On Sunday February 19th nestled in the drifts of post snowstorm bliss, Jan MacKay and Mary Beth Carty preformed to an enthusiastic group of community members.  Extremely enthralled, attentive and at times dancing wildly the crowd appreciated the Sunday evening concert like a Saturday night blast. The event entitled “Rwanda with Love” was a community organized fundraiser -a dinner and concert to help Jan Mackay travel to Rwanda with a group of nurses and doctors entitled A Partnership in Caring.

The concert opened with the fashionably stylish and fantastically talented Mary Beth Carty who is a continual source of Antigonish pride. After a successful stretch touring internationally and cross Canada as one half part of Bette and Wallet, Mary Beth has now returned home to reinvent herself.

Showing the breadth of her talents, Carty opened with a world tour of accordion tunes including Klezmer, Polka, as well as Celtic inspired works.  Then singing predominantly in French, Carty delved into a handful of new songs. One particularly completely a cappella, A vout de soussle Or “out of breath” has a timeless feel of traditional whims wondering through a minor key. The stark nakedness and soulful melancholy transcended the language barrier.

Then pulling out her loop pedal Carty built her own rhythm section and picked up the tempo with a few rousing tunes. Unleashing the playful Carty animal, belting her heart out to a rhythm of looped claps and background vocals. In the zeitgeist of Kurt Cobain mixed with all the charm of a Parisian fashion model, Carty kicked her way of the stage with a big finish and huge applause!

The host of the evening Jan MacKay is working in a whole new sound with an open band feel. Backed by the professional sound, bass and drums of the Melchin brothers, Jan was given the room to shine her vocal ability. Inspired by her past visit to Rwanda with “A Partnership in Caring”  MacKay unveiled songs from her upcoming album. She sang 2 songs completely in Kinyarwanda (A language from Rwanda) and incorporated words and phrases into several other songs. MacKay’s upcoming album is promising to be an upbeat, groovy new fusion reggae and world rhythm, mixed with soulful lyrical vocals.

MacKay known more for her tradition acoustic guitar sound, played a few solo songs including “All 4 Seasons” which celebrates old ways of rural life, living within ones means, working land with your own hands growing and preserving food. Well crafted, the song takes a metaphorical twist being grateful for all types of harvest.

Near the end of the evening with the full band onstage during, “Tell me the things that make you happy” MacKay invited audience onstage to insert a line into her song describing something that makes them happy. Instantly a line formed and the room was full of applause for various individual input into the chorus.  The song and the performance as a whole earned the band a standing ovation and encore.

Other highlights of the evening include a hearty meal of local vegetables and roast beef, while Rebecca Wilde serenaded with classical tunes. As well a pecan pie that was to die for. All in all one fantastic evening.

To find out more about A Partnership in Caring please watch this very descriptive 15-minute video on you tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMES0sflFyg

Special thanks to Michel DeNoncourt for the Photos

Music by Robert Schumann
Written by Colin Fox
Produced by Andrew Kwan

Performed by Susan Gilmour Bailey (soprano), Michael Kim (piano), Colin Fox (narrator)

A music-as-theatre show, The Schumann Letters has been enticing audiences with a unique combination of storytelling, piano music and song. Often garnering standing ovations, it has seen 30 performances this season alone and continues to build excitement for a new musical concept. Offering an exquisite combination of drama, history and music, The Schumann Letters was selected by Prairie Debut for their 2009.2010 touring roster. In addition, the show was featured in a national CBC radio broadcast and appeared in the Ottawa Chamber Festival and Festival of the Sound in the summer of 2010.

Born and raised in Manitoba, soprano Susan Gilmour Bailey emigrated to London in 1999 to complete her Master of Music in Vocal Performance at the Royal Academy of Music. Performing throughout the United Kingdom, Europe and North America, Susan enjoys a varied career of concert, Oratorio and opera. Ms. Bailey has appeared as a soloist with prestigious orchestras such as the London Sinfonia and the Vancouver and Winnipeg Symphony Orchestras to name a few. She has also performed leading roles with opera companies including the Royal Shakespeare Company, Opera de Lille, Early Opera Company, Concert d’Astrée, Garington Opera, and the Cambridge Handel opera group, among others. In addition to touring with The Schumann Letters, this season, Ms. Bailey will also perform the role of Belinda in Dido and Aeneus with l’Opera de Dijon in France.

Michael Kim is a gifted pianist and performer, known for his outstanding technique and refined artistry. Winner of many prestigious awards, his performance highlights include a tour in Peru with Orchestra Sinfonica de Trujillo and the UK tour with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Symphony. As a chamber musician, Michael has performed at the Brevard, Aspen, Banff, Huntsville, and Heifetz (Annapois, MD) festivals to name a few. Receiving his Master and Doctor of Musical Arts from The Julliard School, in August 2008, Dr. Kim was appointed Dean of Brandon University’s School of Music, in Brandon Manitoba, Canada.

A multi-talented artist, Colin Fox has an extensive list of stage, film, television, and musical narrations to his credit. A Gemini award winner, Colin has performed in several critically acclaimed shows, including: PSI Factor: Chronicles of the Paramormal, A & E’s Nero Wolfe, Wonderfalls, Law and Order, The Equalizer, Relic Hunter and Street Legal. His stage appearances include productions at Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theatre, Stratford Festival, Shaw Festival and on Broadway. He has also narrated numerous audio books, one which received a JUNO Award. Mr. Fox has performed musical narrations with the Boston and Toronto Symphony Orchestras, the Hannaford Street Silber Band, guitarist Simon Wynberg, the Mendelssohn Choir, pianist Leslie Kinton, Gryphon Trio the Elora Festival Singers and has appeared at many music festivals across Ontario.

(as of September, 2010) http://www.andrewkwanartists.com/Artists/Schumann/schumann.html

Photo: AKAM Studio (Trio)

Odile Têtu is an artist from Georgeville, Antigonish County, working in many media, including acrylic painting, watercolour, and etching. Janette Fecteau is a batik artist and poet, also from Georgeville. As neighbours and artists, Odile and Janette embrace life “on the road,” whether travelling close to home or farther afield. In this collaboration, they engage in a visual call-and-response, taking inspiration from each other’s work as they explore images of human and animal movement through the environment, both natural and human-made. This eclectic show includes acrylic paintings, watercolours, etchings, batik, and poetry. Light in its many qualities is everywhere: a driver dodges a pothole under an overcast sky; dogs pause on a snowy road at day’s end; a tropical fish keeps pace, briefly, with a stingray in an underwater sunbeam. Light and shadow intensify life on the road, now obscuring, now illuminating, all our paths.

This exhibition of local artist runs February 14 to March 10, 2012.

Saturday, February 11, at 7 PM

The StFX Art Gallery Fundraiser is being held at the McKenna Centre on Saturday, February 11, at 7 PM. There will be a silent and live auction, lots of food and 2 free drinks for all. We have arranged use of St Ninian’s parking lot and the cathedral parking lot after 6 pm for all attending. Tickets are $30 each, available at the Gallery.

The opening for this premier exhibition entitled “ Winter Light “ will be held on Monday February 6th, 4 PM till 7 PM. Refreshments will be served. All are welcome to this celebration of Winter and the Art in Photography. If you can’t make it for this Grand Opening, drop by anytime during normal business hours daily. This exhibition and sale will run through April 30th, 2012.

Pre-register for the Contemporary African Dance Workshop with Liliona Quarmyne, no experience needed.

Date: Sunday February 5th

Time: 5:00 – 6:30 PM

Location: Dance Studio in the Millennium Centre

Cost: $15 (Cheques can be sent through campus mail to ACDA attention Sally Clark in Human Kinetics or dropped off at the Human Kinetics office between 9:00 and 4:30.)

The Women’s and Gender Studies Program is pleased to present their 13th Annual Film Festival. Festival  will consist of a mixture of documentary films of a variety of lengths, and two full length features: one is a recent Danish production “In a Better World”; the other invites us to revisit “Thelma and Louise”  after ten years. The films will be held in a variety of locations – both on campus and Saturday afternoon in the People’s Place Library. The details for the Festival are listed below and are on the attached poster.

Thursday 2 February, reception to follow, Desmond Oval, 7:30pm: “Flawed” (dir. Andrea Bier) 2012, “In a Better World” (dir. Susanne Dorfman) 2012

Friday 3 February, NH151, 2:30pm: “Savage” (dir. Lisa Jackson) 2010, “Thelma and Louise” (dir. Ridley Scott, writer Calli Khouri) 1991

Saturday 4 February, coffee and snacks provided, People’s Place Library, 1:00pm: “Latching On: the Politics of Breastfeeding in America” (dir. Katja Esson) 2010, “Dish: Women, Waitressing, and the Art of Service” (dir. Maya Gallus) 2010

The StFX Art Gallery begins 2012 with “Midday Matinee“ an exciting exhibition by Ottawa based, Nova Scotian artist Danny Hussey. This exhibition is up and running. There is an opening reception on Wednesday Jan 11 at 7:00 p.m. Refreshments will be served and the artist will be present. Everybody is cordially invited.

With nostalgia as the hook, ”Midday Matinee” funnels us through the sounds of the industrial militarized complex and its attendant patriarchal hysteria. A full reading of the work touches on the mechanisms of transmission, learning and inheritance with the final focus on the formation and maintenance of belief and value.

“Midday Matinee“ consists of a series of diptych installations based on an afternoon television program circa mid to late 1960s. As a child the artist would sometimes get to see a“Midday Matinee” movie with his father. Hussey’s father was a radar technician in the Canadian Armed Forces based in CFB Greenwood and flew over the North Atlantic Ocean tracking Russian submarines. The artist best remembers the black and white Sci-Fi movies, ironically laden with Atomic and Cold War metaphors.

Half of each installation is a plywood TV modeled after the television found in Hussey’s childhood home. Their screen-shaped panels, now woodcuts are recessed in the plywood TV, The images depict stills from classic Sci-Fi cinema: The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951), It Came From Outer Space (1953), Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954), The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), etc. The working television sets will also play each film’s respective soundtrack.

The diptych is completed above each TV with a painting. The paintings feature objects associated with the artist’s father: a power drill, a hockey stick, a fishing lure, a TV tube, etc. The block prints taken from the woodcut panels reminiscent of classic movie posters will also be on display.

“Midday Matinee” is a must experience.

For more information on the artist please visit http://dannyhussey.ca

The art for this exhibit was made possible by a grant to the artist from the Ontario Arts Council. The StFX Art Gallery thanks our Season Sponsor: the MacLeod Group, Exhibition Sponsors: SteelMac Limited, AA Munro Insurance, and High-Crest Enterprises. A special thank you goes to the City of Ottawa for lending one of the works on this exhibition. The art for this exhibit was made possible by a grant to the artist from the Ontario Arts Council. The StFX University Art Gallery is located on the 1st floor Bloomfield Centre next to the University Bookstore.  Gallery hours are Tuesday to Friday: 12 Noon to 6:00 PM, Saturday and Sunday: 1 to 4 pm, closed Mondays and Holidays.  For more information please phone 867-2303.

There is a new Public Gallery in town at 219 Main St. which exhibits Contemporary Photography. Under the auspices of Brian MacLeod the lobby area of the Kirk Building has been transformed in to a beautiful and accessible public gallery space, featuring 22 framed images and a digital display screen running a continuous show of a hundred more photographic images by the now renowned group APx (Antigonish Photographers Exhibit). This group of 10 local photographers began exhibiting together in the Spring of 2011 at the Prissy Pig. They followed that with an entirely new exhibition titled Antigonish Town and County for the 2011 Highland Games and summer visitors to our region. It was during this show that the group teamed up with Brian MacLeod and formed a collaborative effort to develop this new Gallery in the Kirk Building on Main St. The opening for this premier exhibition entitled ” Winter Light ” will be held on Monday February 6th, 4 PM till 7 PM. All are welcome to this celebration of the Art in Photography.