By Dave Babbitt – Special to the Sydenham Current
I belong to a rather extreme minority.
I love the winter, and the more snow that falls, I giddier I get.
Readers are no-doubt now thinking how sick I must be.
But admittedly, summer provides many more opportunities for the masses, both recreationally, travel wise, and certainly in terms of arts activities to take in.
In terms of music, the summer music festival season is in full swing across the province.
If you have a favourite music genre, there’s probably a multi-day festival you can attend and enjoy an entire weekend of great music.
For myself, the problem with most music festivals is that they tend to focus on one specific genre of music, but my musical tastes are so extremely eclectic that an entire weekend of the same type of music would bore me to tears.
For that reason, I tend not to attend these types of festivals but many do, and a great time can be had amongst like-minded people.
There are Blues, Jazz, Classic Rock, Folk, Classical, Chamber Music, Caribbean, World Music, Soca, Reggae and all manner of festivals right across the province, and that’s not even considering the events a ferry ride away over in Michigan!
There is no reason not to have a memorable summer of your favourite music.
For those not wanting an entire weekend featuring the same genre of music, there is always old faithful, Pine Knob over in Clarkston, Michigan where one can find one-night stands of a wide variety the world’s favourite touring artists.
For those willing to travel further, Toronto’s Budweiser Stage (Ontario’s answer to Pine Knob Music Theatre) has a full slate of musical guests on-tap.
And don’t forget the Festival of the Sound in Parry Sound, Summerfolk in Owen Sound, or Riverfest in Elora. The opportunities are seemingly endless at this time of year.
A quick Google search of Music Festivals in Ontario provides a very long list of opportunities, all of which I cannot list here.
I’ve made my feelings very clear that I don’t like either our Wallaceburg Concert Band nor the Brass Factory playing outdoors for acoustic reasons as well as the need for sophisticated sound systems, but most people love to pull-out a lawn chair and take-in an outdoor concert on a beautiful summer evening and I do too, so long as I don’t have to organize it.
Tina Grant is a member of our concert band and she and her husband Ian travel far and wide all summer long taking-in performances at outdoor music hot spots.
Dresden, Blenheim, on the beach at Grand Bend, along the water in Goderich and many other locations across Ontario have beautiful pavilions and stages offering free concerts all summer long.
Most importantly, don’t forget to support the efforts of our local Wallaceburg Arts Council as we present our Tuesday night Downtown Summer Series in Richardson Parkette at the corner of James and Nelson Streets. Should unfavourable weather strike, the concerts move indoors at the Legion.
In a brief deviation from my topic, I’m so disappointed that the Secondary Plan for our south side revitalization project did not include an outdoor stage along the riverfront. All that was suggested was a concrete slab where a performance could be presented, but I’ll cover that another week.
While there is seemingly no end to music concerts all summer there are also opportunities for the musicians themselves.
There are several summer music camps for both vocalists and instrumentalists providing incredible instruction and performance opportunities.
The National Camp on Lake Couchiching, just north of Orillia has been offering summer music experiences in the beautiful gateway to the Muskoka’s since 1965.
This is a residential camp that provides both educational and performance opportunities by a staff of professional musicians to some of the finest musicians from across our province.
Chris Mann, one of our musicians in the Wallaceburg Concert Band had an opportunity of a lifetime back in high school when he was chosen to attend the Ontario Music Leadership Camp, also along Lake Couchiching.
To this day he speaks glowingly of the camp and describes how amazing the instruction was, and the incredible experience of playing alongside the best student musicians selected from each school across the province.
I vividly recall Chris returning from camp raving about how incredible it was to sit in with a band that could sight-read any score put in front of them.
As I write, Gavin Warren, clarinetist extraordinaire is currently on-staff at the Summer Music Society camp in Port Elgin.
The entire Grey-Bruce Region has an incredible music scene and Port Elgin is right at the heart of it.
The Summer Music Society got its start in 1987 and offers high-level instruction from an incredible staff of professional musicians.
Again, both Educational and performance opportunities abound but not only for its students as the incredibly talented music staff form themselves into a band they call “Festival Winds”.
While too late for readers this week, the Festival Winds presented a concert themselves Thursday evening in Port Elgin.
I am most familiar with the incredibly difficult level of material Gavin can play and I recently walked-in on him as he was preparing some of the music Festival Winds would present.
Even Gavin was being challenged by the difficulty level of the scores he was preparing but as always, he nails it! Such is the high level of instruction available to campers.
Gavin is a staff instructor offering Masterclasses in fundamental playing concepts as well as a Masterclass in sectional work for the band scores that must be presented in-concert on the final day of camp.
I didn’t intend my column to be a comprehensive listing of either concert or music camp activities but merely wish to point out the fact that the arts come alive in Ontario each summer and that opportunities abound for both listeners and performers.
Do yourself a favour. Do some quick research and like Tina and Ian, get out to enjoy some great outdoor music (much of it free) as there is plenty of summer remaining.
In your travels, take photos of the outdoor pavilions/performance spaces you visit as we should want Wallaceburg to be one of the locations that people choose to flock to during summer concert festival season.
We MUST include a suitable performance space in the Southside re-development project along our beautiful river.
Send photos to Trumpetguy1@yahoo.ca
