Niagara musicians gather for online showcase series
Producer David Rapelje has made a career out of opening new spaces for entertainers to perform in. So, to see so many performers sitting idle does not sit well with him.
Together with some friends in ‘the biz,’ he’ll be giving them an online outlet to prop the scene up during the pandemic. Debuting May 6, “Showcase Niagara” will be a professional-quality web series that doubles as a fundraiser for the United Way of Niagara’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund.
“Everyone who works in the entertainment industry right now is in the same boat,” he says. “We’re all at home sort of wondering what to do. This project has given us some purpose.”
The first episode will feature Niagara country star Tim Hicks, Michael Wainwright, Brooke Georgeneau, Ron Hoover and the Tin Roof Duo.
“Our biggest hope is that the music community here in Niagara is going to support it,” says Rapelje, who helped open Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort’s Avalon Ballroom and St. Catharines’ FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre. “Niagara has so many great performers and it’s great we’re able to do this.”
With a glut of livestream events happening in wake of COVID-19, Rapelje wanted “Showcase Niagara” to stand out. He went to industry professionals Dean Malton and Corey MacFadyen for the audio, Paul Rozen to direct and edit them, and Jeff Hardy to market them. Pamela Hilded joined the team this week as content editor.
All artists film their segments in advance and submit them online. Rapelje says the audio engineers will fine-tune the sound to make it pop more than a typical livestream broadcast.
“When we first got together we noticed the technology right now just doesn’t support the live broadcast of music,” he says. “Doing it this way, we’ve been able to sort of clean it all up,” he says. “We won’t get the lags and the delays and the bandwidth issues that you see.”
The second episode airing May 13 will feature Jessica Wilson, Evan Jeffrey, Spencer McKenzie, The Mandevilles and Ryan Guay of Street Pharmacy, while the third episode on May 20 has Brad Battle, Mel Monaco, Katey Gatta, Nathan Warriner and Elton Lammie.
All episodes are hosted by Niagara comedian David Green, and are sponsored by PenFinancial Credit Union. Episodes will air at 7 p.m. on the Showcase Niagara Facebook page.