Tough, ambitious, obsessed with building his business empire, Ottawa lumber baron J.R. Booth would seem singularly ill-suited as a subject of poetry. Building on River says otherwise. The upcoming collection of five dozen poems by Ottawa’s Jean Van Loon tracks, compellingly, the life and times of
Mark Sakamoto has a lot on his mind. He is in the centre of a dot.com business success story that has seen the big data health company ThinkResearch mushroom in size and in revenue. "It's a hot area and we have done really well. We sleep
It happened more than 13 years ago, but the Asian tsunami that killed at least 230,000 people on Boxing Day, 2004 has a profound relevance for us here and now, according to Kim Collier. Collier is directing the new production of David Yee’s carried away on
Samuel Barber's Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra in A minor, Op. 22 is a technically difficult piece of music. It is rarely performed because of this but that isn't stopping Canada's cello whizkid Stéphane Tétreault. Indeed it's just the kind of challenge the 24 year old relishes. He has played
At 91 Takao Tanabe, is an established and well-collected painter and printmaker in Canada. But he had to work for it. Born in 1926 in Prince Rupert, B.C., he is the son of a commercial fisherman and like many Japanese Canadians of his generation, Tanabe was
The programming director for the Ottawa Jazz Festival, Petr Cancura, has filled three more important slots in the 2018 event. Headling on June 27 is France’s Ludovic Navarre, who goes by the stage name St. Germain. His sound is a blend of house music and what's known
The impressionists, those long-time champions of blockbuster art exhibitions, will reign once again at the National Gallery this year, though the curator promises this outing will be different. “How is it different? You’re going to see here a little synthesis of the history of modern art
Every two years the Ottawa Choral Society offers a platform to aspiring singers. Those who have taken part in the New Discoveries process include mezzo soprano Wallis Giunta, the baritone Philippe Sly and the soprano Shannon Mercer. You can include the young Ottawa baritone Jonah Spungin
The publicity shy Lalji family of Vancouver, the owners of Larco Corporation, wishes to add 171 “long-stay” rooms to one of their properties, the venerable Château Laurier, a National Historic Site of Canada. Over a year ago, the first public showing of a planned addition sparked
In March 2016, I visited the (Dale) Chihuly exhibit at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona. I went at night. The papery heat of the day drained away. Walking the chilly, dimly lit paths, I mistook bendy-armed saguaro and stocky barrel cacti for people.
