Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is seen as the great composer's towering achievement in a career full of superlatives. That he was deaf when he wrote it makes it even more unbelievable. That act of creation despite the odds is something that Jessica Holmes thinks a lot about. She is
Chaos promises to be one of the benchmarks of this year’s Ottawa International Animation Festival. Not that the festival itself, running Sept. 26-30 and featuring 161 films plus other events, will be chaotic. After more than four decades, it tends to tick over smoothly. But many of
Roxanne Goodman has heard this line before: 'I can't join a choir, I can't sing.' She knows it's not always true because she used to say it herself. Believe it or not the 54 year old singer and choir director of Ottawa's popular soul and gospel ensemble
Alexander Shelley and NACO pressed on with their Beethoven Symphony cycle on Wednesday night, ticking the Fourth and Sixth off their list. There’s an old wives’ tale in classical music that Beethoven’s even-numbered symphonies are somehow “not as good” as his odd-numbered ones. Certainly by Beethoven’s
At 16, Sarah Weinman was a Nepean High School student when she picked up Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. She wouldn't have know then that such a controversial work would be a major part of her life, so much so in fact that she has released a book
This year's shortlist for Canada's largest theatre prize features four designers from across. The Siminovitch Prize is awarded annually but it rotates discipline each year. This year it celebrates Canadian designers. Other years theatre directors and playwrights are recognized. This year's finalists were announced in a media
The flame of opera is still burning in Ottawa thanks to Vincent Thomas and his mom. Maria Pellegrini founded her eponymous company in 2004. The soprano has had a respected international career on the opera stage. When she moved to the city to take care of
The film School of Rock was a surprising smash hit when it was released in 2003. The story about a frustrated rock guitarist named Dewey Finn featured Jack Black at his frenzied best. But he was upstaged by a band of precocious young rockers in
Writing a biography about Beethoven takes a certain amount of chutzpah. The composer is iconic, larger than life, an artist for the ages. But Jan Swafford tackled him nonetheless. "Part of it is that I don't do messages and I don't do grand agendas; I don't do
Just when baby boomers’ dependent children finally leave the nest, along comes a new responsibility to sap time and energy: Elderly, ailing parents who are confused, needy and, because of medical advances, often live unhappily for years that way. Ottawa author Elizabeth Hay faced that challenge
