The Coast Recital Society has announced the retirement of Frances Heinsheimer Wainwright after 20 years as its artistic director. In a news release early this week, the society expressed its gratitude for Wainwright’s many years of outstanding leadership and dedication.
On Wainwright’s recommendation, the society has invited Denise Ball to work as interim artistic director until the end of the current season.
Ball has been at the centre of Canada’s classical music scene for over three decades, beginning violin lessons at the age of five in her hometown of Regina. She found a way to make a life in music through creative collaboration. After obtaining degrees in English and journalism, she worked as a music critic and arts writer before joining CBC Radio as a music producer.
Ball settled in Vancouver in 2000 as creative producer of the CBC Radio Orchestra, where she programmed and recorded innovative concerts and studio sessions, commissioned works by dozens of outstanding Canadian composers and captured performances by the country’s finest soloists.
Ball picked up awards including the 2008 Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award for Music, a Grammy for her recording with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and violinist James Ehnes, two Junos and a Western Canadian Music Award. In 2018, she was named a Fellow of the Royal Conservatory of Music, joining the likes of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Oscar Peterson, and David Foster.
After the CBC shut down the Radio Orchestra in 2007, Denise became executive producer of classical music for CBC Radio, choosing artists and repertoire for broadcast and working with hosts Bill Richardson, Ben Heppner and Paolo Pietropaolo.
Since retiring from the CBC in 2020, Ball has recorded orchestras and ensembles across the country, producing podcasts and writing biographies for musicians who tell their stories with an individual artistic voice.
For information about the three remaining concerts of the 2023-2024 Coast Recital Society season, browse to coastrecitalsociety.ca.
Twelfth Night hijinks in Halfmoon Bay
Nearly two dozen local actors and musicians gathered in Halfmoon Bay on Jan. 6 for a dramatic reading of a most appropriate text: William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. The play was written early in the 17th century as comic entertainment for the last day of the Christmas season.
Lise Kreps, who in 2022 organized a public reading of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Winegarden Park in Gibsons, coordinated the Twelfth Night event.
Kreps is planning a fully-staged Shakespeare production for summer 2024, with auditions to be announced soon for dates in April.
A magical journey for Literacy Day
In honour of Family Literacy Day, the Sunshine Coast Literacy Coalition plans to host a free musical multimedia stage show with children’s entertainer Penny Pom Pom and her friend Fae the Garden Fairy.
There will be two opportunities to see Penny Pom Pom at the Roberts Creek Community Hall, at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., on Friday, Jan. 26.
2024 marks the 25th anniversary of Family Literacy Day, which takes place on Jan. 27 each year and is celebrated by families, schools, libraries and communities across Canada.
Jessica Mai, a professional musician and visual artist from Langley, is the face and voice behind Penny Pom Pom. Her 2022 album Everything is Magic, features guest artists like Charlotte Diamond and Will’s Jams.
In the show, Penny and Fae take children on a journey through the seasons as they learn about the natural rhythms of Planet Earth. Kids are encouraged to sing along and find their own artistic inspiration in the world around them.
The Sunshine Coast Literacy Coalition exists to support projects that enhance literacy at every stage of life. The coalition is supported by Capilano University, the Gibsons and District Public Library, Pender Harbour Community School, School District 46, Sechelt Public Library, the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts and Sunshine Coast Welcoming Communities.
Additional support for the Penny Pom Pom event came from the Postmedia Raise-a-Reader campaign and the Sunshine Coast Credit Union.
For more information about the Penny Pom Pom event on Jan. 26, contact Trudi Diening at [email protected] or phone 604 885-9310.
Admission is free, but pre-registration is required at bit.ly/LiteracyDayRegistration. All ages are welcome; the show is geared to children aged nine and up.
