I am so very pleased to announce that I received a grant from Canada Council for the Arts to support a run of shows and improvising sessions this winter. Through the Music In Communities Co-op, we’ll host a small, safe show every two weeks at the Al Whittle Theatre featuring some fantastic open-spirited and creative musicians from our area and other parts of the Atlantic Bubble. We will also be collaborating with various groups to host music workshops and improvising sessions for kids, youth at risk, differently-abled folks, and other members of our community.
I am so excited to get to work on this! Especially now. The pandemic has made it harder for people to play music together, and more than ever, we need to get better at improvising our way to a workable future. These music events help expand our thinking, put joy back into our days, and bring our community together in small but important ways. We’ll follow or excede all Covid guidelines and keep things as safe as possible, while we make things happen.
Our first public events are coming up soon, and more details will be posted here so check back. See the listings in the side-bar. Message me for more info about any of these, and other events in the works.
There’s lots more coming! All subject to last-minute changes in changing times. Improvising is the name of the game, and we’re honing our skills.
I came up with the idea for this project partly as a way to honour my late friend and mentor Justin Haynes. I don’t want to forget the things I learned from him, so I hope this will help perpetuate those lessons and pass them on to others. He was a no-bullshit dude and he would probably squirm at the earnestness of this post, but then again he probably should have listened to me more often. I’m determined to keep working to honour his legacy. Justin: eye-roll. <3