Opera by the glassful

Saige

Saige Carlson, a local young lady is well known in the Okanagan music circles. Saige is excited to be entering her second year at the University of Toronto, where she is working towards a Bachelor of Music degree in Classical Music Performance.

Saige has often performed in competitions both regional and provincial winning many prestigious awards. Saige finds competitions inspiring, due in part to the performing experience and because of the privilege hearing and meeting many talented singers.

Saige has been singing since she was thirteen and is soon to become twenty-one. Piano teacher Dennis Nordlund and voice teacher Lynne Leydier in Penticton have encouraged her to reach the goals of her dreams. Please come out to hear this incredible young singer.

Fairview Cellars Winery presents
OPERA AND WINE
Wednesday August 12 

7 p.m.

Fairview Cellars Winery

Admission by donation $10.00 minimum.
Bring chairs and evening wraps.
Wine available by the glass.

Photo Credit: Leza Macdonald

Public invited to Species at Risk

Partners Pitch in for “Species at Risk” Exhibition Open DaySpecies-at-Risk-Public-Access-Day

The Species at Risk Exhibition Open Day at the Oliver Museum is getting even more exciting. That’s because on August 3rd, B.C. Day, from 10 am – 4 pm, the Oliver & District Heritage Society is teaming up with various environmental and wildlife organizations to present an information fair with fun activities, interesting displays, and fascinating experts. There will even be a visit from a real Burrowing Owl!

Whether you want to see owl pellets and eggs, learn about bird migration, identify an invasive weed, preserve animal habitat, or help bats in your backyard, the exhibition and info fair is the perfect event for you. Knowledgeable interpreters from the Royal B.C. Museum will be answering questions at the Species at Risk exhibition outside the Museum, while inside the Museum organizations will be showing visitors how to get involved. Then guests can sit and enjoy a nature-themed film in air-conditioned comfort at the Museum.

The Oliver-Osoyoos Naturalist Club, the Burrowing Owl Conservation Society of BC, the Okanagan Similkameen Stewardship Society, and the B.C. Community Bat Program will be set up in the Museum with displays and information about what their organizations do. Information and pamphlets from the Okanagan and Similkameen Invasive Species Society and the South Okanagan Rehabilitation Centre for Owls will also be available. Then at 1:30 pm, the Museum will be visited by the Burrowing Owl Conservation Society’s new education owl.

Families are welcome, and both the outdoor exhibition and admission to the Museum are free.

For more information, please call 778-439-3100 or email the Oliver & District Heritage Society at  info @ oliverheritage.ca  Information is also available on the Society’s Facebook page and on their website at www.oliverheritage.ca

Turn “Lefty” into Back Alley for final concert

Formed in 2005, LEFTY is an original hLeftyard rock band from Kelowna, BC. LEFTY is a mix of many styles but the end result is always high energy, and punch in each song and performance. LEFTY finds it’s influence from all genres of music. Pop to indie, punk to country, airy and light to hard and heavy. The members of LEFTY have diverse tastes and a passion for music. As a result we often bring our own tastes into the writing process and end up with something that is new and unique. We hope you will join us at an upcoming show, and please share our music with everyone you know, as that is what makes it all worthwhile.

From Kelowna, BC, Canada, Lefty has been bringing their version of high energy rock to venues across the Southern Interior BC. With help from the release of their first EP in 2014 they were pleasantly surprised to win multiple nominations for best band and best musical group and were featured on CBC Radio and Shaw TV. Regulars around the Okanagan and Festival scene, Lefty looks to introduce their music to as many ears as possible.

The band started in 2005 when guitarist Moge Thompson and drummer Marc Gobeil met to jam and realized there was a like-minded desire to create new music. The band picked up bass player Greg Beloin in 2010 and things really changed direction in 2011 when lead vocalist Paul Gervais joined the band. Paul added an image and sound that really complimented the band.

A primarily original band until 2012, Lefty introduced covers into their show in 2013 which introduced them to a new audience and new venues. Lefty takes familiar multi-generational covers from many genres and ages and adds a modern twist that appeals to a broad audience.

Guitarist Moge is the driving force behind the band’s original music and his influences span the spectrum of hard rock and punk. “Our original music has often been compared to Queens of the Stone Age, Pearl Jam and Three Days Grace,” states the band. Excited as they are about laying down new tracks and recording, Lefty never anticipated the enthusiasm which critics and fans alike found for their music and were thrilled to twice take the people’s choice award for original music and critic’s choice award for best original band in 2015.

“We just really love making music and sharing it with others,” the band was quoted as saying, “our goal as a band is to put out another EP within a year and the fact that people are really digging what we’re putting out there makes us love doing this even more.”

BACS sm2

Can-can you come?

Ripoffs 2015 sm

The Ripoff Artists will kick up their heels this summer with Toulouse-Lautrec! One of the best-known and well-loved artists of the 19th century, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is famous for being short, consorting with characters of ill-repute such as prostitutes, performers and artists, and for creating many beloved images of dancers, clowns, and musicians in his brief career.

Eldest son of a French nobleman, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) suffered from a congenital illness that caused his legs to stop growing and he was never taller than 4’ 8″. Unable to engage in the expected activities of aristocratic life, he turned to art. As a young man he moved to Paris and became a major figure in the art scene there. His paintings were received eagerly in galleries and exhibitions, and he made prints and posters for clubs. His name is linked forever with the can-can and the Moulin Rouge.

One friend said Toulouse-Lautrec felt cut off from normal life, and “found an affinity between his own condition and the moral penury of the prostitute”. His paintings of brothels and clubs do not glamourize prostitution or night life, nor do they incite activism. He wanted to show the tender, sometimes boring, reality of life in the underworld of Paris. He produced a prodigious amount of work in only 20 years, and died of complications from alcoholism and syphilis at the age of 36.

Yet his work lives on. His images of dancers and musicians capture the mood of the music and the glow of the footlights, his scenes of prostitutes in ordinary moments are touching and human, while his bored drinkers seem like people we might know.

The Ripoff Artists will jump in with both feet and create their own versions of Toulouse-Lautrec’s poster of Jane Avril at the Jardins de Paris. The Quail’s Nest Arts Centre at 5840 Airport Road will be transformed into an artist’s studio from the 1880s, or perhaps a den of iniquity. . . Come to the opening reception between 6 and 8 pm on Monday evening, July 20 to find out which!

The artists will be hard at work from 9 am to 3 pm Tuesday July 21 to Saturday July 25 at the Quail’s Nest, so come and experience the demi-monde of Oliver’s art scene!