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Wednesday, July 25. 2001 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER C3 Leam to ` write with Summer jazz concerts free at Ontario Place style'at workshop Writing with Style, a one-day creative writing workshop, will tackle the "nitty-gritty" of writing well on Saturday, July 28 from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Oakville Central Library at 120 Navy St. In this hands-on workshop, participants will dis cover how to avoid common errors and will leam techniques that draw readers into a story. Workshop leader Brian Henry will also demon strate how writing can be made more vivid, more ele gant and more powerful. Henry has been an ecjitor for 17 years. He teaches creative writing at Ryerson Polytechnical University and George Brawn College and has led workshops from Ottawa to Boston. Cost is $35. Advance registration only. For information or to register, call Bev Meincke at 905-336-1279 or e-mail Henry at b.henry@ 3web.net. JAZZ FM91 will present a Summer o f Jazz, free concert series at the Island Club, Ontario Place, Saturdays at 8 p.m. until Sept. 15, featuring bopping big bands, dixieland,swing, contemporary, blues, and funky world beats. This Saturday, July 28, Radio Nomad will hit the Island Club stage with world beat music, followed by Everyting Irie's Caribbean beat on Aug. 4. Then on Aug. 11, former Oakville resident, Anna Romain, will present her tradition al style jazz. Luis Mario Ochoa & Cimarron will add Latin rhythms to the mix on Aug. 18, followed by the Ragweed Jazz Band with its Dixieland jazz on Aug. 25. For more information about Ontario Place, including directions, visit www.ontarioplace.com. For more on the free jazz concerts, visit the JAZZ FM 91 website at www.jazz.fm. Glen Abbey Child Care Centre 1240 Old Abbey Lane Rent or buy original art Original art work by well-known Canadian artists is available for rent or sale on the second floor of Oakville Galleries at Gairloch Gardens, 1306 Lakeshore Rd. E., every Sunday and Thursday, from 1 to 5 p.m. Although art can only be rented by members of Oakville Galleries, a membership is only $25 per year and includes other perks such as a 10% discount off merchandise in The Gallery Shop and free admission to a number of other galleries, including the McMichael Gallery and the Art Gallery of Ontario. For more information call Oakville Galleries Volun teer Association's Art Rental and Sales at 338-0117. OPEN HOUSE Saturday, July 28 9:00 a .m .-3:00 p.m . Accepting Septem ber Registration Preschool & JK/SK Programs F/T, P/T & Alternate Day Care Available %r (905) 849-GROW ARE YOU SMILING? You can like Lorranine, our Oakville client, who has lost 40 lbs! Photo by Peter C. McCusker Frank King, tenor extraordinaire, will be one of over 1,000 performers in this year's Royal Bank Seniors' Jubilee. Jubilee of energetic, eclectic entertainers Brigadoon and got the role of Char lie... And that started a nine-year rela ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR tionship with the Burlington Light rank King tried singing for his Opera Society," King says, rhyming supper, but soon discovered off all the BLOS productions he was that the meals would be few involved in, along with his role in and far between. So he decid each. And once he was back in the singing saddle, he never dismounted, ed to pursue a more lucrative career in engineering. returning to the Royal Conservatory of Music to continue his vocal training. But singing remained his passion. Now, at 62, the Oakville tenor During that time, a friend con looks back on his musical career with vinced him to audition for the COC, fondness and only a hint of "what if?" which he did. Shortly afterwards he What if he had accepted that job was sent a contract to sing with the with the CBC in 1968? That offer opera chorus. "I was astounded that, at seemed to be the turning point in his my age, I was at a level that was musical career - the point when his acceptable...The voice is still there singing was put on the back burner and in good form," he says with a hint while he earned a living and raised a of a Scottish brogue. family. The job offer was the result of That "acceptable" voice has been a program he had done with the CBC featured in concerts at St. John's Unit staff players - a drama group. ed Church and on a CD with Brian "TTien I got this offer from CBC to Turnbull, titled Count Your Blessings. do the m usical version o f `Tom And now, in his retirement (from Jones'...I had responsibilities, and the engineering, not singing), King's dul music scene in Toronto was not that cet tenor tones can be heard annually great...D o I quit my job and take this? in the Wee Celebration at the Oakville No, I can't do that," he decided, also Museum on Robbie Bums Day as well turning down an offer to join the as each August at Roy Thomson Hall Canadian Opera Company (COC). during the Royal Bank Seniors' "Then I didn't sing from 1968 until Jubilee. 1980.1 went to work for Atomic Ener Both gigs have been long-term gy of Canada, and I stayed there for 28 the first since its inception, the second years, until I retired six years ago." since 1996 when his audition turned King says his mother claims that he into a one-hour private concert for the started singing as early as age 4, but jubilee's artistic director. his first recollection was at 11, when "H e's a big Mario Lanza fan," King he sang in "gang shows" with the Boy explains. "I've been in the show ever Scouts in his native Scotland. since. And I've been in the opening At 16 he auditioned for and was production every year since, which is accepted as a student at the Royal an overture to a well-known Broad Scottish Academy of Music. After way show. It's a big production num graduation, he performed in a number ber. And I've written the words for of concerts, musicals and operettas. that opening for the last four years." King recalls growing up in the He says the Seniors' Jubilee not 1950s when the music industry was only gives him an opportunity to sing, exploding with the "romantic music" both in the opening number and as a of Mario Lanza and Frank Sinatra, fol soloist, but has introduced him to lowed by the likes of Perry Como, many new friends and reconnected him Eddie Fisher and Elvis Presley. with voices and faces from the past. "I saw Mario Lanza the year before "I am in awe of a lot of the people he died. He was doing a concert tour I m eet," he says, adding that the in Europe," King recalls with obvious jubilee entertainers provide positive admiration for a man he refers to as "a proof that age has nothing to do with big influence" on his singing career. talent, enthusiasm or energy. `There "Lanza was the greatest tenor voice are 1,300 performers every week, with that I have ever heard in my life, but a different show each day. One woman he refused to train. Everybody is who plays the piano is 92.. .1 am grate touched in their lifetime by different ful that I can still do this, that I have people." this opportunity to perform and that In 1963, the Scottish singer immi people still want me to perform." grated to Canada. "A fter the war, King will be in the opening number things were not too good in Britain," each day of the five-day run this year he recalls, adding that Toronto in the t Aug. 13 to 17 - and will perform his early '60s bore no resemblance to the two solo numbers on the Wednesday Toronto of today with all its mega and Thursday of that week. musicals, operas, concerts, and so on. His mother will make her annual "I had to go around and find things to trek from Scotland to hear her son do (m usically)...I was in the original sing. This year he will serenade her version of Mr. Scrooge. I played the with Danny Boy and a new "very schoolmaster and the undertaker. I was poignant" song titled My Son. still doing these shows, even though I "Music to me is something that is a was working." special thing. It gives me an opportu Five years later, he abandoned nity to touch people," says King. "It's singing altogether, only to be reunited not about the notes, it's about the feel 12 years later, after meeting a member ings. Presley touched a lot of people. of the Burlington Light Opera Society. Sinatra touched a lot of people. It's all During their conversation, he told of about moving people." his vast musical experiences. If you want to be moved by the "He went home that night and said music in this year's Seniors' Jubilee at to his wife, `I met this guy tonight who Roy Thomson Hall, tickets, which thinks he can sing, and I've invited range from $15 to $28, are available him over on Saturday morning to lis by calling the box office at 416-872ten to Brigadoon to see if he's inter 4255 or visiting the web at ested in coming out.' I auditioned for www.roythomson.com. By Carol Baldwin F - ^Bmtters - Sculptors -jew elers £jlass c Bloxvers - 'Jbtters - (M bod r Turners A K V IL L E L O C IE T Y % Get a charge out o f being slim! 4RT V V c ig h > M a n a g e i 'n t f n t M itel N u t r i i i o n u I 3 R D LINE n tr« *» k E p re s e n ts 120 e x h ib it o r s fr o m a c ro s s O n ta rio . B ronte W aterfron t Heritage Park, at the fo o t o f B ron te Rd. ABBEYWOOD DR. 1395 Abbeywood Rd. OAKVILLE (In the Bruno's Fine Foods plaza) (9 0 5 J 4 6 9 -4 5 3 2 ------ CH =W ------ w w w .oakville-art~society.com O p en M o n d a y - F rid a y 9 -7 & S a tu rd a y 9-4 ROYAL B AN K FESTIVAL OF CLASSICS in association with THE OAKVILLE CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS presents JULY 1 8 - A U G 11,2001 CORONATION PARK, OAKVILLE M o n d ay - S a tu rd a y at 8 pm T IC K E T S : 905-815-2021 S16 GENERAL ADMISSION "Great enchantment" ROBERT CREW, THE TORONTO STAR "Young cast shines! Alive with witty characters CAROL BALDWIN, THE OAKVILLE BEAVER "Inventive and energetic!" RAY C0NL0GUE, THE GLOBE AND MAIL TH AM 7 4 0 III r»> a g g d t&gfii ROYAL BAN K FIN AN CIA L GROUP C '......... w M ake the most o f y o u r dream. / ^ O a k v ille B e a v e r t