Arts & Culture

The new month is forecast to be a busy one at McNally Robinson Booksellers. 

Established in Canada in 1998 by the League of Canadian Poets, April is "National Poetry Month." The third Saturday of the month (April 20) also happens to be "World Record Store Day" and then, a week later, Canadian Independent Bookstore Day is marked on April 27.

Though we’re still waiting for buds and blossoms in the city, the spring portion of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra season has already started to bloom.  

After back-to-back weeks of splendid sopranos singing and outstanding orchestral offerings, Classic 107 sat down with MCO Executive Director Sean McManus for a mid-season check in! 

This Sunday at 2:30pm at St. Andrews River Heights United Church Virtuosi concerts is presenting a concert called Café Music. This concert will feature the fabulous Borealis Trio. A piano trio made up of Faculty from the University of Manitoba’s Desautels Faculty of Music.

Opening up the concert on Sunday as part of Virtuosi’s Young Artist Program will be pianist wonderful young pianist Georg Neuhofer.

This Sunday, April 7th at 7:00pm The Fort Garry Hotel in collaboration with Jazz Winnipeg will be presenting the outstanding jazz drummer Fabio Ragnelli.

Originally from Toronto, Ragnelli is a Juno Award winning drummer who has performed at the Montreal, and Monterey Jazz Festivals. He has also performed at some very prestigious venues including Koerner Hall, The Blue Note Jazz club in New York, The National Arts Centre, and Place des Arts.

Explore musical haunts at a free show at the Manitoba Museum this Friday.  

Featuring the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra, “Music from Musical Ghosts” draws on the historical narrative prepared by Winnipeg musician, historian and author Owen Clark.  

Manitoba opera’s upcoming season will have audiences busting a gut and bursting into tears as they present both comedic and tragic offerings.  

On Sunday, April 7th at 2:30 at St. Andrew’s River Heights United Church, Virtuosi Concerts will be welcoming to the concert stage the Borealis Piano trio. Consisting of Oleg Pokhanovski on violin, Minna Rose Chung on cello, and Judy Kehler Siebert on piano, this fabulous trio are made up of three faculty members at The University of Manitoba’s Desautels Faculty of Music.

The concert on April 7th is called Café Music and will consist of concert music reminiscent of dance halls and the cafés of 1930’s Paris or perhaps Buenos Aries.

Intermezzo at 1:00 this Week: The Symphonies of Louis Spohr

On Friday, April 5th it will be the 240th birthday of the violinist and composer Louis Spohr.

Tune in to the 1pm hour all this week to hear the odd-numbered symphonies of Spohr.

Highly respected by his contemporaries, (He was friends with Beethoven and Carl Maria von Weber) Spohr wrote ten Symphonies, ten Operas, eighteen violin concertos, four clarinet concertos, and a vast array of chamber music.

Monday: April 1: Symphony no 1 in E flat, op 20 (1811)

It may be hard to believe, but another season of Music ‘N’ Mavens is about to wrap up. 

Over the past three months on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, audiences have been treated to fantastic and diverse musical performers as well as thoughtful and engaging lectures. 

It all ends with a musical party the likes of which can only be thrown by none other than the Dirty Catfish Brass Bad.  

Tune in to Classic 107 this long weekend to hear some very special programming as we mark Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday.

Good Friday

On Friday March 29th you will hear a true masterpiece by J.S. Bach, his St. Matthew Passion.

Written in 1727 for Good Friday service at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, the St. Matthew Passion makes use of Matthew’s account of Jesus’ crucifixion from Chapters 26 and 27 of the book of Mathew.