By Dan White – Special to the Sydenham Current
Before we move on to 2026, a few last words about 2025.
In the past three months, Joni and I have performed over 30 times throughout Sarnia-Lambton and Chatham-Kent. In addition, we have attended several performances by community artists. It has been a very hectic and exhausting stretch, but it has also been a great deal of fun and a wonderful learning experience. We have met a lot of wonderful musicians from the Lambton and Chatham Concert Bands and look forward to future collaborations with them. (Stay tuned for a huge announcement coming soon regarding area concert bands.)
Our final performance of the year was the Wallaceburg Brass Quintet and Friends Chamber Concert. This event featured 31 musicians from across southern Ontario. We had a wide variety of small ensembles playing Christmas music from across the spectrum, from Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer to three very diverse renditions of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.
This was our third annual holiday concert, and for the second year we were supported by the CK Arts Council, which champions artists from across the municipality. We were very excited this year to add the Rotary Club of Chatham as our event sponsor. This sponsorship allowed us to purchase 240 LED candles and create a “candlelight” performance. It was beautiful, the music was lovely, and we had a good audience celebrating the season with us at Trinity United Church.
A quick digression here. It is fabulous that local churches such as Trinity United here in Wallaceburg offer us their space to present free concerts to the community. Joni and I witnessed this at a number of churches over the holidays. It only builds the community when local venues encourage live performances and support the arts with their generosity. Thank you all.
We had very positive feedback about the event and are already looking forward to our spring concert. The partnership with Chatham Rotary and the CK Arts Council enabled us to evolve the performance into a new experience for our audience. We hope to build on these relationships and grow the event with every new concert.
The one comment we heard from an audience member who loved the show was, “It was great. We need more people to attend. Why don’t you advertise more?” This is a refrain I have heard throughout my 40 years of offering performing arts events.
The short answer is, we do. We started posting a poster online in October for the Dec. 19 event. I mentioned it multiple times here in the weeks leading up to it. We had radio spots from CK Arts Council’s Art of the Matter on CKXS. All participants were asked to share and promote it. With no operating budget, that is the extent of our ability to promote the show.
We are always open to suggestions to improve and welcome input and feedback on our presentations. If you have an idea or expertise, please reach out to me at danlwhite62@gmail.com
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I don’t wish to belabour this next point, but in attending so many performances I was reminded of a column I wrote several years ago about standing ovations.
In the shows we attended and performed in, we witnessed a wide variety of skill and ability. As community groups in the performing arts, I appreciate the effort it takes to get on stage and perform before an audience. Joni and I witnessed performances that were stunning and some that simply missed the mark. As my friend Tessa Catton, director of LCB and gifted musician, would say about the second class, “Nobody died, so it’s all good.”
If you know Tessa at all, that isn’t a glib comment that excuses poor preparation. When she leads rehearsals, she is demanding, efficient, and skilled. She works hard to get the best she can from a group of musicians with a wide range of skill levels. I know Vaughn Pugh in Chatham and Dave Babbitt here work with the same challenges.
Tessa’s comment indicates the reality of live performance. Sometimes things miss the mark or fall apart for reasons beyond even strong leadership.
While I love community performing arts and appreciate the time and effort involved, I also have a very good understanding of good versus great versus abysmal performances. I don’t jump to my feet at anything less than spectacular, because that sullies the standing ovation when it is truly deserved.
The definition of a standing ovation is this: a standing ovation is a form of applause where members of a seated audience stand up while applauding, often after extraordinary performances of particularly high acclaim.
Your gift to performers is your attendance. Jumping to your feet because you know someone on stage is not a gift. Clap, appreciate, whistle, give them a big hug after the performance, and let them know you were happy to be there. But please, sit down until it is extraordinary. If you don’t, you give mediocrity a platform. Maybe 2026 is the year to cease the celebration of mediocrity and encourage striving for excellence.
It is not a sin. It is not arrogant. It is not a dismissal of all the work that live performances require. It is keeping something in the tank so you can acknowledge the rare feat of near perfection.
I promise you, when gifted performers see a standing ovation, they know if they deserve it or not. And when they do, it feels amazing. When they don’t, it is a hollow feeling, like getting a participation trophy for simply being on a team—and we all know how that has worked out.
Happy New Year!
