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www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, February 1, 2012 · 16 Artscene Last call for contest entry Bands, get rocking. This is your last call to enter Metroland's Best of the West battle of the bands contest for a chance to perform on stage at the Burlington Sound of Music Festival in June. Entering is simple. Upload a one- to three-minute video to YouTube. Make sure you keep your video short, the music in good taste and the material totally original. Then check out The Oakville Beaver's website, www.oakvillebeaver.com, click on the Metroland's Best of the West logo and fill out the required information. After registering, give us a call to confirm we received your entry. Editor Angela Blackburn, at 905-845-3824, is waiting to hear from you. Time is running out. The deadline for entries is Friday, Feb. 3 at 11:59 p.m. The fourth instalment of the sound off is brought to you by the Flamborough Review, Burlington Post, Milton Canadian Champion and The Oakville Beaver community newspapers, which will publish the names of their respective entrants the week of Feb. 6. That same week, we'll also encourage local readers to check out your video and vote for their favourite band online. The band with the most votes in each region will be featured in a print edition of their hometown paper and moves on to the contest's championship round to battle it out for the Best of the West title. The winner, which will be announced the week of March 12, will be featured again ­ this time in all four publications. Metroland's Best of the West contest is open to local bands with members between the ages of 15 and 25. At least one member of the group must be a permanent resident of Oakville in order to be eligible for the contest. For more information or to enter the contest, visit www.oakvillebeaver.com. No purchase necessary. The contest is open to bands that have at least one or more band members permanently residing in one of the four following Ontario communities: Burlington, Flamborough, Milton or Oakville. All members must be between the ages of 15 and 25 at the time of entry in the contest. Odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries received. One grand prize will be awarded. Approximate retail value of the grand prize is $0. Entrants must correctly answer, unaided, a mathematical skill-testing question to be declared a winner. Contest closes March 9, 2012 at 5 p.m. EST. To enter and for complete rules visit www.oakvillebeaver.com. Steven Der-Garabedian / special to the beaver diva sound: Members of the Oakville Symphony Orchestra are rehearsing for this weekend's pair of concerts. It will be the group's first Symphony honoured by `extraordinary' gift By Dominik Kurek OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF The Oakville Symphony Orchestra has been trying to improve the sound in The Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts for quite some time. Thanks to one of its founding members, Jean Grieve, that goal has been achieved. Grieve has made a financial contribution to the symphony for the purchase of a Wenger Diva Acoustic Shell. "This is a total surprise to us," said symphony chair Simon Scott. "We've been working for four years on trying to make this work financially with the Town. We knew we would go out and fundraise for a part of this, but to get this gift out of the blue was quite extraordinary." The shell will first be seen at the symphony's upcoming Valentine's concerts on Saturday and Sunday (Feb. 4, 5). Mayor Rob Burton is expected to make an appearance to receive the shell on behalf of the Town of Oakville as the acoustic shell will remain at The Centre. "There are a number of other performance art groups who will use it, mainly musical groups. We want to donate it so that it is made available for any other groups," Scott said. The shell itself helps project the sound off the stage onto the audience. It goes all the way around the orchestra and it features removable panels, so it can be installed and removed as needed. "It's a spectacular improvement of acoustics and visual appearance of The Oakville Centre. It will be a huge event for us to have this," Scott said. "It will help the musicians. We've always had a problem hearing each other because the sound is so dead there and it will help push the sound out onto the audience." This is phase one of the symphony's program to improve the audio quality in the venue. Scott said the symphony hopes to eventually put a roof on the shell, which will help project the sound to the audience even more, and to make some electronic enhancements. Thanks to Grieve's contribution, the sound quality of The Centre has been improved greatly, Scott noted. "We planned to order this. We went out to fundraise but we found a very generous donor, who has made this possible," he added. Grieve made a donation for the full price of the acoustic shell. The pair of concerts, titled Romantic Legends, will feature music from the Romantic era. They will feature such music as Pelleas et Melisande Suite, written by conductor Gabriel Faure, Scherzo Fantastique by composer Josef Suk and Piano Concerto #4 by Ludwig van Beethoven. Pianist Elissa Miller-Kay will be the guest soloist at the concert. Tickets cost $51. The Saturday concert starts at 8 p.m. and the Sunday show is at 2 p.m. The Centre is located at 130 Navy St. For tickets, visit www.oakvillecentre. ca. Dominik Kurek can be followed on Twitter at @DominikKurek. performance with the new Wenger Diva Acoustic Shell, pictured behind the musicians. Oakville-filmed Dream House out on DVD The partially Oakville-filmed Dream House is now available on DVD. The psychological thriller was released yesterday. The film's "dream" home was filmed in Oakville's Gairloch Gardens. A duplicate The Thing on video The science fiction horror The Thing, featuring Oakville actor Kim Bubbs, was released on DVD yesterday. Bubbs plays a French geologist who helps uncover an alien frozen in Antarctica. home shell was also built in the garden and was burned during shooting. The Oakville portions of the film were shot in the spring of 2010. Dream House stars Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts.