Arts & Culture

The packed dance audience at New York City Center wasn’t missing a trick. 
              
Just before the lights went down for the second act of Twyla Tharp’s new program Wednesday night, some in the crowd spotted the 81-year-old choreographer sneaking into her seat, small and lithe, with a bob of gray hair — and unmistakable to dance fans. There was a round of sustained cheers.
              

The spooky, sublime stop-motion animation worlds of Henry Selick are feasts for the eye that can burrow into the imaginations of young minds. In films like The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach and Coraline, the dark, handmade curiosities of Selick have tended to leave a mark.

“That’s what I hope for all my films,” says Selick, 69, smiling. “To shake up those kids but not mess them up for good.”

Jordan Peele, the writer-director of Get Out, Us, and Nope, was one of those shaken kids.

The Canadian Arts & Fashion Awards has named Lecavalier the year’s top womenswear brand and Mr. Saturday the top menswear brand.

A weekend gala in Toronto reunited the industry's artists, influencers and business leaders following last year’s virtual edition, which celebrated winners from both 2020 and 2021.

Montreal-born Marie-Ève Lecavalier accepted the womenswear honour on behalf of her eponymous label, which earned a coveted slot at Paris Fashion Week last year. 

The temporary yet impactful display from activist, Ai Weiwei, which has been displayed at The Forks will be taken down by the end of the Fall.

Forever Bicycles is a display looming over 30 feet tall, and consisting of 1,254 steel bicycles. Starting this week, fencing will go up around the exhibit to prepare for its professional dismantlement.

On Friday, October 7th, the world renowned violinist Hahn released her latest CD titled “Eclipse.” This latest recording features two concertos; Dvorak’s beloved violin concerto and the ground-breaking and virtuosic violin concerto of Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera. The CD is rounded out by Pablo de Sarasate’s showy and fiery Carmen Fantasy.

The “Eclipse” project was a long time in the making, and Hahn is quick to point out in the booklet that the recording almost did not happen.

Wynton Marsalis has done just about everything in the world of music.
              
One thing he hasn't, however, is team up his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with a college marching band — until now.
              
“I've never seen a jazz band like ours play with a marching band, where the actual music we're playing is integrated into the music the band is playing,” Marsalis said during one of his many stops this week in Ann Arbor, where the Grammy and Pulitzer winner is taking part in a weeklong residency at the University of Michigan.

Han Solo may be a hunk. But “Pan Solo" is a hunk of bread.
              
That's what a bakery in the San Francisco Bay Area has dubbed its 6-foot (1.8 metres) bread sculpture of the “Star Wars" character as he appeared after being frozen in carbonite in “The Empire Strikes Back."
              

On Tuesday, October 18th at 7:30pm at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg’s GroundSwell will present their second concert of the season called “Standing Wave: Ex Machina”. This concert will feature “The Standing Wave Ensemble” from Western Canada. Made up of six virtuoso musicians, the Standing Wave Ensemble has mesmerized audiences throughout the world with their intrepid performances, of the latest in boundary breaking new music.

Manitoba Opera announced at an event held at the Centennial Concert Hall on Tuesday, October 11 that $1.75 million has been gifted to the company’s The Power of Voice Endowment Campaign including a special $1 million gift from Ms. Gail Asper. Other community leaders who are investing in The Power of Voice with a gift of $250,000 each are Mr. and Mrs. Phil and Ilse Ens, Mrs. Tannis M. Richardson, and BMO Financial Group. 

Have you ever been to a concert and seen a soloist perform super-human feats on their specified instrument while at the time sounding great and making it look so easy without nerves getting in the way?

For many of us who have studied a musical instrument, the idea of performing on stage brings up thoughts of anxiousness, and nervousness.