Student musicians show their stuff: Kiwanis Festival returns for 66th season
Steven Mazey, Ottawa Citizen
Photo courtesy Ottawa Citizen, photo by Bruno Schlumberger
More than 10,000 Ottawa-area student musicians have been practising for months and are about to take to the stage to show listeners what they can do, at an event that has become an annual rite of passage for music students across the region.
Ottawa’s 66th annual Kiwanis Music Festival opens Monday, April 4, and continues to April 30, with performances at 10 venues across the region, all open to the public.
This year’s highlights concert, featuring performances by some of the top-scoring musicians in the festival, will be held Friday, May 20, at Centrepointe Theatre.
For information, including schedules of performances and locations of the competitions, visit www.ottawakiwanismusicfestival.com.
Full story online at: Student musicians show their stuff
Benson students get the blues
EMC News
Students at Benson Public School have got the blues – and they love it.
For the second straight year, the school is working with the Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest Blues in the Schools Program, which brings professional artists into the schools to teach blues music history and appreciation, as well as how to compose and perform an original tune.
During the two-week program professional blues bands come to the school to perform for Benson students as well as students from nearby schools within the Upper Canada District School Board. The bands – The Mighty Popo, Monkey Junk, and Jason and Company – all performed at the school during the first week of March.
Read the full story on the EMC online: Benson students get the blues
Thousands of area students benefit from Blues in the Schools
The Ottawa Bluesfest organization will launch the 13th edition of their award-winning Blues in the Schools program on Monday, February 28. The two-week residency program, which will see 30 professional artists/educators visit 24 area schools this year, will run through to Friday, March 11.
The 10-day program begins with a series of assembly-like presentations. A variety of musicians visit two different schools per day, performing a total of 98 presentations over the course of the first four days. The following phase involves classroom-size core groups, with students enjoying a more formal workshop approach. These sessions include a look at the heritage of blues music, while examining its influence on other genres. Song writing, singing, and exploring various instruments is also involved. The workshop phase culminates with students performing for their families, teachers and peers. Ultimately these students are offered an opportunity to perform at the Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest, during the festival’s Blues in the Schools day in July.
Initiated in two Ottawa-area schools in 1999, Blues in the Schools has seen tremendous growth. This year, visiting artists/educators and local musicians will deliver the program to more than 10,000 students in Ottawa-area schools. “The intent of the program,” says Bluesfest executive director, Mark Monahan,” is to expose students from all backgrounds to music and to encourage them to use music as a positive outlet in dealing with the world around them.”
Blues in the Schools is a charitable undertaking, which is financially supported by the not-for-profit Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest organization, with essential support from its private-sector partners: Holiday Inn© Hotel & Suites; Steve’s Music Store; and the Ottawa Citizen.
Young musicians! So you think you have talent?
The Review
The Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest, in partnership with the local community, is sponsoring “Be in the Band,” a program developed to encourage young musicians to play ensemble, to work with others to create music.
Local musician Terry Gillespie has been engaged to deliver the program to students between the ages of 11 and 17 years old who currently sing or play an instrument.
“The ultimate goal is a possible performance for families, friends, and future fans on stage at the Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest,” said Bluesfest executive director Mark Monahan.
The qualifications for a community to participate in “Be in the Band” are very simple. The community must be involved by providing a place for outreach, recruitment, rehearsals and equipment storage.The Ottawa Bluesfest pays the instructor’s salary and provides instruments; best of all, “The Band To Be” has the possibility of a performance in the Ottawa Bluesfest on Community Day.
Full story on The Review website: Young musicians! So you think you have talent?
Lumière Festival Worksops and the Afterglow Vernissage
Summer may be winding down but as the evenings lengthen there is still one festival to mark on the calendar. Not to be forgotten is the Lumière Festival produced by the Crichton Cultural Community Centre, 200 Crichton Avenue 2nd floor, in Ottawa’s New Edinburgh neighbourhood.
Founded in 2004, Lumière Festival has developed into a three-part event with lantern making, and performance workshops held at the Crichton Cultural Community Centre from mid August. Workshops are ongoing, and spaces are still available in many of the workshops. This is an ideal end of summer activity!
The workshops are preparations for The Evening of Light Celebration September 4th from 5-10 pm in New Edinburgh’s Stanley Park 193 Stanley Avenue, Ottawa. From early evening into the moonlight, Visitors are invited to bring a lantern and stroll along the riverside and wooded paths. Lit only by beautiful lanterns, candlelight and lighted art; skilled performers, poets, magicians and musicians will delight Visitors as a joyous celebration of creativity, community, and art unfolds.
The Transformation Tent will allow the little ones to join in the excitement and opportunities to create a simple lantern will be available.
New this year is the AfterGlow photo marathon challenge. Over a 12-hour period, registered participants will capture the essence of
Lumière in just six shots! Open to the public, the Afterglow Vernissage will take place on Tuesday Sept. 7 in the Corridor Gallery at the Crichton Cultural Community Centre 200 Crichton Ave, 2nd floor where photographers will see their work hung on the gallery walls. The AfterGlow of Lumière- a photography exhibit, continues to September 9th 2010.
For additional details about Lumière or to view the workshop schedule, please see our website www.lumiereottawa.com or contact the CCCC at 613.745.2742
Fifth-graders make the cut at international film festival
Kate Hammer, Globe and Mail
Image: Still from the movie, “The Bright, the Bad and the Ugly”
For proof of what a group of preteens can accomplish over two months of lunch breaks with the help of some popsicle sticks, a few light bulbs and a camera, see this year’s Ottawa International Animation Festival.
One official selection, a stop-motion short film called The Bright, the Bad and the Ugly was written, shot and directed by a Grade 5 class at Grosvenor Wentworth Park School in Halifax. Their tale of the town of Squander, a tumbleweed-infested homestead populated by energy-wasting light bulbs, beat out more than 70 other entries from across the globe to win one of five spots in the high-school category.
Chris Robinson, the festival’s artistic director, said they are the only grade-school class to ever win a spot in that category.
Full story on the Globe and Mail website: Fifth-graders make the cut at international film festival
GOVERNOR GENERAL AND NCC ASK CANADIAN YOUTH: ‘CAN WE TALK ABOUT BUILDING A BETTER CAPITAL?’
Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, and the National Capital Commission (NCC) are hosting a Youth Dialogue to mark the United Nations International Year of Youth that begins on August 12, 2010.
More than 130 young Canadians will join the Governor General at Rideau Hall in an engaging discussion about how best to empower the region’s youth to become agents of change within their community, and ultimately create a more inspiring, youth-friendly and inclusive Capital Region. These young voices, along with those of youth from across Canada, will contribute valuable and timely input to shaping the future of the Capital as the NCC is about to launch the review of the Plan for Canada’s Capital.
After the Youth Dialogue, all participants are invited to join the Governor General on Parliament Hill for a special screening of the NCC’s brand new sound and light show Mosaika: Canada through the eyes of its people as well as Her Excellency address before the screening.
Lumiere Festival – Needs Characters
The Ottawa Lumiere Festival is looking for theatre students, emerging artists and community artists age 14 and up to participate as characters in a guided animation section of the lantern installations on September 4.
Training dates: August 13, 7 – 9 pm; August 14, 10 – 4 pm; August 15, 10 -4 pm; August 21, 1 – 4 pm; and August 28, 1 – 4 pm. Rehearsal and performance dates: September 2 -evening rehearsal; September 3 – evening rehearsal; September 4 – performances beginning at 5 pm.
For more info, contact Scott Florence – scott@crichtonccc.ca by August 10, 5 pm.
(via UnFolding)
Also see: The Lumiere Festival’s Call for Artists and Performers (PDF Document)
Ontario Trillium Foundation: What would it take to transform economic opportunities for Ontario youth?
How would you answer this question?
What would it take to transform economic opportunities for Ontario youth?
By adding your voice, you will be a part of a brief, but broad consultation over the summer. Your ideas will help to shape the future direction of OTF’s work benefiting Ontario’s youth.
Not only will you have the opportunity to post your own idea, you will be able to browse and comment on others and vote on your favourites.
Time for Tulips: Festival season kicks off Friday with Canadian Tulip Festival
Tony Lofaro, The Ottawa Citizen
Much like May weather in Ottawa, the Canadian Tulip Festival is always evolving. And this year, the festival, which kicks off Friday, may evolve into having few tulips.
Fewer blooms will be just one of the changes to the festival this year. Organizers are restoring a single passport to all events, reducing the Celebridée speaker series, and bringing several Ottawa bands to the stage at Major’s Hill Park, including Amos the Transparent and The Murder Plans. The International Pavilion featuring the culture and cuisine of more than 20 embassies is back at Major’s Hill after a disastrous stint last year at Lansdowne Park. A children’s program has been added, and Waylon, a hot new Dutch artist, will perform in the Mirror Tent May 15.
The festival’s theme is “Liberation,” and things get rolling at noon Friday with a street party on Sparks Street to mark the 65th anniversary of the liberation of The Netherlands at the end of the Second World War.
“We intend to have a huge celebration and throw a street party much as in the spirit of 1945,” says festival spokeswoman Christine Charette.
Read more: Time for Tulips
