Arts & Culture

Vancouver's Joe Average was an artist, advocate and activist whose bright, multicoloured images were as multi-faceted as his existence.

But his sister Karin Carson says she used to giggle about his fame and always called him by Brock, his given name. 

Carson, who lives in Falkland, B.C., outside Vernon, said her brother died peacefully in his home on Christmas Eve, frail from the medications he needed to manage his HIV-positive status, a condition he lived with for four decades. 

Before we say hello to 2025, Classic 107 stopped to pay tribute to the year in classical music that was by sharing some of the best recordings of the year. 

Morning Light host Nolan Kehler and Chris Wolf from The Diamond Lane stepped into the Classic 107 studios to chat about their favourite classical music albums and moments from 2024. These picks ran the gamut from solo piano recordings by Bruce Liu and Louise Bessette to composers ranging from Sibelius to Penderecki to Mendelssohn to Green Day! 

Those albums include:

It's been a standout year for Canadian classical music, with exceptional albums from both established artists and rising stars.  

As 2024 is the rear-view mirror we here at Classic 107 sat down and discussed our favorite Canadian recordings of this past year.  

Check out our selections here: 

This Christmas, many of us will sing our favourite carols. But how often do we ask where they come from?

Very rarely, if ever.

Some of these songs trace back centuries, each with its own story to tell. Take “In the Bleak Midwinter,” for instance — Christina Rossetti’s 1872 masterpiece brings together winter’s chill, the arrival of Christ and a gentle portrayal of the nativity. It culminates in that poignant moment of quiet reflection: The poem-turned-carol invites a depth of contemplation that resonates long after the last note fades.

It’s a holiday tradition unlike any other here in the city of Winnipeg, one that has sparked the joy of the season in audiences for decades.  

For the artists performing in the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker this week, that joy is the key driver behind the magic that they capture on stage.  

Celebrate Christmas 2024 with Classic 107 

Make it a Classic 107 Christmas with festive programming and hand selected masterworks for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day.  

From Handel's Messiah and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker to A Charlie Brown Christmas, find a complete schedule of all the special works we have planned here! 

CHRISTMAS EVE: 

Classic 107 is adding to your holiday soundtrack in unique ways this year, providing music that gives voice to every emotion and experience of the holiday season. 

In addition to sharing well-loved pieces that listeners have come to love over the years, including the Nine Lessons and Carols on Christmas Eve and Handel’s Messiah on the morning of Christmas Day, the station will be sharing some deeper dives into the music that makes up the season during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day.  

Eighty-eight-year-old Lorne Collie has been making musical instruments for more than three decades, creations that dazzle for their unique materials as much as their sound. 

There's a hefty bass guitar and a cello made of moose antlers, a baseball bat violin, ukuleles made of cookie tins, and guitars fashioned from pitch forks, a shovel, and a rake.

His personal favourites? A frying pan mandolin and a banjo made of a motorcycle tire rim, covered by stretched deerskin painted by his late wife. 

It’s a familiar tale with a Winnipeg twist: evicted from their hut in downtown Winnipeg, two children go off looking for a rich family to live with, all while avoiding their evil landlord. 

That’s the premise of Hansel and Gretel in Portage Place: A Merry Crip-Mas Panto being presented this weekend by Sick and Twisted Theatre. It’s the second annual pantomime production being presented by the company, which aims to provide performance opportunities to local artists with disabilities. 

After a busy semester of studying and singing, the University Singers of the University of Manitoba still have a few more songs to sing to get Winnipeggers into the holiday mood. Carollers from the choir will be performing throughout the city on December 19, starting with a visit to the Classic 107 studios.