Much about the National Gallery’s newest European painting is not what it appears to be. It appears to be a party of well-heeled people celebrating on the grass, but it is not. It appears to be set in the period circa 1795-1799, but it’s not. It
Amy Millan has a secret. She's a committed "thrifter." On tour with her band Stars, the singer and guitarist is known to frequent thrift shops, picking up this and that for herself, her mates and her kids. It's a fun "reuse and recycle" sort of thing. And the
There have been 26 members of the King's Singers over the past 50 years. That's four groups of six plus two spares, says baritone Christopher Gabbitas, all dedicated to the idea of ensemble singing. And there is little doubt it works. The six singers do dozens of
JW Jones spends a lot of time away from his home in Ottawa. The veteran guitarist and well-known bluesman is now back for more than a break. He's performing a holiday concert at Centrepointe Theatre this week with an eye on celebrating local artists as much
Twenty years ago, the film, The Red Violin, soared onto the big screen. It starred, essentially, a musical instrument, a violin stained red by the blood of a 17th century Italian woman who was the wife of the instrument maker. There was something enduring about that violin
The Hockey Sweater: A Musical, the decisively Canadian show now at the National Arts Centre, is risky business. Co-creators Emil Sher and Jonathan Munro have taken Roch Carrier’s simple, beloved story about a hockey-mad ten-year-old boy in a post-Second World War Quebec village and morphed it
The plot sounds formulaic as all get-out, doesn’t it? Two gay guys, tired of big city Toronto, move to a small town and open a bed and breakfast in an old house. They encounter a mix of acceptance and hostility in their new surroundings, struggle with
Byron Stripling's dad was a classically trained singer, music professor and choir director. "I could always sing," said Byron, whose day job is as the director of the Columbus (Ohio) Jazz Orchestra. Every Sunday in church his dad would need a voice. It could be a tenor
After 10 years, Marc Mayer's time as director of the National Gallery of Canada is coming to a close but he's certainly going out with a bang. An event Wednesday evening celebrating his tenure has helped raise $3 million for the gallery’s national and international outreach
Tuesday’s Christmas concert by Thirteen Strings at Dominion-Chalmers was an evening of firsts. It was the first concert in the newly renovated space and the first performance featuring the freshly minted Thirteen Strings Chamber Choir. The changes at DC are, for now at least, mostly
