O ften referred to as the “music of friends,” chamber music has stood the test of time as a genre that, from the Medieval period to present day, has relied on the cohesion, synchronicity and mutual respect of all involved. For musicians of the genre, the intimate sense of community, memories and moments shared are […]
Music Room
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23 concerts to take in this summer
June 16Holy Fuck w/JOYFULTALK, Wet PaintDon’t believe the censored Facebook event, it’s not Holy Firetruck, it’s Holy Fuck. And if you can’t handle a swear then you probably can’t handle the dance-inspired rock that Holy Fuck provides. The Marquee Ballroom 2037 Gottingen Street, 9pm-1am, $15, tickethalifax.com June 17Backlot Bash w/The Sheepdogs, Port Cities, Garrett Mason Band, The […]
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Let Freedom Singer ring
Freedom Singer Friday, February 24, 8pm The Music Room, 6181 Lady Hammond Road $20/$25 Soul, gospel and contemporary musician Khari Wendell McClelland says he became increasingly interested in his heritage after getting off stage one day at a folk festival in Lunenburg and receiving a book by author Karolyn Smardz Frost. The narrative examined Black […]
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Father and son play father and son in Zuppa’s Slowly I Turn
An ailing father and his actor son sit around a living room discussing life and death while attempting to perform vaudeville routines. This is the premise of Zuppa Theatre Co’s Slowly I Turn: A Parlour Vaudeville in One Act, performed by real-life father and son John and Ben Stone and joined by Jess Lewis, third […]
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First-ever BAFF isn’t a “special” event
Nova Scotia doesn’t always rank first, but one statistic we lead in nationally is the percentage of the population with a disability—”self-identified disability,” reachAbility CEO Tova Sherman is quick to clarify. With one in five Nova Scotians self-identifying as having some form of disability, the non-profit disability advocacy and culture organization has had a lot […]
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The Lion’s share of the jazz
Now in its fourth year, Out Like a Lion was first created by JazzEast to shine another spotlight on local jazz artists outside of the summertime Halifax Jazz Festival. “We thought that jazz musicians deserved more opportunities for artistic expression,” says artistic director Laura Healy, “and that Halifax audiences deserved to be more in tune […]
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Elizabeth Bishop inspires film screening
[image-1] Tonight at 7pm, the EB Society is proud to present, EB Projected: Short Films about Elizabeth Bishop, at the Music Room (6181 Lady Hammond Road, 429-9467). Linda Rae Dornan and Sandra Barry will host and present new and old films about the beloved poet. Regarded as a force in American literature, poet Elizabeth Bishop would have turned 100 years old in February. As a tribute and memorial to her and her work, the EB Society of Nova Scotia is reeling in the years with short films inspired by Bishop. Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, Bishop lived in Nova Scotia with
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Open Up the Gates
last summer i went swimming… Steve Gates knows about starting from scratch. Last year, the Caledonia frontman and “closet folkie” put out a solo album, A Bee in Her Mouth, mixing and mastering it himself and selling it off the stage after his shows. After teaming up with Toronto-based producer John Critchley, Gates re-recorded some […]
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Poetry collection launch: Lost Gospels
“A poem comes when it damn well feels like it,” says poet Lorri Neilsen Glenn, explaining how her work is born. “The muse shows up when she’s ready, so it’s not a matter of sitting there waiting for a bolt from the blue—it’s kind of a slow awakening, really, rather than a bolt.” In the […]
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Acres and Acres are miles away
Acres and Acres do simple in the most complicated way. Its debut album, All Nations, balances studio acoustic and lap steel guitars with the rich sounds of about a dozen musicians performing at Robie Street’s All Nations Christian Reformed Church. “It’s funny because we wanted to make it simple and easy,” says Dave Scholten. “We […]
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Northern lights
King-in-exile of the local music scene, Sloan was the highest-profile band to come out of the mid-’90s Halifax music explosion. Though they’re longtime Toronto scenesters—it even says as much on their website—Sloan often sang of its hometown experience, as on a few key tracks from the 1999 release Between the Bridges. The bridges in question […]
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Melnyk’s key strokes
Composer and pianist Lubomyr Melnyk seems, at times, to have landed from another place or time. It’s possible, too: He claims that his “continuous music” technique lets the pianist “transcend all limits of time and space,” and that the “continuous pianist operates at speeds beyond human capacity.” Melnyk has been clocked in as the world’s […]