Go Nanaimo Blog

The Vancouver Island Symphony’s final concert of the 2010-2011 season will be the Water at 7:30 pm on Saturday, April 30, 2011, at the Port Theatre, 125 Front Street, Nanaimo. Guest artists are to include Jonathan Bernard (percussion), Heather Pawsey (soprano), Peter Alexander (baritone), the Vancouver Community College Willan Choir, and the Malaspina Choir, with Pierre Simard conducting. Pre and post concert talks will be provided. For tickets call 250-754-8550.

Celebrating Nanaimo’s lifestyle by the sea, Water features two very unique and magnificent compositions. The Water Concerto, with imaginative and spectacular percussion involving light and water, is by Tan Dun, one of the most important living composers on the planet. Close your eyes and you hear fish, whales, water in caves, etc. Also on the program is A Sea Symphony by Ralph Vaughan Williams, based on poems by Walt Whitman, This choral symphony will be buoyed on by the sheer power of more than 200 artists on stage.

Water is the largest production ever undertaken by the Vancouver Island Symphony. Using water as a musical instrument, percussionist Jonathan Bernard, assisted by Daniel Tones and Martin Fisk, will be creating unique, sensuous, organic, and sometimes celestial sounds and sights of water – rippling, sparkling, wet, fresh. “The Water Concerto also involves light,” says Pierre Simard, “and to create the composer’s effects, specific instruments have to be flown here from New York.”

A Sea Symphony was written in 1910, conjuring up visions of waves, rolling swells, calm and stormy seas, ships, and voyages. Pierre Simard: “Whitman was almost unknown at the time; his poetry, evocative and strong, is a direct and powerful language. Vaughan Williams’ symphony is a translation of Whitman’s language and is also considered a renaissance in combining English choral music with symphony.” There are four movements: A Song for All Seas, All Ships; On the Beach at Night, Alone; The Waves (After the Sea-Ship); and The Explorers (Passage to India). “It is such a humbling piece,” adds Simard. “I will be as much an audience member as I will be conductor.”

The British Columbia Boys Choir will present a roof-raising, spine-tingling concert The Power of Music at the Port Theatre, 125 Front Street, Nanaimo, at 2 pm on Sunday, May 1, 2011. The choir will be under the artistic direction of Tony Araujo with special guests the Aspengrove Choir, Dover Bay Choir, Nanaimo Youth Choir, and Parksville and District Musical Association Youth Choir. Some 150 souring youthful voices will sing songs that transcend cultures and inspire unity, peace, and harmony in our world and in our own lives. For tickets call 250-754-8550.

A federal election will be held in Canada on Monday, May 2, 2011, and one issue most candidates do not wish to discuss is the Canadian commercial seal hunt. At this very moment as the election campaign progresses, hundreds of thousands of seal pups aged 12 days to three months are being slaughtered by non-native fishermen on the ice flows off Newfoundland. The Government of Canada is subsidizing the hunt to the tune of millions of dollars a year through Coast Guard support, overseas trade missions, and most recently, a World Trade Organization challenge to the European ban on seal product imports. The WTO challenge alone will cost $10 million to rescue an industry worth only about a million dollars a year. Meanwhile, the boycott of Canadian seafood organized by the Humane Society of the United States is costing the Canadian fishing industry additional millions.

All four political parties currently represented in parliament support the hunt in the hope of winning a few additional votes in Atlantic Canada. For their own advantage, they are willing to waste taxpayer money on a dying industry while severely damaging Canada’s international reputation. Here in Nanaimo, British Columbia, both sitting members of parliament, Jean Crowder of the NDP and James Lunney of the Conservatives, support the hunt. Last election I voted for Jean but I won’t be doing so again this time.

I urge everyone reading this to ask the candidates where they stand on the seal hunt. They could try to confuse you by suggesting the Inuit are involved, but this is untrue. Please follow this link to the official Fisheries and Oceans Canada website to see for yourself that only 6,840 of the 400,000 harp and hooded seals being taken this spring have been allocated to aboriginals. Politicians may claim the hunt is not subsidized by government, but they are lying. If you’re told the hunt is humane, ask yourself, do you really believe the mass clubbing and skinning of helpless seal pups on remote ice flows before the horrified eyes of their mothers by unsupervised fishermen can ever be humane? Seals are sentient beings, like dogs and cats. Would you think it humane for stray dogs and cats in your city to be clubbed and skinned just to earn a few dollars from their fur? Why is it any different when it happens in restricted areas far from the public eye?

When deciding how to vote in this election, please ask yourself this: Are you prepared to vote for someone willing to kill for convenience? If you want to determine the true moral stature of a politician, ask them where they stand on the commercial seal hunt. Yes, this election is important, but we must not lower our standards by accepting the lesser of two evils. Anyone who will lie about something like this will lie about anything. Is that the sort of person you want representing you in Ottawa?

Know, All Ye by These, Presents: and to all pirates of the Yellow Seas and other derelicts of Far Eastern Seas, Greetings: Know Ye: On 9 January 2002, within the boundaries of my Dragonic Realm there appeared the Good Ship Spirit of Oceanus. Be it known: That the said renowned vessel crossed the 180^th Meridien in Latitude. All her Officers and Crew have been duly inspected and found qualified by my Venerable Court. It is therefore, My privilege to proclaim, with all the authority of my sphere of influence, that David Stanley has been found worthy to be granted membership in my domain, the Silent Occult Mysteries of the Far East. And be it further understood: That the above named is now a member of my August Retinue and is therefore entitled to all the Rights and Privileges accorded such personages. Disobey this order under penalty of our royal displeasure. Malcolm Scanlan, Commanding.

On Sunday, April 3, 2011, the Victoria Blues Society will present An Evening at Harpo’s with harmonica virtuoso Harpdog Brown. This event will be at The Upstairs Cabaret, 15 Bastion Square, Victoria, BC, nicknamed Harpo’s for Victoria Blues Society events only. Doors open at 6:30 pm with music from 7 to 11 pm. Tickets are $15 at the door.

Harpdog Brown will sing and play a set of his pure blues in an acoustic duo with Graham Guest during this intimate evening of old school blues. For the second half of the evening Guest and Brown will be joined by two of Victoria’s best-loved blues players, John Hunter (of the Bill Johnson Blues Band) and Dave Harris (of Slim and the Deuces). Hunter and Brown first played together in the early 80′s in The Dog’s hometown of Edmonton, Alberta. Dave Harris, local busker and traditional blues guitarist, has also shared stages with The Dog.

Harpdog Brown has been a touring recording artist for almost thirty years. He has played with such greats as the Powder Blues Band, Jack de Keyzer, Matt “Guitar” Murphy, Pinetop Perkins, Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne, Fathead, Morgan Davis, and the late Dutch Mason. In 1994 Harpdog became the only Canadian to win the prestigious Muddy Award from the Cascade Blues Association in Oregon. The following year he was nominated for a Juno award for Best Blues Album for “Home is where the Harp is”, one of four CDs he has made with his band, The Bloodhounds, and various other Blues musicians.

UPDATE: Harpdog Brown and Graham Guest will appear at Headliners School of Performing Arts, 165 Fraser Street, Nanaimo, on Friday, April 8, 2011, at 8 pm. Tickets are $15 at the door or in advance (call 250-753-2323). Don’t miss this intimate evening with Canada’s newest acoustic blues duo!

The Nanaimo Conservatory of Music is presenting The Inner Art of Performing, a workshop with Christine McMahon, in the Ensemble Room, 375 Selby Street, from 1 to 5 pm on Sunday, April 10, 2011. The cost is $30 for Nanaimo Conservatory of Music members or $35 for non-members. The maximum participation is 15 and advance registration is required by calling 250-754-4611. This workshop is for students and performers ages 14 to adult. Participants should dress comfortably and bring a yoga mat or blanket.

The Inner Art of Performing is about overcoming performance anxiety and learning how to manage this energy in a positive way. It will be of value to musicians, singers, actors, dancers, public speakers, and performers of all types. This workshop will teach you a variety of techniques to help you re-program your thinking, control your nerves, channel your excitement, and build your self-confidence, so that you can learn to perform authentically and to your full potential.

Christine McMahon is a professional singer and voice teacher with career experience on both the Canadian and German stage. In addition to her twenty-five years experience as a voice teacher, she is a choral conductor and a certified Kripalu Yoga teacher. Her work deals with body/mind awareness and relaxation as the first step to freeing one’s personal expressiveness.

Senator Mac Harb has recently tabled a Notice of Motion directing the Senate Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans to find specific ways to help support Canada’s Inuit and aboriginal hunters affected by the European ban on commercial seal products. The motion was seconded by Senator Charlie Watt, who represents Northern Quebec in the Senate. Senator Watt also sits on the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans.

Along with looking at ways to help these Canadians take advantage of their unique exemption as subsistence hunters, Senator Harb believes that his motion will compel the government to move past its futile efforts to challenge the European ban on commercial seal products at the World Trade Organization. As we know, this challenge will take several years, will cost millions of dollars, and is unlikely to overturn the carefully drafted EU ban.

Senators Watt and Harb will need the support of their colleagues in the Senate to ensure the motion passes and this issue is studied at the Committee. Hopefully the members of the Senate will support Canada’s Inuit and aboriginal communities by voting in favour of the motion. Canadians living in Canada’s Northern and Atlantic communities expect and deserve a proactive, viable strategy from their government as the commercial seal hunt comes to an end once and for all.