A youth choir featuring 60 singers will perform next week in Davis Bay while en route to the Kathaumixw International Choral Festival in Powell River.
The Megaron Chamber Choir, from Slovenia, was founded in October 2003 at the initiative of composer and conductor Damijan Mocnik, and is composed of alumni of the Diocesan Classical Gymnasium. The choir is distinguished by its distinctive, rich sound and innovative musical interpretations of compositions from various periods. The Megaron choristers will perform at St. John’s United Church on Monday, June 30 at 1 p.m. Admission by donation.
Evensong in Madeira Park
Every year in June, Choral Evensong is held in Madeira Park. This year’s edition features works by Renaissance composers Andrea Gabrieli, Orlando Gibbons and Thomas Morley in a collaboration between Vespersong and Suncoast Viols. Many of the Sunshine Coast’s local viol players meet weekly to play informally for the love of making music together. “The public is invited to experience respite from modern society by plunging into the slowness of the past, contemplating the beauty still extant today, and hoping for brightness in the future to overcome the dark,” writes evensong conductor (and Art Beat correspondent) David Poon.
Choral Evensong takes place on Sunday, June 29 at 5 p.m. at the P.H. Community Church in Madeira Park.
A place where sculptures sprout
The month-long installation of sculptures by Kate von Riesen at the Sunshine Coast Botanical Garden will conclude next week on July 4.
von Riesen’s exhibition is arranged along the garden paths, and showcases integration between landscape, steel and glass —the organic world and hard-edged artifice cheek-by-jowl.
On July 11 and 12, von Riesen will open her home-based gallery and studio to exhibit these works (and others), along with those of local artists Laurie Beeman and Donna Stewart. The three artists plan to donate 10 per cent of sales during the opening reception on July 11 to the Sunshine Coast Botanical Garden.
The “Art in the Garden” gallery show will take place on Friday, July 11 from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday, July 12 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., at von Riesen’s studio, located at 5507 Derby Road in West Sechelt.
Prepare to Prowl
The fourth annual Sunshine Coast Pottery Prowl is coming up on July 5 and 6, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both days.
This year, 18 studios are participating: the Prowl altogether features 21 potters located from Earls Cove to Langdale.
The event is a self-guided tour of pottery studios that gives visitors the opportunity to see where the artists work, what they do and how they do it, as well as the finished art works. Unlike the autumnal Art Crawl — whose sheer number of participants make it nearly unthinkable to visit every venue — it is possible to plot a course and visit all Prowl studios over the course of the weekend.
The event’s website provides a description of participating studios, a map of all locales, a link to its social media page, and a copy of the recent Zoom Magazine article about this year’s Prowl: http://linktr.ee/potteryprowl.
Walk through history
The Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives has stepped up its offerings of free walking tours thanks to a corporate sponsorship (although donations are welcomed).
Talaysay Tours will lead an Indigenous history and culture tour on July 12 and July 26, while longtime tour guide Dale Peterson will lead a walk titled Walk Through Time (“a settler history walking tour”) on July 5 and 19.
Perambulating time-travellers should register at the museum by calling 604-886-8232.
Meanwhile, the museum’s Canada Day celebrations next week will include an opportunity to hobnob with Beachcombers star Jackson Davies. Davies will host a 1 p.m. screening of a special Beachcombers episode followed by a question and answer session with Deano Fatovic, the current owner of Relic’s storied jetboat.
Wade Davis’s two rivers
The Gibsons Public Art Gallery attracted a capacity audience to a cerebral event on June 21, featuring journalist Vicki Gabereau and anthropologist Wade Davis in conversation.
Their wide-ranging discussion — inspired by Davis’s latest book, Beneath the Surface of Things — explored topics from the Colombian coca leaf to fishing retreats in Kitwanga.
“What are we going to do about our predicament in this world at this moment?” asked Gabereau at the conclusion of their 90-minute interview.
“Change never comes from despair,” said Davis. “It only comes from the promise of rebirth. Young people have been so traumatized by the rhetoric and almost Biblical embrace of the apocalyptic in the climate movement. One of the best lessons I got from my father was when he simply said, ‘There’s good and evil in the world. Take your pick and get on with it.’ It was so wise, because the light and the darkness walk side by side. There’s never been a nice time in the history of the world. If you expect to win, and don’t win, you’re going to be disappointed. But if you think there are two rivers — one dark, one light —, you pick your side, and when you lose, you just keep going. I find great comfort in that.”
