Classical music lovers, rejoice.
The West Coast Symphony is returning to New West for the first concert of its 2015/16 season.
The program features Beethoven’s Egmont Overture and Eroica Symphony, as well as the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with clarinetist Gene Ramsbottom.
The orchestra is under the baton of Bujar Llapaj, an Albanian-born multi-award-winning conductor who is a prominent figure in the Balkan classical music scene. He is a former artistic director of the Albanian National Theatre of Opera and Ballet, and he still travels abroad as a guest conductor.
You can see him and the orchestra on Saturday, Oct. 3 at 7:30 p.m. at Queens Avenue United Church, with admission by donation.
If you can’t make the Saturday concert in New West, you also have a Friday, Oct. 2 option at Shaughnessy Heights United Church in Vancouver (1550 West 33rd Ave.) – that concert is at 8 p.m.
Check out www.westcoastsymphony.ca for all the details.
If I were a rich man …
If you have a little Sunrise, Sunset or Matchmaker, Matchmaker in you somewhere, now’s your chance.
Royal City Musical Theatre is holding a casting call for its spring production Fiddler on The Roof. The first singing audition dates have passed (Sept. 28 and 29), but there’s a third singing audition date set for Saturday, Oct. 3 from noon to 4 p.m.
A dance and movement call is also being held from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday.
Auditions are being held for all roles – which, if you know the musical, you know means a broad range of age and voice types for both men and women, centring around the milkman Tevye, his wife and their brood of five daughters.
Check out tinyurl.com/FiddlerAuditionsRCMT for all the details. If you have questions, email [email protected].
Band students out knocking on doors
Don’t be surprised if an NWSS music student comes knocking at your door tomorrow night.
On Thursday, Oct. 1, music students will be out door-to-door as part of their sixth annual Fan of the Bandathon fundraising blitz.
Groups of band and choir students and parent supervisors will be canvassing neighbourhoods to raise awareness of the fundraiser, which will be happening this year on Saturday, Oct. 17 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the band rooms. Band and choir students sign up for three-, six- or 12-hour shifts and play a variety of music, collecting pledges to help raise money for the school music program.
A press release notes that last year’s bandathon raised more than $12,000, helping to pay for student expenses on band trips to Cuba and Whistler as well as purchasing 75 new music chairs for the department and helping students in financial need to participate in music department activities.
“We are doubling our efforts this year,” said department head Kelly Proznick in a press release.
The goal for this year is a whopping $25,000, with money being used to help senior band students with a trip to New Orleans and junior band students to attend the Rocky Mountain Music Festival in Banff. Other money will also help purchase new flugelhorns, a PA system and a new concert bass drum and stand.
Check out www.fanofthebandathon.com for all the details – and be nice to those music students when they knock on your door tomorrow!
Art show planned
Save the date: The New West Artists group is planning its second Fall Classic show and sale for the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts on Nov. 7. Keep watching this space – I’ll be sure to bring more details as the date approaches!
Got an idea for Lively City? Send arts and entertainment suggestions to Julie by email, [email protected], or find her on Twitter, where she answers to the handle @juliemaclellan.
