BC music
Musicians set to converge on Kelowna for Breakout West festivities: Annual event includes concerts, workshops and the Western Canadian Music Awards
Forget the wine-ing. This weekend, Kelowna is going to be rocking. The Breakout West 2010 Festival and western Canadian Music Awards blast into the Okanagan’s biggest burgh this weekend. Big-name acts from B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Northwest Territories and Yukon showcase at nine city venues, plus there’s the big gala going down on Sunday night [...]
Merritt Mountain Music Festival to be revived in B.C., after one year break
The popular Merritt Mountain Music Festival will be bringing country music back to B.C.’s Nicola Valley in 2011. Active Mountain Entertainment owner Claude Lelievre says the four day festival will be revived next summer. He says it will take place at the a Merritt-area outdoor site along the Coldwater River, 270 kilometres northeast of Vancouver. [...]
The 2010 Peak Performance Project
The second edition of Peak 100.5 FM’s Peak Performance Project has been underway since June and is close to wrapping up. The Project is a twenty band showcase, competition and development bootcamp that awards a top prize of $100,000 to the winning band. It’s much more than just a contest though: it’s a full fledged [...]
Take symphony for a test drive Reduced ticket price, accessible concert presents opportunity for novices to the classics
You’d never buy so much as a pair of shoes without trying them. And you certainly wouldn’t buy a car without giving it a test drive. So why would you buy into a whole new form of entertainment without giving it a try first? Well, the Vancouver Island Symphony has a special deal for you. [...]
A focus on the new, and the new to Vancouver, Concerts from the Turning Point Ensemble and Music On Main bring some adventure to the autumn program
Vancouver has a tendency to wait until spring to focus on new music. Sure, the city is a hotbed of compositional activity far in excess of its size, and there are performances all the time. However, events such as the Sonic Boom Festival or VSO at the Roundhouse predictably blossom in the new year. That [...]
White Rock’s Blue Frog not just for recordings
Kelly Breaks is a man who hears music wherever he goes. It may be due in part to his stunning recording studio, Blue Frog Studios, which hosts some of the most talented artists around. For Breaks and his business partner, Juanita Moffat, music and performing have always been a part of their lives. “We used [...]
Vancouver Chamber Choir is fit and 40, Renowned choir faces challenges after 75-per-cent cut in funding from the B.C. Arts Council
This is it: the weekend when, after late-summer hibernation, Vancouver’s classical musical scene springs into fully operational mode. It’s also the start of the Vancouver Chamber Choir’s 40th season, which promises a broad and impressive assortment of choral concerts and events from now until the end of spring. This is a season with a difference, [...]
Coldstream: Coffee house enters eighth season
The coffee crowd will be kept humming with the return of the Coldstream Coffee House this month. Originated by Vernon’s Sid Tozer and some of his fellow musical friends, the coffee house has been going strong for eight years now thanks to a slew of dedicated volunteers. This year, local guitarist Manfred Harter has taken [...]
Kelowna will spotlight Western Canadian music artists
There are so many musicians scheduled to perform at the Western Canadian Music Awards next month, and its newly branded BreakOut West music festival, organizers could not even list them all at the official announcement of the lineup. Gathered in the Streaming Café on Leon Avenue Wednesday morning, the local organizing committee and a representatives [...]
Cory Weeds’s Cellar Jazz Club an unusual success story
Vancouver is littered with the wreckage of jazz clubs that have failed. Fire, bureaucracy, inertia, and indifference have all taken their toll; running a “listening room” in this city is, at best, an uphill battle. And then there’s the record industry. Those little silvery discs that contain music just aren’t selling like they used to, [...]
Music awards back after hiatus
The Vancouver Island Music Awards are calling for submissions from Vancouver Island musicians. The submission period will remain open until the Dec. 31 deadline. To be eligible, artists must have had residency on the island(s) for a minimum of six months, have released their album between Jan. 1, 2009 and Dec. 31, 2010, must be [...]
Kenneth Hsieh takes a classic approach to the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra
On a parked car, a bumper sticker featuring a short musical quote says: “If you can read this, thank a music teacher” — not at all a bad slogan, and one which set the tone for a reception at a west-side home last Sunday for patrons and special friends of the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra. Part [...]
Nelson: New spirit of the radio
Nelson’s newest radio station is promising to be “live, local, and community focused” while regularly including local artists in its music rotation. Friday noon saw the official launch of 103.5 The Bridge, formerly Mountain FM, at a newly renovated studio at 318 Hall Street. While Mountain FM was a classic rock station, The Bridge’s format [...]
Olympics hangover endangers the arts in B.C. Our Vancouver correspondent: B.C. arts groups, facing deep budget cuts, are in an uproar over a plan to spend $30 million on post-Olympic ‘Spirit Festivals.’
This is the worst it’s ever been,” says Violet Goosen, general manager of the Vancouver Chamber Choir. Hers is one of many organizations reeling from cuts in provincial arts funding — cuts described as “devastating” by B.C. Arts Council chair Jane Danzo, in her recent letter of resignation. Canada’s arts funding model is closer to Europe’s [...]
Prince George: Small venue resurgence
Want to start a Revolution? Get some talented local musicians together, form a band (call them, say, Revolution) then make them part of a larger vision to bring other talented artists, groups and great music to downtown Prince George. Pretty soon everyone will want live music with their morning coffee. It’s coming. Artspace and Cafe [...]
