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www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Friday, May 11, 2012 · 34 Pop culture Artscene Jazz music for Food for Life By Dominik Kurek OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF People are invited to come out to an afternoon where they can tap their toes to live jazz music while supporting a program that feeds Halton's hungry. Tempus Choral Society is presenting its spring concert, titled Blue Skies, at ClearView Christian Reform Church on Saturday. "It's a really upbeat concert," said music director Brian Turnbull. "There's 90 voices and if you like listening to real music that you can sing along to and tap your foot to, then you'll enjoy the concert." The choral society will donate 60 per cent of the profits from the concert to Haltonbased Food for Life. The organization collects surplus perishable food in the region, and delivers it to a local network of approximately 40 social service organizations and nearly 40 outreach programs in low-income neighbourhoods. Last year, the organization delivered more than one million pounds of food. Tempus regularly supports a local charitable initiative and this year it chose Food for Life as a beneficiary of its spring concert. "One of the singers is a member of (Food for Life). She does a lot of work for the organization so we decided to go with them," Turnbull said. The jazz concert will feature music such as the theme from the television series Hawaii Five-O; popular hits written by Irving Berlin, including Alexander's Ragtime Band, Play a Simple Melody, Blue Skies and Puttin' on the Ritz; a song called Amani (which means `peace') sung in Swahili and much more. "There's a lot of stuff from musicals. There will be a lot of tunes that people will recognize and that's what's really going to appeal to the audience," Turnbull said. The choir will also sing four pieces that it will perform at the World Choir Games in July, taking place in Cincinnati. The games are held every two years and are described as the largest choral competition in the world. It will feature nearly 400 choirs from 48 countries. This is also the first time the event will be held in the U.S. Tempus Choral Society will be competing in the jazz category. The Saturday concert begins at 3 p.m. Tickets cost $25. The church is located at 2300 Sheridan Garden Dr. For more information or tickets, visit www.tempuschoralsociety.com. nikki wesley / oakville beaver / @halton_photog on show: Quinn Hopkins, 14, holds up his Jean-Michel Basquiat-inspired artwork in front of Grades 5-7 pieces at Fern Hill School's annual art show called Vernissage on Tuesday morning. Students from Grades 1-8 created pieces with the theme of pop art in mind, inspired by artists such as Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Claes Oldenburg. Celebrate Mother's Day with Canadian music By Dominik Kurek OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF The Oakville Ensemble is inviting people to take their mothers out to a night or afternoon of Canadian folk and choral music. The group is hosting a pair of concerts on Saturday and Sunday, titled Triumph of the Spirit, named after music written by the late Canadian composer Srul Irving Glick. "This concert is for people who want a good cheer-up with a tear or two, because there's some very poignant music in the Glick, that's the concert," said Stéphane Potvin, artistic director and founder. The concert will feature the ensemble's choir, no orchestra for this performance, with the accompaniment of Andrei Streliaev, an Oakville pianist. The concert will feature Triumph of the Spirit, which is based on texts from the Bible. Two of the three movements are written in Hebrew. Aside from Glick, the choir will perform a number of Canadian folk songs. "I wanted to do a program of Canadian music," Potvin said. The concert will feature a collection of early French-Canadian music written by Donald Patriquin, as well as Huron first nations dance song, music from Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. "We have heritage from east to west, pretty much the whole country being covered there," Potvin said. Potvin said the choral parts of Glick's music are beautiful and grand, especially his favourite movement, Avinu Malkeinu (Our Father, Our King). "It's just pure beauty," he said. "It just builds. It's one voice with one melody and you have the harmony that comes in and the melody passes to the other parts. It just grows. You've got this beautiful singing with a very wide range of voices." Potvin said people of Jewish backgrounds will be interested in the music, as it speaks to the triumph of the spirit over the dark times, such as the holocaust. But the music is about more than that. It's about surviving all human trials. "It's about triumph over the difficult times, those really dark moments. This music speaks to surviving," he said. The story of survival will also be evident in the folk music. "The songs are from early Canada. There was no TV, no internet, no iPad or anything like that. It was living in the wood and trying to make the best of life with those songs," Potvin said. The Oakville Children's Choir will also perform separately at the two concerts. The two groups are planning a joint concert in the future. There will also be a display of visual art at the concerts. Additionally, young players from the Oakville Suzuki Association will welcome the audience into the venue prior to the Sunday concert. The Saturday concert will take place at St. John's United Church, 262 Randall St., at 7:30 p.m. and the Sunday concert will take place at Mary Mother of God Catholic Church, 2745 North Ridge Trail, at 3 p.m. Advance tickets cost $25 for general admission, $15 for seniors and students or $50 for a family. Tickets at the door cost $35 for general admission, $25 for seniors, $15 for students or $70 for a family. For tickets, visit www.oakville-ensemble.ca or call 905825-9740.