Rotary Festival's Evening With the Stars

Ever since George Harrison and Ravi Shankar’s 1971 Concert for Bangladesh, musicians have used music to raise money and awareness for numerous causes.

On a local level, jazz legend Tommy Banks and writer-raconteur Colin MacLean are teaming up next Tuesday evening at the Arden Theatre with two dozen gifted musicians.

They are performing at An Evening With the Stars, a benefit concert to support St. Albert Rotary Music Festival and the Tommy Banks Performing Arts Fund for retired musicians in financial difficulty. Revenue will be split equally.

“It’s a new fundraiser,” said board member Nancy Watt. “It’s the festival’s 40th anniversary celebration and we wanted to commemorate the milestone and the importance of a music festival for young people.”

Watt added that Banks’ presence is not merely for entertainment.

“He’ll be discussing his philosophy and the power of music and the importance of a music festival in a community, and he’s going to speak about it in a meaningful way. It’s not just about music. He’s going deeper and it’s how his 50 years in the industry affected him and the people around him, and how it made a difference.”

Banks and MacLean have prepared a program dubbed Music and Musings: A 50-Year Journey packed with music and story-telling.

And the duo has an abundance of material to work with. As a pianist, conductor, arranger, composer, TV personality and producer, Banks’ multi-faceted career in the entertainment industry spanned more than 65 years.

Instead MacLean signed on to CBC Edmonton almost 50 years ago and worked in every aspect of broadcasting including writing and assisting in the production of The Tommy Banks Show.

“Colin is going to act the part of the interviewer as they recall their journey. Most of it has been together as friends.”

The concert opens with performances from past recipients of the St. Albert Rotary Music Festival Rose Bowl, the highest award for proficiency presented to festival participants.

They include concert pianist Todd Yaniw, mezzo-soprano Michelle Garlough, cellist Julia Dolman, pianist David Fraser and Belle Canto Choir.

The Toronto-based Yaniw, a student of Edmonton Youth Orchestra conductor Michael Massey, has developed a career as a soloist and performed with a number of symphonies Watt explained.

He is slated to perform two movements from Sergei Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 7.

Although still relatively young, Yaniw has been praised for his “atmospheric contrast of poetry and power … a hair-raising performance.”

And Watt remembers seeing a younger Yaniw perform throughout the region and describes him as “a confident performer.”

Garlough, also a Toronto resident, is a regular cast member with Toronto Operetta Theatre. Her recent credits include Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest and Mae Jones in Street Scene.

Her benefit concert program combines the musical genius of Vivaldi, Saint-Saëns and Bizet.

Dolman, who grew up in a family with three sisters playing chamber music, is now a grant writer for the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and Winspear Centre. Notwithstanding her solo accomplishments, Dolman also performs with Bel Suono Quartet and Kitka Quartet.

The former St. Albert resident plays the unaccompanied Bach’s Cello Suite No. 3 as well as Ernest Bloch’s Prayer from Jewish Life. Pianist David Fraser, a 2014 graduate of King’s College, will accompany both Dolman and Garlough on select works.

Last but not least, the award-winning Belle Canto, founded in 1991 by St. Albert choral director Heather Johnston, is one of the country’s leading women’s choral ensembles.

Diversity is key for the 20-odd voices singing Javier Busto’s Hallelujah, Schumann’s In Meeres Mitten, Stacey Gibb’s arrangement of Swing Low Sweet Chariot and Alison Girvan’s arrangement of V’la l’bon vent.