Shriner packs her Christmas show for PAC
Concert heads to new venue for eighth holiday show
During her annual Christmas concert last year at Mahtay Cafe, Niagara singer Melissa-Marie Shriner kept looking out the window and seeing FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre across the street. That’s when an idea came a-carolling.
“I’m singing and simultaneously having a conversation with myself in my head,” she recalls. “I was like, I love this concert so much, I think it deserves to be in the performing arts centre.
“So I said it at the end of one of my songs, ‘You know what everybody? Next year I’m going to do my concert across the street.’”
It was one resolution she stuck to. For her eighth holiday concert, Shriner brings her boughs of holly to the 304-seat Cairns Recital Hall inside the performing arts centre. It marks a professional leap for a show which started in a small church in Jordan and has been gaining fans every year.
As always, the concert will be held on the last Saturday before Christmas, Dec. 22, and features Shriner’s old school classics mixed with newbies from her 2017 album “A Christmas Love Song.” She’ll be joined by the jazz trio of Robert Horvath (piano), Clark Johnson (upright bass) and Adam Fielding (drums).
Expect a set list of standards such as “Sleigh Ride” and “The Christmas Song,” along with classical pieces such as “O Holy Night” and “Ava Maria.” Many of them are songs Shriner has done from the start, and regular patrons expect.
“The whole premise of what I envision for this is kind of like a throwback to the Andy Williams Christmas Special,” she says. “It’s just warm-hearted, beautiful music. I sing jazz, musical theatre, classical music, and Christmas music allows an opportunity to sing in all those styles.”
In addition to her yearly visit from Santa Claus (Richard Crossman), Shriner promises a surprise she’s “super excited” to finally pull off.
The music director at St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church in Thorold, Shriner was recently nominated for female vocalist of the year at the Niagara Music Awards and the Established Artist Award for the St. Catharines Arts Awards.
She performs throughout the year, but few shows get her as emotional as the Christmas concert.
“It’s so special to me when I hear somebody say, ‘It is not Christmas until I’ve heard your concert,’” she says.
“That motivates me so much to keep refining and building and growing and crafting what I do.”