When Canadian icon and folk singer Connie Kaldor appears in Pender Harbour Feb. 26, it will be her first visit to the community.
If she follows the same pattern as other performers, she won't want to leave.
Pianist Robert Silverman, who will give a special four-part Mozart concert series April 29 through May 7, will be appearing for the 14th time. He loves the community and says it's one of his favourite places on earth. Pender Harbour has that kind of effect.When a little old forestry service building was granted to local music teachers in 1986, the timing was perfect. Current Pender Harbour Music Society chairman Ann Barker recalls that Gordon Wilson, then a regional district director, realized the potential of the site.
"It was a perfect building for our musical program," she says, which consisted of a group volunteering to give lessons, since, at that time, music was not a school credit course. They quickly progressed to organizing concerts because only one other group, the Coast Recital Society, was bringing quality artists to the Coast.
The venue was exactly what was needed. "It kept music alive up here," Barker remembers. "One year we had 21 concerts. Nobody else was doing it."They featured classical music and also held jazz and poetry nights, family events and touring performers. Some of the volunteers, such as Les and Joyce Fowler, threw themselves eagerly into forming a Music Society in 1987 and continue to contribute much volunteer effort to this day. The current music society board is comprised of 11 people, most of them long-time volunteers.The beloved Pender Harbour Jazz Festival, grew out of a dream by one jazz fan, Monty Rolston, still the event's tireless director, and also by a desire to draw visitors from off Coast during the slow autumn months. It succeeded beyond its wildest dreams and also marked a music society trend, the involvement of hundreds of volunteers. The three-day event celebrates its 10th anniversary Sept. 15 to 17.
There was obviously an interest in jazz on the Coast, but could there be a similar interest in chamber music? Director Lise Aylmer thought so. One night, while hosting the Manitoba pianist Alexander Tselyakov after his concert recital, talk turned to chamber music and the magic of Pender struck again. Tselyakov agreed to return to the Coast to become the artistic director of the inaugural Chamber Music Festival held in August 2005 to full houses.
"It's an intimate facility," says society director Marg Penney. "The performers are close; the audience can eyeball them." Unfortunately, it's too small to bring in really well known performers who need to draw a big crowd to cover the fee. Kaldor's gentle, musical style should draw a capacity audience. Kaldor has been playing and singing since the early 1980s.
Last year, she appeared twice before the Queen when she performed for her home province, Saskatchewan, during their centennial celebrations. "It was better than knitting an afghan with grain elevators on it," she says of her royal offering.
Kaldor has recorded extensively and appeared live with other Canadian recording artists including Roy Forbes and Shari Ulrich, and she is frequently to be seen on CBC in a 13-part music series, Wood River Hall. This will be her first big western tour promoting the latest CD, Sky With Nothing to Get in the Way. She will certainly play some old hits, she says, and she may throw in a children's song or two, especially after the recent U.S. release of her children's book and CD, A Duck in New York City, and its companion volume, A Poodle in Paris.
Following the Kaldor show, the series continues with the popular Polyjesters and their swingin' folk music on Sunday, March 12, at 2 p.m., and a show for children, the Truly Nutty Clowns on Saturday, March 25 at 11 a.m. Tickets are available at 604-883-2403 or check out the new website: www.penderharbourmusic.ca.
