Roll over, Beethoven. Moses has arrived

GAYLE MACDONALD

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

One balmy Friday a few weeks ago, about 40 members of the Classical Club gathered in the tightly packed lobby of a small radio station on Toronto's Queen Street East.

The group, aged early 20s to 75-plus, were assembled to hear a private performance from the acclaimed Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, in town for some sold-out performances that were part of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's Beethoven Festival.

You could hear a pin drop as the 36-year-old Andsnes — dubbed “best fingers” by Vanity Fair in 2005 — settled himself on the bench. As he began to gently stroke the keys of a Steinway, coaxing out a Bach-Busoni chorale prelude, many in the room sighed. Others shut their eyes.

But one jaunty guy in a dark suit just beamed. Moses Znaimer, who had just picked up the keys to the station Classical 96.3 FM (call numbers CFMX) and had organized this intimate recital, was lapping up the ambience. Everything. The music. The culture. The class.

“He sounds like he's making love to the keys,” purrs Znaimer, the media guru who founded CITY-TV three decades ago and later brought rock 'n' roll to television with MuchMusic. “See, he's barely touching the keys. It's almost erotic.”

Anyone who's ever had contact with Znaimer — renowned for his pop-culture savvy and active libido — finds it fitting that he would see his latest business venture in a totally sensual way. “I want to tell you a dirty little secret,” the crafty 64-year-old whispers when Andsnes's performance ends, leaving the room in mute awe.

“Under-30s like classical music. Look around. Not only old people listen to it. Many of the people here today are very young and, may I say, good-looking girls,” Znaimer adds sassily.

For him, classical music has been a lifelong passion. So Classical 96.3 is not a job, but a calling. “It's been proven scientifically that people who love classical music live longer. They live better. They go on to more stable lives, and better paying careers.” Asked where that tidbit came from, Znaimer waves off the question with a flick of a slender wrist. “I can't recall. I read it somewhere.”

The statement is vintage Znaimer. Nobody knows how to milk a tale, and turn it into legend, better than he. This son of Jewish immigrants who was born in Tajikistan and emigrated to Montreal in 1948 is both a huckster and a dreamer — a hard-nosed businessman and a diehard romantic.

And his journey forward with Classical 96.3, which cost him $12-million, means he's determined to work the same magic at this radio station that he did with CITY-TV many years ago, a network everybody thought would fail, but ended up being a television groundbreaker in so many ways.

Znaimer plans to bring CITY-TV's Rambo-style marketing to shake up what has been a sleepy, genteel genre. Seated at the Steinway that Andsnes recently vacated, surrounded by people dressed conservatively in tweed and ties, Znaimer is light years removed from the funkiness of CITY-TV headquarters.

Still, the transformation seems to suit Znaimer. “Listeners to this station are very well-educated, and a very well-heeled group of people,” he asserts. “They are the best-educated and highest-earning people in the Greater Toronto area. This audience is valued, and we want to hang onto them. But I want to bring in fresh blood. There are lots of young people listening to this station; we just want more of them.”

Classical 96.3 FM's core audience is folk aged 50-plus, and it's Znaimer's goal to bring along the under-40 or even under-30 crowd. He's the only private classical-music-radio player in a Greater Toronto radio listening market of roughly 4.5-million. According to the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement, 96.3 has a respectable market share of 5 per cent, among the highest of any North American commercial classical station. And the only other classical radio game in town is the CBC.

Znaimer's station draws between 350,000 and 450,000 listeners who stay tuned in for at least a quarter of an hour during the week. While that's small potatoes compared with the 900,000-plus weekly listeners at CFRB and CHUM, Liz Janik, president of Media Mix Inc., says Znaimer has a perfectly viable business model.

“Jack FM would love to have those numbers,” says Janik. “Classical 96.3 has already proven there's an audience for it. People are listening, and the numbers indicate they tend to listen a long time. It's a format that performs well even with a smaller listening base because the numbers of hours that audiences spend with the station are long. That drives up their share of the tuning.”

The big question, though, is whether Znaimer will be able to popularize classical music and bring it to the youthful masses. Time will tell, muses Janik. But she figures if anyone can, it's probably Znaimer.

Over the years, Znaimer's been called many things: media visionary, television addict, brilliant impresario, crazy as a fox, mercurial, unpredictable, a lady's man and a marijuana advocate.

The one thing he most assuredly is, however, is a master of invention. And this $12-million investment is testament again to a man who never dips a toe in — but jumps in with both his Lucchese boot-clad feet.

Sitting on the stairwell in his second-floor lobby, Znaimer explains his marketing assault strategy, set to go into effect in the new year. First, he's going to hire “a classical core” of young people who will be divided into two so-called “brigades.”

The first team will be made up of roughly a dozen attractive “reporters” of both sexes who will travel around the city reporting on the latest classical events. They'll travel in easily identifiable “zippy” cars (model still to be decided), he adds, painted with Classical 96.3's tag line: “Relax. Refresh. Recharge.”

The second “brigade” will be made up of classical performers — soloists, duets, trios — who he plans to send into “at-risk” neighbourhoods — such as schools in the Jane and Finch area. His aim? To give young adults — who may never have heard of Mozart or Chopin — an alternative to hip hop.

One has to wonder how keen these guinea-pig musicians will feel about his scheme. “Hey, this is coming from the daddy of video rock 'n' roll,” says Znaimer, who early on in his career owned a Toronto recording studio called Thunder Sound that boasted a sauna in the basement where bands used to go to sweat and smoke dope. “So I think I'm the proper guy to say I think there's room in radio to try something else.”

Janik, who points out that Classical 96.3's five-point market share in the GTA is ahead of younger-format stations such as The Edge and Z103.5, says the greatest challenge for Znaimer and his Rambo classical tactical squad will be “finding the sales force that's willing to be original and aggressive in identifying what the key benefits are for this kind of format in this city.”

Znaimer is undaunted. “I'm doing this because I truly love the music. And I believe that some level of showmanship applied to this rather severe realm is going to yield some excitement. There's a delicious irony in a guy who brought Canada video rock 'n' roll taking this turn.”

In a way, Znaimer's move into classical has returned him to his childhood roots. As a pre-teen growing up on Montreal's Rue St-Urbain, Znaimer's parents (dad, a shoe salesman, mom, a waitress) scraped and saved every penny to put him into piano lessons at McGill University's faculty of music.

Alas, he discovered after a few years that he was no virtuoso. “I got to the age of girls, movies, reading books and shooting pool, and knew I wasn't Leif [Ove Andsnes] material.” He eventually graduated with a degree in philosophy and politics from McGill and earned a masters in government from Harvard (and by then, his parents had finally forgiven him for dropping out of the faculty of music).

In the early 1970s, he teamed up with partners to launch CITY-TV, which he eventually sold to CHUM Ltd. He then became programming guru for an rapidly expanding media outlet before resigning in 2003.

Then he went underground, presumably to nurse some wounds.

But in the last year, the man's been everywhere — investing in Cannasat Therapeutics, a publicly traded company pioneering a new class of drugs from marijuana), producing a comedy called Rumours for the CBC — and now his mug can be seen on buses and billboards around the city in ads promoting Classical 96.3. A riff on earlier ads that showed a comely young lass in the bathtub saying, “I'm listening,” Znaimer's ad says, “Are you listening?” And it has superimposed his wicked elfin face onto the girl's suds-covered body.

Classical 96.3's office — a stone's throw from Toronto's Humane Society at Queen and River streets — is a placid, restful spot, distinctly at odds with the mayhem-in-motion that is such a part of the cult of CITY-TV.

But don't for a second suggest to Znaimer that his new digs are stodgy or sedate. The advertising community infuriates him because it insists on viewing classical music as the realm of doddering old fools.

“Where does this idea come from [in the ad world] that when you hit age 50, you somehow die,” Znaimer asks. “I'm Moses Znaimer sitting in a rocking chair, chewing my gums, waiting for my pension cheque to buy my dog food? It's so bizarre and misplaced.”

It makes him madder still that Classical 96.3's core listening audience contains the captains of industry running huge ad houses and laying down the rigid rules that only the young 18-to-35 demographic matters.

“You have to wonder about industry leaders who deny their own experience. You have to be pretty alienated from yourself,” he fumes. “The reality is our core listeners are at the peak of their careers, living larger, living well, on second and third marriages, spending like crazy on travel, on things related to health and well-being, and on whimsy.

“Our main challenge here at Classical 96.3 is to open [advertisers'] eyes to the truth. And get rid of the notion that classical music is for ancients.”

He might have a point. Over at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, 15 to 20 per cent of regular concert sales go to people under the age of 30 — a large jump from under 1 per cent only five years ago.

Well-programmed, Media Mix's Janik believes classical radio has the “capacity of being very strong in the 25-to-65 age group, with the heart [of the audience] being 50 to 60.

“The sound of the station fills a mood service of calm and relaxing, which is important to people today, with busy lifestyles and all,” she adds.

Znaimer bought Classical 96.3 from Trumar Communications, owned by Martin and Truus Rosenthal. He got Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission approval in the summer and now has an application before the federal regulator for a digital classical video channel.

He's hired veteran radio man George Grant (who worked at CITY-TV the first year it opened, has been in radio 42 years, including a stint as general manager of CHFI, and was part-owner of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats) to be CEO of the radio division of MZ Media.

Recently, there have been rumours that former Sony Music Canada president Denise Donlon — who launched MuchMusic for Znaimer and recently organized the star-studded birthday party at the Fairmont Royal York for former U.S. president Bill Clinton during the Toronto International Film Festival last month — is being courted to join the Classical 96.3 team.

Znaimer wouldn't comment, but Donlon was front and centre at the Andsnes concert. And she stayed for the gourmet brie-and-black-angus-beef sandwiches. And while some staffers at the FM station may have, at first, been skeptical about Znaimer and his real motivation for buying 96.3 — his enthusiasm for the genre has now won them over.

As Louise Thomas, the radio station's veteran office manager puts it: “Any change makes people nervous. But Moses's reputation precedes him as taking little, and making big.”

Waterloo library pitched as city's arts hub

Waterloo's public library system could become the hub for arts and culture in the city, arts advocates told provincial Minister of Culture Caroline Di Cocco on a visit to the city yesterday. A morning tour of the library's main branch on Albert Street turned into an impromptu round-table discussion on the value of arts in the community.
"The library is an access point to arts and culture," said GloriaVan Eek- Meijers, library manager of information services. If the public wants information on arts activities or events, the library
is the first place to look, she said. The group talked about the need for increased government funding, while promoting their individual initiatives.
"Art is moving out into communities, and libraries are a very important conduit to that," said Judith Miller, a University of Waterloo English professor.
Di Cocco told the group she hopes to see all Ontario communities evolve arts clusters. "For a while, the word 'culture' was not even in the government vocabulary. Today, all over the world, cities are talking about the creative cities concept."
But when Tim Jackson, chair of the library's board of directors, asked about new funding, Di Cocco wouldn't make a commitment. "I don't have a cheque, I don't have a magic wand," she said. "But libraries are due to have an increase."
Jackson said provincial funding has flatlined for about 20 years. "Hopefully, we showed the minister that you can take an institution and tie in the whole community," he said.
Circulation and the use of electronic resources have increased in recent years, he said.
"There's this notion that people aren't going to the libraries any more-- that's not true."
That's part of the reason more funding would enhance services, he added.
In Waterloo, circulation is up 19 per cent in the first quarter of 2006. Remote use of resources, through the library website, is up 40 per cent in the first quarter, totalling 23,329 hits.
Di Cocco said her visit is part of the ministry's goal to rebuild cultural infrastructure and conduct long-term planning.

Living online the new norm for Canadians

Canadians turn to Web for many tasks: Survey
Aug. 16, 2006. 05:58 AM
HEBA ALY
STAFF REPORTER

Fifty years ago, it was a dream. Today, it is our world.
For the first time ever, Statistics Canada has tracked the Internet use of individual Canadians, and while the results may not be surprising, they pave a very clear path for the future.
• 68 per cent of adult Canadians used the Internet for personal, non-business reasons in 2005.
• In Toronto, that number rose to 75 per cent.
• Almost 2/3 of adult Canadians who used the Internet from home did so every day during a typical month.
• About six in 10 Internet users used it to read news or sports, or to conduct their banking online.
The statistics, released yesterday, confirm a reality that many already understood — Canadians have a growing dependence on the Internet and are doing much more online than emailing and surfing.
More than half of home users said they used the Internet to check weather conditions, make travel arrangements and view news or sports, as well as search for medical or government information, bank electronically and window shop.
"That represents a pretty dramatic change," says Michael Geist, law professor at the University of Ottawa where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and e-commerce law.
"People increasingly identify with the Internet as an essential tool to access information and engage in all sorts of activities that only a few years ago they did offline."
Experts agree that industries and businesses will have to shift online to stay successful if they haven't done so already.
"Whether they like it or not, that's where we're going," Geist says, adding "there are some exceptional opportunities here."
While many banks, stores and even governments have already taken advantage of such opportunities, other industries, traditional travel agencies for example, may be left behind.
And they won't be alone.
The shift to a virtual world raises concern over a "digital divide" that continues to exist between people living in urban and rural communities.
Only 58 per cent of residents living in Canada's small towns or rural areas accessed the World Wide Web, compared to a 68 per cent national average and a high of 77 per cent in some metropolitan areas.
The study acknowledges a variety of reasons for this gap.
In general, larger cities have younger populations, more residents with higher levels of income and education, and more allure for Internet service providers — all factors that lead to higher Internet use.
As the Internet becomes more and more important, the poor, the uneducated, seniors and rural residents, "who are already disadvantaged, get left further behind because everybody else has the means to accelerate their own chances," says Liss Jeffrey, director of the McLuhan Global Research Network and adjunct professor of new media and policy at the University of Toronto.
Some predict the problem might take care of itself, as it did with an earlier gender divide.
But "the fact that it's becoming such an important resource to get people connected to their municipal, provincial and federal government suggests that the government has a greater role to play in addressing the digital divide issues," says Arthur Cockfield, associate dean and law professor at Queen's University, where he specializes in cyber-law and privacy issues.
The survey also showed that almost 75 per cent of the 30,000 or so adults contacted were concerned about privacy and security, including Internet credit card use.

From Brighton to big time

Former ENSS student is the youngest creator/executive producer/director of a drama in CBC history
by Adam Huras The Independent
Now a long way from the halls of East Northumberland Secondary School, he is the youngest creator/ executive producer/director of a drama in CBC history.
James Wilkes, the former Brightonian and ENSS grad, is now 32 years old and riding the success of his 22 episode prime-time series entitled “11 Cameras”.
“I came from the commercial world and I first did really well as an advertising creative and then creative director,” said Mr. Wilkes. “I then became a commercial director but I wanted to tell longer stories so I took an insane pay cut to go and start to make longer things.”
That was two years ago, and while some called him crazy at the time, it has definitely worked out for the best.
Mr. Wilkes and co-creator, business partner and bestfriend Jeff Spriet pitched the idea for “11 Cameras,” aiming for a spot on CBC’s daytime line-up. The 11 minute demo was received well, but was given a prime time slot instead of its day time intended audience and a go ahead for the pilot to begin filming in March.
The series follows the lives of six groups of people, told entirely from the point of view of webcams. The sitcom is described on its website as “a voyeuristic look at human relationships…told through the language of webcams and computer desktops.” The show touches on themes of love, sex, loneliness, fear, money woes, longing, adultery and jealousy as well.
“The show was inspired by the relationship my wife has with her family via webcam in Korea; and Jeff’s wife’s love of listening to other people’s conversations,” said Mr. Wilkes jokingly. “The show is a classic soap, but we use the language of web cameras.”
The two share the title of creators and executive producers while Mr. Wilkes has directed four as well as the re-shoots for all 22 episodes.
The two have worked as a creative team since the mid ’90’s when they met each other while working at Taxi Advertising and Design. Picked up after Ontario College of Art and Design school by Paul Lavoie, co-founder of Taxi and the man responsible for the creation of Viagra and Telus television ads, Mr. Wilkes learned the ropes.
Mr. Wilkes then left to work on various projects around the world but wound up coming back and pairing up with Mr. Spriet to accomplish bigger projects.
Wanting more than 30 seconds to tell their stories, they created a company called ‘Chokolat’.
In their brief three year history, they have created reality shows that have been optioned by Warner Brothers, Court TV and New Line, created and wrote an animated comedy property for Teletoon, and completed a feature documentary called “Auto Destruct: One Man’s Obsession with William Shatner.” Their ‘big break’ into the business was the direction of a documentary series called “Full Ride” for ESPN.
“Now we have a whole bunch of stuff coming down the line in Canada which is exciting and amazing, but our first big hit was for ESPN,” said Mr. Wilkes. “I think the main reason it was hard to break out in Canada was because there is not as much money here and it’s sort of a risk-averse culture at all the networks. When it comes down to it, Global and CTV are happy to run American stuff but they have to run Canadian stuff so for those they go to people with longstanding relationships.”
While most would think that the production of a 22 episode prime-time show on CBC would be enough on their plate, the two also have two documentaries, a cartoon, two reality shows based on music, a teen drama and a horror and crime drama in the works.
Currently living in downtown Toronto, Mr. Wilkes says it’s not really “living,” with his busy travel schedule. This year alone he has shot two and a half months outside of Canada and a month and a half outside of the United States, on location in Mexico and Europe. Mr. Wilkes also has a new reality show on the go which he will be shooting in Japan in the fall.
Shot in Toronto in what was an old Canadian Tire store, the project featured 60 cast members and 35 sets. The show cost close to $2 million to shoot.
“It literally looked like a gateway to hell when we started out, but then after they built all the sets it looked amazing,” said Mr. Wilkes. “The show takes place anywhere from Iraq to India to all these other places where people are having relationships all over the world.”
ENSS graduates Dan Turcotte and Adam Warner also do the music for the show as well as all the music for Mr. Wilkes other shows and commercials. The three are proud of their local roots and the school they came from.
“We had a good foundation of really great families at home and we had really really good teachers that stood out and made a difference,” said Mr. Wilkes. “For me Jeff Girdlestone and Gerald Banting, those guys indulged our unique view on life.”
Mr. Wilkes still comes to Brighton to visit his parents and was recently home for his brother’s marriage.
The series has been airing since June 28, Wednesday and Thursday on CBC at 7:30 p.m. with a repeat airing at 11:30 p.m. Two new episodes air every week.
“The show is doing really well and has received great reviews,” said Mr. Wilkes. “Our audience is going up about 20 per cent per episode which we’re happy to see.”

Canadian stories captured in the great outdoors

By Jeanne Beneteau, Northumberland News

Millbrook's 4th Line Theatre provides a unique opportunity to watch quintessentially Canadian stories unfold in the backdrop of the historic Winslow Farm.

This summer, 4th Line Theatre offers two historical plays: the return of last year's 'Doctor Barnardo's Children,' a smash hit that drew over 6,000 patrons; and the world premiere of local writer Shane Peacock's 'X: The Art of Silent Killing.'

'Doctor Barnardo's Children' chronicles the struggles of impoverished British children sent to Canada in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Dr. Thomas Barnardo, a Victorian philanthropist and visionary. The play runs through July 30, Tuesday through Saturday at 6 p.m. with a special Sunday performance on July 30.

'X: The Art of Silent Killing' opens Aug. 10 and plays Tuesday through Saturday at 6 p.m. with an added performance slated for Sunday, Sept. 3. This production is a dark, romantic story of a Canadian man and woman who train to become secret agents at a mysterious Second World War military compound in Whitby called Camp X and then embark on a fateful mission behind enemy lines.

Now celebrating its 15th season, the 4th Line Theatre Company presents Canadian plays written by and about Canadians on an outdoor stage made up of an array of century old barns and the countryside of Millbrook's Winslow Farm. Since its inception in 1992, the theatre company has remained true to its commitment to preserve and promote Canadian cultural heritage by offering regionally-based, environmentally-staged historical dramas. For 15 years, the 4th Line has reclaimed little known Canadian heroes, heroines and history and brought the stories to life in the backdrop of the rolling hills, ponds and meadows. Past productions have 14 original plays including: 'The Cavan Blazers,' the story of 19th century religious conflicts among Cavan Township settlers; 'Crow Hill: The Telephone Play,' an examination of the impact of telephone technology on rural communities inspired by the life of Garden Hill's Ona Gardiner, a switchboard operator for 30 years; and 'The Devil and Joseph Scriven,' who penned the hymn 'What a Friend We Have in Jesus' and died in poverty (under rather suspicious circumstances) in a log cabin near Rice Lake.

To coincide with its 15th anniversary season, patrons of Thursday and Saturday evening presentations can take in a display presented by the Hazelbrae Barnardo Home Memorial Group, says 4th Line's artistic director, Robert Winslow. The organization, founded in 1998, is currently raising funds to erect a monument in memory of the 10,000 children who passed through the home.

"Our audiences enjoy these opportunities to learn more about the history and the work we present on our stages," says Robert Winslow, 4th Line's artistic director.

There are many options to enjoy 4th Line's outdoor theatre experience, adds spokeswoman, Sherrie Le Masurier. Scenic stage packages can be customized to suit every taste... patrons can enjoy a pre-ordered country picnic (you're also welcome to bring your own) at the farm before the show or dine afterwards at a local Italian Restaurant. There are also cozy bed and breakfast retreats available, she adds. A photo exhibit from the theatre's 2005 'Doctor Barnardo's Children' production, courtesy of Millbrook photographer, Marlon Hazlewood, is also on display until the end of the month at Stickling's Bakery and Bistro, 191 Charlotte St. in Peterborough.

The 4th Line Theatre is located on the Winslow Farm, 779 Zion Line, off County Road 10 north of Garden Hill. For tickets or rural escape package information, contact the 4th Line Theatre box office Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 705-932-4445, toll-free at 1-800-814-0055 or by e-mail at 4thline@nexicom.net.

Capitol Announces 2006 Fall Season

The Capitol Arts Centre is pleased to announce our 2006 Fall Series. as usual we've got a tremendous variety of entertainment happening on our stage this fall. Returning we'll have Peter Appleyard & the Voices of Showtime, the Nylons, Jeff Healey's Jazz Wizards and John McDermott in a Christmas Show. Also for the first time at the Capitol we'll be presenting "Unforgettable - Brothers of Song" featuring the songs of Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong and Ray Charles among others and Prairie Oyster, a Canadian country legend.

Moments to Remember Featuring the Voices of Showtime with Peter Appleyard Saturday, September 30th – Tickets $31.00
This fun-filled trip of nostalgia will take you back to the 40’s & 50’s and the big-band music of Miller, Goodman and Dorsey. Featuring the impeccable intonation, balance and blend of the Voices of Showtime and Canada’s vibraphone legend. Peter Appleyard.

The Nylons Friday, October 27th – Tickets $39.00
Over the last 25 years The Nylons have become a global institution in the world of a cappella music. From their formation in the back of a delicatessen in Toronto in the late 1970s to headlining at Carnegie Hall, The Nylons have a storied history. With over three million albums sold and hits such as "Up The Ladder, To The Roof" and "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," the Nylons have received international acclaim, accolades and numerous awards including a Juno.

Unforgettable – Brothers of Song Saturday, November 4th - Tickets $31.00
Featuring the songs of Nat “King” Cole and celebrating other notable performers such as Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Johnny Mathis and others, Unforgettable is a joyous, uplifting music review. Starring Rudy Mayes, Selena Gittens and the music and vocals of the Unforgettable All-Stars.

Jeff Healey’s Jazz Wizards Saturday, November 18th – Tickets $39.00
Back by popular demand, Jeff Healey shares his life-long passion for Jazz by performing golden-era hits of the 20’s and 30’s. joined by his combo who make up the aptly-named Jazz Wizards, Healey will captivate and delight you with his enthusiasm as he divides his time between lead vocals , valve trombone, trumpet and of course his signature instrument, the guitar.

Prairie Oyster Saturday, November 25th - Tickets $39.00
Hardcore country ballads, Cajun spice, country shuffles, swing-injected and honky-tonk feels, rockabilly and vintage rock 'n' roll-flavoured pieces, this legendary Canadian country band blends them all together in a seamless manner.

John Mcdermott Holiday Concert Friday, December 15th – Tickets $43.00
Canada’s favourite Irish Tenor brings his rich golden voice and unforced charm to the Capitol Theatre for a holiday concert of classic folksongs, old standards and heart-warming stories. Book early for this one and avoid disappointment.

Barbara Howard’s Seeking Light at the AGN

Throughout her five decades as a professional artist, Barbara Howard was committed to making images that could transmit her profound experiences of the natural world. In the 1950s she lived in London, following her graduation from the Ontario College of Art, immersing herself in European art and the English landscape. Returning to Canada, she travelled to Vancouver Island to experience the power and mystery of the Pacific Ocean at Long Beach. Her drawings and paintings during the 1960s and 70s reveal a fascination for certain aspects of landscape: views across water, fields and forests by moonlight, shorelines, colour and light.
Based in Toronto for most of her life, Howard found subject matter nearby at Lake Simcoe, Stoney Lake, the Albion Hills and the Toronto Islands. However, she was never concerned with portraying the specifics of a particular place: rather, she observed natural phenomena with the greatest attention in order to express a more universal experience.
In 1960 Howard added wood-engraving to her repertoire of media when she and her husband, the poet Richard Outram, launched the Gauntlet Press. For 30 years Howard produced small engravings in collaboration with Outram's poems, publishing numerous small books and broadsides. Together they printed the work on a small letterpress, then Howard bound the books by hand. These books are prized by collectors and can be found in many public collections such as the National Library of Canada, the Library of Congress, the British Library and the University of Toronto Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library.
During a visit to Vancouver Island's China Beach in the 1980s, Barbara Howard encountered the carcass of a beached whale. Her attention was caught by the plight of the great whales today, and for nearly a decade she devoted herself to learning about them and trying to convey their mystery and grandeur. Some of these paintings are as large as six feet by eighteen feet. Most have never been exhibited.
In the late 1990s until her death in 2002, Barbara Howard returned to her lifelong fascination with light, night skies, the reflective surface of water. In these paintings, the recurrence of circular elements, an abstraction of natural forms and a balancing of darkness and light all suggest the artist's deep feeling for the natural world and a celebration of its unit

Nancy Hermiston returns home to perform at Westben

by Brian Schuette , Community Press Online

Relaxing on her family’s front porch, Nancy Hermiston looked back on her journey from singing as a young girl in local festivals and school productions in Warkworth and Campbellford, to performing on the world’s concert stages. It all began with a role at Campbellford District High School (CDHS) in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance. Her uncle from Brampton had come to see Hermiston sing and he thought she had talent. He paid for singing lessons with a former student in Toronto who was now herself an opera singer, Gwendolyn Little. Hermiston took the long train ride every second week to the big city for her lessons, and so began a sojourn on a lifelong career path that she feels passionately about to this day.
While studying at the University of Toronto to be a music teacher, she had to sing in order to learn how to conduct choirs. Again someone recognized her talent and suggested she study opera at Banff. She didn’t like opera at the time but wanted to take the trip out west, so she agreed. Six weeks into the course, she realized this was what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. Upon her return to Toronto, she finished her education degree then signed up for opera school. Over the years, her talent and training brought her a New York debut at Carnegie Hall, leading coloratura roles with opera companies in Canada, the U.S. and Germany, and performances as a soloist with symphonies across our nation. She has performed as a recitalist in London and in many CBC broadcasts. She has also turned her hand to stage directing in a number of shows over the years. She is currently the head of the Opera and Voice departments at the University of British Columbia, where she has taught for the past 11 years.
Hermiston returned to her family home this week to perform in Westben’s Canada Day Birthday Bash and their production of HMS Pinafore on July 8 and 9. Besides having the fun of performing Gilbert and Sullivan again on a Campbellford stage, it provides something of a reunion with one of her own students, Westben’s Donna Bennett. "When I was going to university," she said, "Donna was this young kid in the festivals. When I came home, I’d teach her during my undergraduate and opera school years at university." Later on the two would reconnect in Germany when Donna moved to Munich, not far from Nuremberg where Hermiston worked for the state opera company. "She was a very gifted student, and it was obvious she had a great deal of talent. When she and Brian were married, he used to play for me sometimes." She is proud of the part she played in mentoring Donna during her early years as a student, and thinks Donna probably feels that same way about her own protégé, Virginia Hatfield, who now enjoys a successful career with the Canadian Opera Company.
In an area known largely for its fondness for old-time country music, what is it about local culture that can produce three opera stars? Hermiston says there’s a tremendous respect and love for all kinds of music here. Add to that the area’s festival tradition, excellent music teachers at CDHS and in Warkworth, and a community active in amateur orchestras and choirs. "Now Brian and Donna have formalized that and given an outlet to people like myself," she added. "I can’t imagine what I might’ve achieved if I’d had that advantage of hearing all the concerts that they produce when I was a kid. I didn’t hear a live symphony or opera until I was 18."
Smiling, she said, "I used to think opera was terrible until I realized what it really was and then I fell in love with it. It had everything. I think that’s why there’s three of us who are having major careers. Dwight Bennett is another one. He’s a wonderfully successful conductor who’s performed all over the world. There’s an innate musicality and respect for music of every kind here, for the arts in general."
Hermiston has some advice for aspiring singers. Get involved in as much music as you can, try out for school musicals, go to shows at Westben and get involved there. Take all the knowledge and exposure to classical music you can get. If you have a passion for performing, then go for it, but realize it’s not an easy life or profession. Above all, don’t get discouraged or let others discourage you.
If you have a passion for the business but don’t want to sing, she says there are many avenues open to you. The administration side of the arts is desperately needed, as are costume and set designers, stage managers, orchestral musicians, agents, and marketing people. "It’s a wonderful life! It’s a very difficult life and it’s not a life you go into to make a lot of money, but it’s a life that is very interesting. You’re never, ever bored. You never stop learning and you never can. You have a lifelong learning profession. You can go in so many directions and you can learn so many skills that have nothing to do with music: performance skills, being out front of the public, marketing skills, self promotion skills. It builds confidence and self esteem."

Creative sculpture is where you find it

by Brian Schuette Community Press Online

The sculptures of Lakefield artist, David Hickey, are currently on exhibit at the Paul Portelli Gallery. Natural elements and found materials play pivotal roles in his pieces, often combining stone with weathered metals and wood, punctuated by textures of leather or burlap. Hickey says these objects often dictate the direction in which his creativity will move, but his work isn’t confined to their original uses or nature. Old bits of metal don’t translate into works that are nostalgic or reflect the area’s history in some way. He transforms them into "something uniquely different and contemporary," with a touch of humour showing through many pieces.
Hickey describes his art as eclectic, working with many media and in a number of styles. A lover of the outdoors, he searches woodlands and riverbeds for many of his objects that he can then transform into new creations. He may salvage old wire fencing, barrel hoops or rusted sheet metal from local farms on his walks as well, looking always for items with unique and interesting textures. He tends to steer away from complexity in most of his works, saying he likes simplicity to be a key element in the pieces.
His stone pieces at the gallery tend toward natural subjects. He welds bits of rusted wire and epoxies them into drilled holes in the rock to make antlers and legs for moose, or cuts old sheet metal from barns to make bodies for his fish. With his torch, he adds texture or cuts patterns into the metal. The pieces have a playfulness that captures your interest from a first glance. Rather than make typical fish, Hickey has created a series that he calls "bone fish," resembling the half eaten carcasses you find alongside a stream during the salmon run.
Other works include sinewy, winding wire pieces, stands of pine trees cut from a lime encrusted water heater, and assembled blocks of overlapping textures of rusted metal, leather, burlap and wood, enhanced with painted colours. These blocks may be laid out in a simple square, or combined Lego fashion to create interesting shapes or functional pieces such as mirror frames.
One interesting aspect of Hickey’s work is his use of lighting on his pieces. A number of them, particularly those with tree elements made out of wire, have holders for candles at their bases. The flickering of the candle light casts shadows on a wall that make the piece seem to move, as a tree swaying in the wind. Other pieces such as his bone fish, cast strong shadows, in effect creating a second piece composed of nothing but light and shade.
His works can be displayed outdoors as easily as in an interior space. The bone fish, being heavier pieces, sway in the wind, giving them a mobility that Hickey says he didn’t anticipate when he created them. That movement from the wind and the play of light fits well with the other found aspects of his sculptures, creating something new and surprising.
Visit the Paul Portelli Gallery at 33 Main St. in Warkworth to see the work of Hickey Hickey, or contact the gallery at (705) 924-3745 or for more information.