Upcoming Events

National Youth Orchestra Ensemble

For more than fifty years, NYO Canada has enjoyed an iconic reputation as Canada’s orchestral finishing school, providing the most comprehensive and in-depth training program available to our country’s best young classical musicians. The orchestra, as part of Canada’s 150, plans an extensive cross Canada tour in summer 2017. While in Halifax, an ensemble of young musicians will travel to the south shore for a performance at Cecilia’s Retreat in Mahone Bay.

Best of Boxwood 2017

Featuring artists from Boxwood’s world renowned summer workshop and festival in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, the 2017 Best of Boxwood tour features an ensemble whose repertoire spans traditional music of Maritime Canada and beyond. Led by the brilliant and imaginative flute playing of director Chris Norman, the musicians of Boxwood are frequently praised for their energy, originality and sheer mastery.

Chris Norman - flutes, pipes, voice
Lisa Ornstein - Quebecois and Old-Time fiddle
Magnus Holmström - nyckelharpa
Tomas Limpan Lindberg - guitar, bozouki, mandolin
Rachel Johnston - cello

Shelburne - Osprey Arts Centre Sunday, July 30 at 3 pm
Tickets available from TLC Pharmacy, 157 Water Street, Shelburne, 902-875-4852 OR Ticketpro 888-311-9090 (toll free), and at the door

Ste. Anne du Ruisseau - St. Anne’s Church
Monday, July 31 at 7 pm
Tickets are $20 for general and $10 for students at the door
Information: 902-942-8765

Iona - Highland Village Museum
Tuesday, August 1 at 7:30 pm
Tickets are $20 for general and $10 for students (at the door)
Tickets are available from Highland Village Museum Gift Shop, 4119 Highway 223, Iona 902-725-2272 and at the door

Tatamagouche - Sharon United Church
Wednesday, August 2 at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $20, available at Fulton’s Pharmacy or at the door
Information: 902-257-2519

Port Williams - St. John’s Cornwallis Church
Thursday, August 3 at 7:30 pm
Tickets are $20 for general and $10 for students (at the door)

Bridgetown – Dawn Oman Art Gallery
Friday, August 4 at 7:30 pm
Tickets are $20 for general and $10 for students (at the door)
Tickets are available at Bainton’s Tannery Outlet Mad Hatter Bookstore 213 St. George Street; Dawn Oman Arts Gallery, 7383 Highway 1Upper Granville, and at the door.

Northern Lights: Songs Made in Canada

Patricia O’Callaghan; Andrew Downing, double bass; Robert Kortgaard, piano

Canada has a lot to celebrate in song. Fabulous musicians through the decades have helped to define for us all what it means to grow up in this vast, varied and beautiful land we call home. Ever aware of this rich landscape of musical possibilities, Patricia O’Callaghan continues to build a repertoire of songs that speak to her heart and must be sung. From the classics of Leonard Cohen and Robert Charlebois, historic Canadiana and hits of contemporary pop sensations like Matthew Barber and Sarah Harmer…. to such revered artists as Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot…. plus some delightful surprises!

Nostalgia, toe tapping, and a twist on great tunes from our past…. we celebrate Canada’s long tradition of great music making.

Mahone Bay – Cecilia’s Retreat
Monday, August 14 at 6 pm
Tickets are $35 and are available by advance reservation, please email: barbara.butler@ns.sympatico.ca
An evening meal follows the performance overlooking a scenic view of Mahone Bay.

Margaretsville - Evergreen Theatre
Tuesday, August 15 at 8 pm
Tickets available on line at www.evergreentheatre.ca, by phone at 902-825-6834 and at the door

Annapolis Royal - St. George and St. Andrew United Church Wednesday, August 16 at 7 pm
Tickets are $20 for general and $10 for students (at the door)
Tickets are available at Bainton’s Tannery Outlet Mad Hatter Bookstore 213 St. George Street; and at the door

Wolfville - Manning Memorial Chapel
Thursday, August 17 at 7:30 pm
Tickets are $20 for general and $10 for students (at the door)
Tickets are available by reservation at 902 582-3933, and at the door

Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra

The Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1977. For thirty- three years, the NSYO has provided students with educational opportunities not available at any university, public school, or conservatory in the province. The Orchestra has been described by renowned professional conductors and musicians as one of the finest in Canada. 85% of our alumni have gone on to jobs in music-related fields. The NSYO now boasts nearly 1000 alumni. Past Music Directors include: Robert Raines, Stan Fisher, Georg Tintner, Gregory Burton, and present Music Director is Dinuk Wijeratne.

The NSYO’s season runs from the end of August until the end of April, and includes a 10-day Summer Workshop. The Orchestra usually performs 6 - 8 concerts in a typical season.

The Sri Lankan-born, Canada-based composer-performer Dinuk Wijeratne has been described by the Toronto Star as ‘an artist who reflects a positive vision of our cultural future’, and by the New York Times as ‘exuberantly creative’. His boundary-crossing work sees him equally at home in collaborations with symphony orchestras and string quartets, tabla players and DJs, and takes him to international venues as poles apart as the Berlin Philharmonie and the North Sea Jazz Festival.

Helios Vocal Ensemble

Helios Vocal Ensemble is Atlantic Canada’s premier vocal ensemble, performing sacred and secular music, specializing in Renaissance polyphony, a fluid and unifying musical language defining its time. Their “Madrigal Mystery Tour” concert offers rapturous, rambunctious and raunchy songs from across Europe, with a cappella works by some of the finest composers of the 16th and 17th centuries.

The five members of the vocal group all have affiliation with the choir at St. George’s Round Church in Halifax and its director Garth MacPhee.

Blue Rocks – St. Barnabas Church
Thursday, Sept 7 at 7:30 pm
Tickets are $30 for general and $10 for students. Tickets are available at Shop on the Corner in Lunenburg and by reservation from the MR Box Office at 902-634-9994 or musiqueroyale1985@gmail.com and at the door.

Wolfville - Manning Memorial Chapel
Friday, Sept 8 at 7:30 pm
Tickets are $20 for general and $10 for students (at the door)
Tickets are available by reservation at 902 582-3933, and at the door

Lake Charlotte - Memory Lane Heritage Village
Saturday, Sept 9 at 5 pm
Tickets available from Memory Lane Heritage Village, 902-845-1937, 877-287-0697
A meal is also offered in the cookhouse at an added price

Saulnierville - Sacré Coeur Church
Sunday, Sept 10 at 3 pm
Tickets are $20 for general and $10 for students at the door

Toronto Consort

Since its founding in 1972, the Toronto Consort, under the direction of David Fallis, has become internationally recognized for its excellence in the performance of medieval, renaissance and early baroque music. Some of Canada’s leading early music specialists have come together to form the Toronto Consort whose members include both singers and instrumentalists (lute, recorder, guitar, flute, early keyboards and percussion).

“Since the founding of The Toronto Consort in 1972, Canada can boast a world-class early music ensemble worthy of the attention of any musically literate ear… Their closely matched phrasing, intonation and tonal shading was worthy of the finest string quartet.” Chronicle Herald, Halifax

The Toronto Consort is heard frequently on Canadian and international radio and television and has appeared with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra as well as the North German Radio Orchestra. Its many recordings include The Praetorius Christmas Vespers, The DaVinci Collection, The Queen: Music for Elizabeth I, The Way of the Pilgrim, Mariners and Milkmaids, The Little Barley-Corne, Nowell Sing We, the Juno-nominated Full Well She Sang, Orlando di Lasso: Chanson and Madrigals, and O Lusty May. Unusual for an early music ensemble but further evidence of the Consort’s versatility and virtuosity, is its contemporary repertoire. Canadian composers such as John Beckwith, Lothar Klein and David Keane have written pieces especially for The Toronto Consort. The Toronto Consort recorded the soundtrack for Atom Egoyan’s award-winning film The Sweet Hereafter. Whether portraying the haunting emotion of a minstrel’s ballad or capturing the sparkle of a rollicking madrigal, The Toronto Consort brings alive the glorious music of earlier times.

Toronto Consort

More information to come.

Nova Scotia Youth Choir

The Nova Scotia Youth Choir is a program on the Nova Scotia Choral Federation. Through auditions, approximately 40 of the province’s most talented young choral singers ages 16-25 are chosen each year to work with a faculty of fine musicians dedicated to excellence in vocal performance and musicianship. These young musicians are provided a challenging opportunity to work, develop and perform choral music together at a very high calibre. Choristers work with the faculty during two rehearsal periods in May and August.