Arts & Culture

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. 

On Friday, December 27 at 7:30pm, at St. Andrews River Heights United Church the Women’s Musical Club of Winnipeg (WMC) will be holding their annual scholarship winner’s recital. 

Six marvelous Manitoba musicians have won 11, 500 dollars in prizes and on Friday the 27th, they will have the opportunity to show what set them apart from the rest. 

A special guest is set to join the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra in a recreation of one of the most beloved holiday movies ever made. 

It’s been a busy month for the performing arts students of Sturgeon Heights Collegiate, and perhaps no one has been busier than the students in the school choirs. From working in clinics with ChoralFest to performing a semester-ending concert to sharing the musical Matilda, the streets of St. James have been filled with singing for weeks on end.  

A new album rooted in Treaty One territory is continuing to add to the history of the Métis people through the sharing of stories and song.  

Histories des Métis: The Freedom Songs is the latest work by Treaty One-born composer T. Pat Carrabré, with words by celebrated Metis lawyer and author Jean Teillet. It was recorded by the Vancouver Chamber Choir conducted by Kari Turunen. 

For many of us who grew up on the prairie, the vast expanse of the skyline seems endless, stretching into eternity. The endless flatness of the canola and wheat fields, stretching beneath a boundless blue sky, creates a feeling that time itself has paused. In this place, it often feels as though the world is defined by nothing more than the faint, delicate line where earth meets sky. 

As Christmas Day draws near, holiday music fills the air wherever you go, setting the perfect tone and helping everyone get into the festive spirit. 

With this in mind, we here at Classic 107 invited students from Westgate Mennonite Collegiate to drop by our Classic 107 Studio and spread some holiday cheer. 

What does home mean to you? Is it a place? A person? Perhaps a piece of music? 

For the artists of the hArte Trail Artist Group, the answer is all of the above, and each one of their views of home is reflected in their latest exhibit, No Place Like Home – Beyond the Walls, which is currently on display at the Mennonite Heritage Gallery at Canadian Mennonite University on Shaftesbury Boulevard.