THEY’RE BAAAACK!
Three Pianos get back together for shows at Savoy
The Three Pianos play Savoy, Saturday and Sunday.
What began as a bit of fun back in 2002 and ran for 10 successful years is back for another kick at the keys over the Mother’s Day Weekend.
The Three Pianos returns to the Savoy on Saturday at 7 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m., promising the same lighthearted piano sounds that endeared them to Cape Breton audiences for a decade. The group consists of Johnny Aucoin, Aaron Lewis and Stephen Muise, all wellknown performers in local music circles.
According to Muise, the group began performing together in 2002, after a suggestion from Wendy Muise, his first wife, who has since passed away.
“She said: ‘what if the three of you got together and did a show?’ I pitched it to Johnny and Aaron and they thought it was a great idea so the first time we did the show was in the basement of St. Michael’s Church, in New Waterford,” says Muise. “Then it caught on and we started selling out shows like crazy. We would do three shows in the spring and three shows at Christmas and the theatre would be full.
“It was a really gimmicky show that caught on.”
After 10 years, the group decided to call it quits in 2012.
“We had a good run with it — sometimes it’s good to stop these things when you want to instead of people telling you (that) you should,” says Muise. “Aaron was about to go into the studio and do new things, I was about to get busy with the Men of the Deep and Johnny was getting ready to leave for Halifax so I think it was more of a career move. We thought it was a good time to part ways with it.”
But for the past five years, they’ve been receiving requests to revive the show and Muise says with the Savoy’s 90th anniversary this year, now seemed like the perfect time to do so.
“We thought, ‘hey, what a great time to get together and play some tunes again,’” said Muise. “Mother’s Day seem to be the day for this and our music and humour seems to appeal to mothers around Cape Breton.”
In addition to performing various types of music from different genres, the players will also be welcoming Jordan Crocker and Martina Lewis as their special guests. Ron Leadbetter on drums and Allie Bennett on bass will fill out the stage.
The Savoy will be also offering a limited number of Mother’s Day turkey dinners after the show. Dinners are available for purchase from the Red Curtain Cafe.
“We joke around. We tell people if they want to sing along, go ahead, if they want to dance in the aisles, feel free and if one of us isn’t playing the grand piano at the time, jump and start playing — you’re more than welcome to do that too.”