Last night we were happy to be invited to the 22nd Annual Mayor's Celebration of the Arts.
Edmonton has one the most live theatres and published writers per capita in Canada, and a ton of musical talent as well. This night focusses on some of the unknowns and the up-and-coming artists and it's a really good time.
We went last year as well, and the performances were amazing and all new to me. This year it did not disappoint either.
The evening opened with Jeremy Spurgeon on the pipe organ playing a piece that brought back memories of a church organist we used to have. I'm sure I've heard this particular organ played before, but I'm also sure that I must not have been able to see how beautiful it was before. We were in great seats, so I managed to sneak a picture of part of it. It's HUGE and has these old-looking fancy spirals at the top of each pipe. Then it has these other pipes that are horizontal and stick out. I really wasn't allowed to take pictures so I did this quickly without looking at the viewfinder, so I missed things. Impressive!
One day I want to hear the Phantom of the Opera played here.
We heard the Be Arthurs (a ukele cover band playing Queen), Ann Vriend (who also played Queen), watched a weird dance troop (KO Dance Project). At one point the Raving Poets came up. They read poetry while improvising music to match the mood of the poems, which were all quite silly. That's probably the poetry I understand best, so it was all good! One of the poets is the author that we'll be meeting at the book club next week, so that was a surprise for me.
Nights like this always emphasized how little I know about the arts scene in my own city.
The evening ended with a big conga line of audience members on stage. I snuck another picture because by this point the press weren't as busy and it had turned into a bit of a party. A very fun evening.
Throughout the evening, in the back of my head, I was thinking about my own bit of cultural arts at home. The babysitter arrived at the house with "my" fixed cello! Whoo hoo! I can't wait to have the time to play it again.
3 comments:
Sounds like a fun evening!
You lucky dog, you! We never have enough time to go out to these kinds of things in Vancouver even though they are going on all the time.
By the way, love the "secret agent" quality photos :) I would do the same....
It sounds like you don't have to leave the house to get your music quotas filled. It was really great. Who has ever thought to start to rock cover band with ukeleles?
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