Leisure Cruise hot-footing across Canada
Once again Dave Hodge (Broken Social Scene) and singer-songwriter Leah Siegel (Firehorse) are back on the road for a 10-stop Canadian tour in major centres from Montreal to Vancouver.
The duo is supporting Metric and Death Cab for Cutie on The Lights on the Horizon Tour and will perform at Rexall Place on Tuesday, March 29.
Siegel and Hodge reconnected after Hurricane Sandy swept through the American East Coast leaving Manhattan powerless. The two first met while recording a TV spot years earlier but had lost touch.
Maybe it was the post-Sandy you-live-only-once feeling the hurricane created, but Hodge invited Siegel to do some writing together. The end product is Leisure Cruise.
Tickets are available at ticketmaster.ca.
Spring Fling on the horizon
The fourth annual Spring Fling, a benefit concert dedicated to raising money for diabetes research is pegged for March 19.
There are only about two-dozen tickets left for the wildly popular concert and Spring Fling founder Michael Cearns hopes to make it a sellout.
Cearns, who also fronts Dash Rip Rock, a booty-shakin’ seven-piece classic rock band, has said they will pull all the stops at this year’s performance.
Spring Fling will be held at the St. Albert Community Hall. Tickets for the event are available by calling 780-994-6050.
Richard Eaton Singers celebrate Shakespeare
The 120 vocalists in the Richard Eaton Singers, Edmonton’s premier symphonic choir will pay homage to the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.
Music director Leonard Ratzlaff has prepared a program that centres on Allan Bevan’s No Mortal Business, a cantata based on texts from Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
In addition the choir will sing two British compositions: Serenade to Music includes text from Merchant of Venice, and John Rutter’s When Icicles Hang is a six-movement cycle on the theme of winter.
Actor/singer/raconteur Tim Anderson will narrate No Mortal Business and four soloists will stand front and centre. They are soprano Sarah Schaub, mezzo-soprano Mireille Rijavec, tenor Jacques Arsenault and bass Roderick Bryce.
The following St. Albert and Sturgeon County singers perform regularly with RES: Claus Knoefel, Jim McDonald, Liam McDonald, Lori Giesbrecht, Maria Pickell, Mike Otto, Roswitha Heidorn-Knoefel, Stan Backs and Warren Pickell.
The concert is March 13 at 7:30 p.m. in the Winspear Centre. Tickets are $35 and are available at 780-428-1414.
Festival City Winds presents Masquerade
Artistic director Wendy Grasdahl guides the Festival City Winds Advanced Band to new levels in Masquerade taking place March 12 in the Robert Tegler Building at Concordia University.
Masquerade is a look back at classical works that have resonated through the ages.
Alvin Lowrey, Principal Trumpet Emeritus of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and singers Betty Kolodziej and Ron Long will lead the winds through Operetta Favourites.
The Advanced Band will perform W. Francis McBeth’s Masque based on the courtly entertainment of 16th and 17th century England as well as Robert Russell Bennett’s score on Rose Variations for Cornet Solo and Concert Band.
As a soloist, Lowrey plays Ralph Ford’s Cotton Ferry Expeditions, an exploration of four different river scenes, and George Gershwin’s Second Prelude, a favourite blues lullaby.
The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 and can be purchased at the door.
