and The Thorns (Capital Sounds bios available here ). The New Records (photo above) played a mixture of covers and original songs , which was a smart choice for a high school indie band. A momentary 'what year is it' moment during their rendition of The Strokes' 'Last Night'; generally quite polished, and I think their forthcoming EP should be interesting. Claude Munson, plus his band The Storm outside, played a set much more rooted in blues, folk and country in the singer-song...

Something of a late April/May bonanza for shows - now that spring is here (mostly - in between the rainy days) there seem to be events galore! First up, an interesting and unusual evening. M and I received complimentary tickets to see Chamber Music of Healey Willan from Chamber Players of Canada , 23rd April. Neither of us were familiar with his works, but there's a first time for everything. I particularly liked the evening's premiere, which was a Willan piece for cello and piano completed by Matthew Larkin. Very very interesting, but sadly far too short! The trio in B minor was pretty good too. The first half programme (Fugue in G minor, Introduction/Allegro, Romance for Violin & Piano, Sanata in E minor for Violin & Piano), didn't engage us quite as much, though. The Chamber Players series also includes Angela Hewitt on May 7th. From one festival to another. The Prairie Scene (co-promoted by the National Arts Centre) is a showcase of music, visual arts/media, th...

Something of a hiatus over the summer.... After a brilliant holiday in Iceland, M and I relocated to Ottawa, Canada. Our new neighbourhood, Old Ottawa South, hosts a literary festival twice a year: Ottawa International Writers Festival . Last Thursday I tried out one of the events: an evening with writer Eric Siblin in Southminster United Church. Earlier this year I read his book The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals and the search for a Baroque Masterpiece and found it hugely enjoyable and informative. At first glance the book is a biography of J.S. Bach through the story of his 6 suites for unaccompanied cello; however, as Siblin also tells the story of 20th century Spanish cellist Pablo Casals, the book encompasses not only 17th but 20th century history, as well as Siblin's own journey with Bach. Siblin was talking on the subject of Bach's Cello suites, accompanied by cellist Winona Zelenka . Zelenka is assistant principal cellist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and...