A century ago, Tom Thomson's body was found floating in Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park. The mystery surrounding his death remains unsolved. Was he murdered or did he die by misadventure. No doubt the debate will continue for another century. But Thomson's legacy as a painter
When it comes to building a music career, you need a musical community. Just ask Wallis Giunta. The striking mezzo-soprano from Ottawa has made her way in the opera world on the strength of a musical family home, the help of a great teacher and a
What began as a journalist's idea of a social experiment in the Washington D.C. subway system has become so much more. When the Washington Post writer Gene Weingarten suggested to the superstar American violinist Joshua Bell that he busk at a metro station in 2007, Bell
Anyone who thinks the private house concert is a new invention should think again. In fact, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was doing them 250 years ago in Vienna. One of his patrons, Baron Gottfried van Swieten, a wealthy diplomat and amateur musician, regularly arranged private performances of Baroque
The irony of Ebenezer Scrooge’s blindness to his own past isn’t lost on Bruce Horak. That’s because Horak, who plays The Ghost of Christmas Past in the National Arts Centre stage adaptation of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, is himself visually impaired. Scrooge, as you’ll recall, has
On Friday night, a handful of die-hard piano fans braved the elements and frigid windchill for the opening concert of the 2017-18 Masters Piano Recital Series at Southminster United. Mid-December is a late start for this excellent three-year-old series, one of several organized by hardworking
Remigio Pereira is about to sing in concert in Ottawa for the first time since he was at the centre of controversy. The former member of The Tenors lost much when his successful musical career was sidelined after he decided publicly to change the words of
Butterflies, I thought, as I entered a room full of them at the Canadian Museum of Nature, are a wondrous duality of the epic and the ephemeral. They are so fragile that when you walk into their humid, temporary habitat at the museum, you’re advised
From time to time passersby have been dazzled when the National Arts Centre has turned on the massive LED screen of the Kipnes Lantern that towers over Elgin Street near the National War Memorial. Well, starting on New year's Eve at 8:45 p.m. ET, barring
Helmut Kallmann was a pioneering music historian and a leader in the study of music in Canada. As is often the case, a new Canadian is responsible for contributing something vital to the culture of this country. Kallmann was born in Berlin in 1922. His life
