Music Niagara season off to strong start
Longtime festival makes its debut at FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre on Thursday
The milestone season of Music Niagara is off to a strong start.
Executive director Sarah Lynch says with some new venues and new musical programs thrown into the mix, the 20th anniversary of the music festival has gone very well since opening on July 7.
“We’ve done a lot of slightly new things this year, including some new venues,” said Lynch. “There are still some exciting events coming up — we’re hoping this will be a very successful year.”
One of the new things is branching out to a much larger performance space. While the festival has had performances at its traditional home of St. Mark’s Church in Niagara-on-the-Lake, as well as venues such as the Hare Wine Co., the Market Room at the historic Niagara-on-the-Lake Courthouse and even the Niagara-on-the-Lake branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, Lynch says it will mark a first when it hosts a concert at FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in St. Catharines on Thursday. The National Youth Orchestra, dubbed some of Canada’s best young classical musicians, will perform at 7:30 p.m.
“It is a complete departure for us to have something of this size — a real first,” said Lynch. “We’re hoping it will help raise our profile in the region in general. We have some fantastic worldclass performers here on a regular basis and we want people from all over Niagara to understand that.”
Week 4 of the festival, which runs to mid-August, includes a partnership with the TD Niagara Jazz Festival. Phil Nimmons and David Braid pair up for Jazz Masters on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at St. Mark’s Church.
Music Niagara will also continue to shine a light on young performers, with a series of concerts featuring its Performance Academy. They started the first of three performances on Tuesday, with others planned for Friday at 3 p.m. at Royal Elite Academy in Niagara-on-the-Lake and one on Sunday at 3 p.m. at Niagara United Mennonite Church. The performances are pay-what-you-can.
“They are fantastic young performers,” said Lynch. “They’re very committed and talented.”
Other highlights of the upcoming week include the continuation of the Great Romantics Series this weekend and Up All Night, a Celtic band performing Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the NOLT legion hall.
A complete list of activities, including ticket information, is available at www.musicniagara.org.