What a wonderful night
A springtime variety show to support the Outreach and Social Justice ministry
Last Friday, a special evening was presented at St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Charlottetown called What a Wonderful World.
A springtime variety show fundraiser to support the Outreach and Social Justice ministry of St. Paul’s, the concert was well attended, and its program was bolstered with performers from the multicultural network of the P.E.I. Association for Newcomers and from Holland College’s School of Performing Arts.
Emcee, Rob Thomson, kicked off the show at 7 p.m., and after an adorable intro where a group of children placed glowing blue paper maché globes up near the front of the church, the music began, appropriately, with a touching opening performance of “What a Wonderful World”, sung by George Scantlebury, with piano accompaniment by Elizabeth Broman.
Soon the whole audience joined in the singing, led by Ken Campbell, as the heartening sound of hundreds of voices filled the church, singing “and I think to myself, what a wonderful world...”
“Talk about variety, we’re gonna go from an 85-year-old to an 11-year-old,” said Thomson, as he introduced young Ayessa Divina, who sang a powerful and spirit-filled version of Journey’s 1983 song, Faithfully. She displayed remarkable talent and for someone her age.
Next, we were whisked away to the tranquility of a spring pond, as writer Jane Ledwell and her two children, Sam and Anna, led us in the participatory experience of mimicking spring rain – while Ledwell’s poem, “Pond Lullaby”, illustrated the beauty and wonder of these ponds that are currently springing to life all around us this time of year.
Carrying on the theme of wonderful global diversity, a Persian/Baha’i prayer-song was then delivered to our ears by Lana Quinn on vocals/ harp, emphasizing universality and inclusiveness – as the peace continued into Farahnaz Rezaei’s reading of “On Giving” from Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, and Ali Siadat’s spiritual reading of Rumi’s “Who am I?” led by its central rumination of “the soul of the soul of the universe is Love.”
Again, variety abounded through the evening, as a total change of pace brought the Music Man to the stage, as Michael Pendergast stirred up the laughs with his original tunes like “The Things That People Say” and “The Perfect Maritime Man”.
Yvette Doucette’s enveloping poems “Grandmothers” and “Marie at the Window” effectively transported us to another time and place, as the first half rounded out with great performances by erhu player William Yao, singer/guitarist Jocelyn Reyome and rousing Celtic dances by the Shirley Burke Dancers.
The second half of the concert began on a delightfully lighthearted note with the ukulele sextet, Retrofrets, as they got the crowd’s toes tapping on the St. Paul’s wood floor with songs like “These Boots Were Made for Walking” and “Honeycomb”.
Other highlights of the second half included Jeff Cofran’s stirring recitation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”, traditional Chinese dances by Bing Yao, Laura K. Bird’s hilarious excerpts from “Busted: a Mammoir,” Zach Seals solo vocal/ piano performance of his original song “Pieces of My Heart”, Anni-yah Ferguson’s solo violin medley called “A Peace of Mind” and Campbell’s original song called “Sweet Sixteen”.
The night was wrapped up, fittingly, as students from Holland College’s SoPA program, Aaron Ferguson and The Unofficials, performed an instrumental version of John Lennon’s “Imagine”.
All in all, what a wonderful night of entertainment it was for What a Wonderful World at St. Paul’s, as funds were effectively raised, while many spirits were raised in the process.
Next week: I’m gonna be moseying up to Summerside for Corb Lund at Harbourfront tonight. Todd MacLean is a local freelance writer and musician. If you have a comment or suggestion for a review, you can get in touch with him at tmaclean@theguardian.pe.ca or at 626-1242. But he won’t be offended if you don’t.