Arts & Culture

Maestro Robert Franz, beloved Windsor Symphony Orchestra music director, dies at 57

The Windsor Symphony Orchestra (WSO) and the wider Windsor-Essex arts community are mourning the loss of Maestro Robert Franz, who died September 2 after a courageous battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He was 57.

We Quit Theatre describes their latest project in a myriad ways: a contemporary dance docu-drama; “a love letter to our enemies”; a trans-feminist fantasia.  

“It is a good description,” says performer Arne MacPherson, “because it sort of acknowledges that the piece is firing on a lot of different cylinders in terms of its form and content.” 

The Boîte lumineuse outside La maison des artistes visuels francophones in St. Boniface is giving Winnipeggers a chance to interact with one of its most storied streets in a new way. The lightbox installation is currently displaying “Weaving Provencher’s Story”, a work that combines photography, sketching, animation and mixed media to explore Provencher Boulevard and St. Boniface through a simultaneously historical and imagined lens. 

Classic 107’s Album of the Month for September is one that exists at many intersections. It is all at once modern and Baroque, Western and Eastern, joyful and sorrowful.  

Les Violons du Roy has announced the end of Jonathan Cohen’s tenure as Music Director, marking the close of a decade-long chapter defined by artistic growth, international acclaim, and innovation. Cohen, who wrapped up his leadership role at the end of the 2024–25 season, will continue his collaboration with the Quebec City-based chamber orchestra by conducting three programs in the 2025–26 season.

The Manitoba Conservatory for Music and Arts (MCMA) is getting set to welcome aspiring musicians of all ages, backgrounds and skill levels into the wide array of opportunities within their Music Equals program in the coming weeks.  

First started in 2005, Music Equals is an endeavour that offers music education to a vast array of communities that range from school-age children to adults, Winnipeggers to northern Manitoba residents, Indigenous communities to newcomer Canadians. 

With the first day of school at the University of Manitoba this week comes an important day for the new dean of the Desautels Faculty of Music and the School of Art: the first day on campus with students.  

It is a day that Stephen Runge has been looking forward to for weeks. 

A symphonic journey honouring Bruckner’s birthday, one masterpiece at a time.

Born on September 4, 1824, in Ansfelden, Upper Austria, Anton Bruckner began his musical journey modestly—educated by his schoolmaster father, serving as organist in local churches, and eventually growing into a towering symphonist . A late bloomer, his major symphonic works emerged after age 39, following years of teaching and devout study.

The Poiesis Quartet from Cincinnati has been named the winner of the 2025 Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC), securing more than half a million dollars in cash awards, residencies and touring opportunities.

Oscar-nominated Canadian actor Graham Greene, who broke through with memorable roles across several genres at a time when the entertainment industry shunned Indigenous talent, has died at age 73

Greene’s management team said he died on Monday in Stratford, Ont., after a long illness.

The actor, who was born in Ohsweken, Ont., and is from the Six Nations Reserve, starred in a steady stream of film, television and theatre projects from the late 1970s onward.