Come sing with us!
Sage Valley Voices Community Choir
welcomes new members: men, women, teens
No audition required.
Director: Lori Martine
Rehearsals every Monday evening
7:00 – 9:00 PM
Oliver United Church, 358 Okanagan Avenue, Oliver
Contact olivercac @ gmail.com to be put in touch with a choir member for more information or just come to one of the early practices. Begins Monday September 10, rehearsing for the Christmas Concert. The spring concert rehearsals begin in January.

Music is better even than lemon meringue pie to raise the spirits and lift the heart as the light fades with the approach of winter. This year the South Okanagan Concert Society invites you to come into the opulence of the beautiful Venables Theatre and share four delightful Friday evenings with others who love to embrace music too.

It all starts on October 12th when the Marc Atkinson Trio performs at 7:30 p.m. Atkinson, composer and JUNO nominated musician, plays a fiery but elegant guitar style with the casual ‘good time feel’ of Canada’s West Coast. The trio is melodically captivating and technically awe inspiring. The addition of violinist Cameron Wilson who is also a composer and arranger known to orchestras, ensembles and soloists across Canada and the U.S.A. will add to the excitement.

Tickets are on sale now at www.venablestheatre.ca or at the theatre box office, Tuesdays to Thursdays from 10 to 3 pm. Book early and choose the best seats at the best price. Two or more tickets in advance are $21/ticket. Single ticket in advance is $23. Single ticket at the door is $25. Children and Youth are only $2.50/ticket. Bus transportation or more information call Janet at 250 495 6487.

Friday, November 16th brings us Double Double Duo. Each duo member is a ‘double threat’ on two instruments: Kornel Wolak (clarinet/piano) and Michael Bridge (accordion/piano). Classically trained international soloists, they use comedy, virtuosity and musical sensitivity to bring classical showpieces, sensitive jazz ballads and fiery folk music alive.

Friday, February 15th we enter the new year when Duo Fortin-Poirier entertain with 4 hands on one piano. These two outgoing and talented women have garnered a long list of distinctions since their inception in 2005. Their albums, Vingt doigts et un piano (2013) and Memoires (2017) are broadcast regularly on Espace Musique and Radio-classique. Their smiles and fast moving fingers light up a concert hall!

Friday, March 29th an amazing concert will close yet another satisfying South Okanagan Concert Society season of music. O-CELLI, an original and dynamic 8 cellists share their passion for the extraordinary richness of their instruments. No, you did not make a mistake. It does say 8 (eight!) cellos on stage. Five different nationalities are represented. The group has performed in their adopted city of Brussels, played throughout Europe and toured eastern Canada in 2017. This performance at Venables Theatre is an absolute “don’t miss”!!!

Tickets for all concerts are on sale now. Get dates secured with your friends and prepare for some extraordinary musical experiences – world music on the local stage.

This local arts group was started in 2016 to offer artists a platform to explore different techniques for creating surface design in a variety of media (fabric, paper, wood, glass, cork). The group was structured loosely with fixed meeting times (Thursday afternoons) on a weekly basis. There were no membership fees instead a drop-in fee of $5.00/session was charged. Various topics and techniques were covered with individuals leading the group. Some weeks were open with no fixed plans and some sessions were organized in advance with supply lists / preparatory tasks circulated. Studio space was rented in advance from the Oliver Community Arts Council and Surfaces became a member group.

In 2017-2018 there was a desire to have more full-day studio time so once a month the studio space was rented out for a full day (10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.). A face-book page was created with a place where photos and ideas could be shared.

Current Plans: Currently the group is large and quite diverse. For the 2018-2019 season we are proposing splitting the group in two: Surfaces – Textiles and Surfaces – Mixed Media.

For the Surfaces – Textiles group meetings will occur twice a month on Thursday afternoons from 1-4:00 p.m.. The focus will be on surface design on fabric using a variety of techniques including dyeing, stamping, screen and discharge printing, eco-printing, felting, beading, hand and machine stitching. Fabric will be used to create works which explore contemporary art quilting techniques. Each session will include time for feedback and critique on works in progress. Some sessions will include instruction (with rotating leaders for the group). If there is interest a full day workshop can be planned possibly on a weekend. For contact information on this part of the Surfaces – Textile Group contact Janet at: bedn9783 @ telus.net (work pictured above and at left) The first meeting of fall season for Surfaces – Textiles will be Thursday Sept. 13 at 1:00 p.m. at the Quail’s Nest Arts Centre (the smaller Studio Building), 5840 Airport Road, Oliver.

For the Surfaces – Mixed Media Group meetings will occur on alternating Thursday afternoons from the Surfaces – Textile Group from 1-4:00 p.m. also at the Quail’s Nest Arts Centre (the smaller Studio Building). This group will be exploring a variety of Media such as bookbinding, alcohol inks, glass mosaics, cork designs, jewellery making, acrylic pouring and others. The route the group take will be determined by the interest and passion of the members.
The date of first meeting of Surfaces – Mixed Media Group TBA. For more information contact:

Aline Bostrom: doddersca @ yahoo.com or

Roxanne Anderson : Apricotcottagestudio @ gmail.com

AUDITIONS SET FOR IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE
Dates have been set for auditions for SOAP Theatre’s fall production of It’s A Wonderful Life – A Life Radio Play.

Director Trevor Leigh will be looking for an ensemble cast of three males and two females that will bring a few dozen characters to the stage in early December.

Open auditions take place on Sunday, September 9 at 6:30 pm in the Big Blue Building at the Quail’s Nest Arts Centre, 5840 Airport Street in Oliver and on Monday, September 10 at 6:30 pm in the board room above the Osoyoos Art Gallery, 8713 Main Street, Osoyoos.

This beloved holiday classic comes to life as a live 1940s radio broadcast. It will be presented in Osoyoos Nov. 29 and Dec. 1 as part of the Osoyoos Christmas Lite-up Festival and then be at Venables Theatre in Oliver the following weekend.
More information on the production as well as other SOAP plans for this season can be viewed at www.soplayers.ca. Questions on the auditions can also be directed to Leigh at ftleigh @ mac.com.

The Okanagan Basin Water Board and the Canadian Water Resources Association, BC Branch, have extended the deadline for poster submissions to the siwłkʷ (WATER) FOR ALL – OUR RESPONSIBILITY Environmental Flow Needs Conference 2018: Science, Policy & Practice.  The conference is planned for October 17-18, 2018 in Kelowna, B.C. The NEW submission deadline for posters is Sept. 7, 2018.

As noted previously, this conference will bring together representatives from national and international organizations engaged in water management or research, including fisheries and water managers, First Nations, regulators, policy-makers, academia, and NGOs.

We invite you to share innovative approaches to establish and protect Environmental Flow Needs (EFNs) by presenting your poster at the conference.

TOPICS INCLUDE:

• Methodologies for determining EFN values
• EFN science and applications
• EFN and fisheries
• Ecosystems services and EFNs
• EFN policies – opportunities and barriers
• Collaborative approaches to EFN management

• Drought response plans

We have prizes for best student posters!

POSTER GUIDELINES:
All posters should include background or problem summary, discussion of approaches / methods used, and results and conclusions. Poster content should be informative and inclusive of an interdisciplinary group and broader audience. Suggested poster size: 36 inches (91 cm) x 48 inches (120 cm).

SUBMISSION DEADLINE:The deadline for submission of poster abstracts is Sept. 7th, 2018. We will notify authors of accepted poster abstracts by Sept. 10th, 2018.

For more information, please contact Nargiz Rahimova at nargiz.rahimova@obwb.ca

For more on the conference, please visit www.EFN2018.ca.

Please share widely!

Information and categories:

Oliver Prize Book

Entry Form:

Oliver Prize Book cover

Oliver’s own Andi Zack-Johnson and her husband Ken Johnson (of Birmingham, Ala.) make another pilgrimage back to Andi’s home in Oliver from their Singer/Songwriter careers in Nashville, Tennessee.

Songwriters both, Andi and Ken have written songs for many country and pop artists in the U.S. and Canada including Harry Connick Jr., Brothers Osborne, Vince Gill with Jenny Gill, and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. They have collaborated with many artists over the years including members of ZZ Top, Cheap Trick, Lynyrd Skynyrd, NRBQ and Aerosmith and more.

Andi and Ken have starred for 3 seasons now in the hit CMT show “I Love Kellie Pickler” produced by Ryan Seacrest and have appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Harry (Connick Jr.) Show, Fox and Friends and Good Morning America.

Andi and Ken are also known as the popular children’s music duo Huck And Lilly. They have released two critically acclaimed albums since 2015 and can be heard regularly on Sirius XM “Kids Place Live” Current solo albums available now include Andi Zack-Johnson “Love Party” and Ken Johnson “Dang Good Day”.

Presented by both Medici’s and Oliver Sagebrushers, Andi and Ken will put on a ONE NIGHT ONLY special concert at Medici’s on Friday, Aug 10th. Tickets are $25. Seating is assigned. Doors will open at 6:30 and Andi and Ken will open the night at 7:30.

Medici’s is at 522 Fairview Road in Oliver…250-498-2228

The Friends of the Oliver Library was incorporated as a Society in 1998, following an organizational meeting called by Librarian Vicky White. Three of the charter members remain as active FOTOL members to this day.

One of the major activities of the FOTOL is to raise money for the Library. The annual book sale—to be held this year on Saturday, July 7^th at the Canadian Legion—marks twenty years of the Friends’ major fundraiser for the Library.

The book sale is a model of community cooperation. All books sold have been donated by Oliver residents and every penny raised goes to support Library activities such as the Summer Reading Club for Children, and to enhance the Library by providing programs and furnishings not available through core funding.

Behind the scenes, the books have to be stored as they pour into the Library by generous donors. Free storage has been provided over the years by Oliver-Fairview Self Storage, where Society volunteers sort them and load them on cardboard flats donated by Buy Low and No Frills. Then the rather massive job of transport is undertaken by an army of volunteers who get them to the sales point, which is usually the Library’s parking lot. (NOTE: This year the sale will take place at the OLIVER LEGION because of the street work being undertaken in front of the Library.)

Once on the sale site, other volunteers have arrived early to set up tables and then load the sorted books on flats into locations for paperbacks or hard covers, fiction or non-fiction, and with special areas for kids’ books, videos and CDs and a few other categories.

The sale begins at 9:00 a.m. and closes at 2:00 p.m. and active volunteers keep the tables loaded with books throughout the sales period. Then at closing time, the dismantling begins. In the last several years, all unsold books have been donated to other community organizations that also raise monies for other charitable organizations. Again this year, they will be donated to Diabetes Clothesline.

Over the years, FOTOL has raised well over $70,000 to support the Oliver Library, mostly from book sales, but also from kind donors and from membership fees. You see some of those proceeds in the Library’s enhanced furnishings, which include the main desk when you enter, rugs for the children’s area, and approximately half of the magazines and periodicals on display. The funds enhance by upgrading the quality of the furniture provided through core funding. They allow FOTOL to fund authors and speakers through the year, and for the children—magicians, drummers and other guests during the summer reading program.

FOTOL has a brochure available in the Library which outlines in more detail its activities, meeting dates, and organizational structure. Membership forms are also available at the Library. Volunteers are always needed and everyone is welcome.

Hope to see you all at the book sale!

UPDATE! The biggest bestest book sale is still happening BUT has MOVED its location to the Oliver Legion Hall  to avoid the construction on Station Street. Support the Friends of the Oliver Library!