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The scientific case for live music
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2010/01/The-Scientific-Case-for-Live-Music.mp3[/podcast] Music today is ubiquitous, both in public spaces like malls, elevators and offices and in the very private space between an individual’s ears, courtesy of personal music players. But that’s all recorded music. Live music remains far rarer. Live musicians may occasionally show up in a public space, but you generally have to seek them out. Which raises an interesting question. Do we perceive music differently when we watch it being played than we do when we are only listening to a recording? Michael Schutz is both a noted percussionist and a noted researcher. Currently an assistant professor at McMaster University, he runs a research lab dedicated to studying the cognitive science of music, and the visual component of music is something ...My preview of this weekend’s South Saskatchewan Youth Orchestra Christmas brunch…
...is in today's Leader Post. It begins: What could be better than a wonderful Christmas brunch onstage at the Conexus Arts Centre? How about a wonderful Christmas brunch followed by a performance by the South Saskatchewan Youth Orchestra? That's exactly the hard-to-imagine-a-better-than event scheduled for this Sunday. A silent auction and food kick off the event at 11 a.m., with the concert to follow. Conductor Alan Denike will lead the 45-member orchestra, made up of players whose ages range from 12 to their early 20s, in Peter Warlock's Capriol Suite, selections from Carmen by Georges Bizet, and Leroy Anderson's Christmas Festival, before finishing up with sing-along carols.My review of Saturday’s Regina Symphony Orchestra concert…
...is in today's LeaderPost. It begins: There's something surreal about watching a symphony orchestra decked out in iterations of green and white playing Prokofiev and Mendelssohn, but even if clothes make the man, they don't make (or unmake) the concert, and the Regina Symphony Orchestra gave another terrific performance Saturday night at the Conexus Arts Centre. The highlight was Prokofiev's "Second Piano Concerto," considered one of the most difficult pieces of piano music ever composed -- and yet, so well played by soloist Hung-Kuan Chen that if conductor Victor Sawa hadn't told the audience how difficult it was they might not have suspected it -- unless they were among the half of the crowd who could see Chen's fingers flying up ...My preview of the Regina Symphony Orchestra concert featuring pianist Hung-Kuan Chen…
...is online at the Regina Leader Post. It begins: Pianist Hung-Kuan Chen isn't one to shy away from a challenge. Neither is Regina Symphony Orchestra maestro Victor Sawa.Which is why Saturday's Mosaic Masterworks concert at the Conexus Arts Centre features Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2, which Sawa calls "arguably the toughest concerto ever written." "Normally, piano music has a bass staff and a treble staff," Sawa says. "This has three. There are so many notes he couldn't even get it on two staffs!" Because of the difficulty, the concerto is rarely heard. "Everyone is too afraid to play it," Sawa says. But not Chen.Tent Meeting featured in LeaderPost
No, I haven't been blogging much. There's the novel to rewrite and the Johnny Cash biography to proofread and Fine Lifestyles Regina editing duties to look after and...well, lots. Including directing and being part of the cast of Tent Meeting, Regina Lyric Musical Theatre's fall show, which opens next Tuesday, November 3, and runs through November 8 at the Shumiatcher Theatre in the MacKenzie Art Gallery. I'd tell you about it, but you can read all about it in today's Regina LeaderPost. The story begins: Regina Lyric Musical Theatre's production of the gospel-flavoured musical Tent Meeting opens on Tuesday. Edward Willett, who is directing and performing in the play, ...My review of Robert Michaels’s concert with the Regina Symphony Orchestra…
...was in yesterday's Regina LeaderPost. It begins: It's a cliche, after a concert on a chilly Saskatchewan night, to say something about the performer heating things up inside despite the world outside having turned prematurely white. But if there were ever a performer to whom that cliche was perfectly suited, it would have to be Robert Michaels, the Juno Award-winning guitarist who joined forces with the Regina Symphony Orchestra for Saturday's Flamenco Fire concert, the first in this year's Shumiatcher Pops Series. From the opening number, it was easy to imagine, as Maestro Victor Sawa suggested, that you were sitting in Spain's Sierra ...A preview of Flamenco Fire, the Regina Symphony Pops concert featuring guitarist Robert Michaels
My preview of this Saturday's Flamenco Fire Regina Symphony Orchestra Shumiatcher Pops concert, featuring guitarist Robert Michaels, is in today's Regina LeaderPost. It begins: For every form of music there are purists who say of certain practitioners, "That's not really (whatever form of music they're a purist in)." Guitarist Robert Michaels admits Flamenco purists might say the same about Flamenco Fire, the concert he'll perform with the Regina Symphony Orchestra on Saturday. But the man the Ottawa Sun once dubbed "Flamenco's version of Led Zeppelin axe-god Jimmy Page" is OK with that. Saturday's high-energy show, he ...Music files once more online!
A website is never really finished, and I'm still working on this one, exploring the possibilities of the new design and adding in some things that haven't yet made the transition from the old site to the new one. I've just restored my page of music files. These are recordings of myself with various choruses and groups, ranging from the Harding University A Cappella Chorus and Men's Ensemble up through Midnight Sun (the a cappella group I sang with in the '9s, the University of Regina Chamber Singers, Livingston Square and Lyric Musical Theatre. There is also a recording of my dad singing Just A Closer Walk and other odds and ends. Check it out!Two more Follies performances left…
Jeff Tonita and company sing "Live, Laugh, Love" [caption id="attachment_9154" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Eduardo and Monica Ventura dance "Bolero D'Amour""][/caption] ...and then I can think about other things again. After a week of rehearsals and performances mixed in with other stuff, I was more tired after last night's show than I think can remember ever being before. But a good night's sleep took care of that, and now I'm looking forward to the final show tonight. [caption id="attachment_9153" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="Marianne Woods as Stella Deems and Aubree Erickson as Young Stell, "Who's That Woman?""]...Follies opens tonight!
It's opening night for Lyric Musical Theatre of Regina's production of Stephen Sondheim's legendary musical Follies. We're quite certain this is the first time the show has ever been done in Saskatchewan, and there's a strong possibility it's the first time there's been a fully-staged version of it in Canada (although there have certainly been concert versions of it, most recently at last summer's Shaw Festival). Here's how the website sondheim.com describes the show: “This musical, with a book by James Goldman, takes place at a reunion of ...
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Terra Insegura
Finalist for the 2010 Prix Aurora Award for Best Novel in English
Marseguro, a water world far from Earth, is home to a colony of humans and the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from modified human DNA. For seventy years the colony has lived in peace. Then Earth discovers Marseguro, and a strike force is sent to eradicate this “abomination.” But Marseguro has created a genetically tailored plague to use against Earth’s Holy Warriors. With the enemy defeated, the people of Marseguro feel they are safe. But Chris Keating, the traitor who signaled Marseguro’s location to the Holy Warriors, has fled to Earth, unknowingly carrying the deadly plague within him. The people of Marseguro feel they must send a ship to Earth with a life-saving vaccine. Only time will tell what awaits them when they reach their destination.
Marseguro
Winner of the 2009 Prix Aurora Award for Best Long-Form Work in English
Water world Marseguro is home to the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from human DNA. When an unmodified human seeks revenge on a Selkie by activating a distress beacon taken from the remains of the original colony ship, a strikeforce is sent from Earth to eradicate the genetic abomination. Yet Marseguro will not prove as easy to conquer as the Earth force anticipates…
Lost in Translation
Kathryn was a human empath whose world and life had been destroyed when the alien S’sinn slaughtered her parents before her very eyes. Jarrikk was a young S’sinn, an unproven warrior who’d seen his flight mates slaughtered by the humans who’d sought to colonize his world.
As humans and S’sinn found themselves on the brink of war, these two Translators had to work together to find a common ground and avert catastrophe. But whether their Translators’ oath and training could overcome the enemies leagued against them was very much in doubt…
Archives
Historic Walks of Regina and Moose Jaw
Ten walks to points of historic and architectural interest in the cities of Regina and Moose Jaw (eight walks for Regina, two for Moose Jaw).
Disease-Hunting Scientist
The true stories of six real disease hunters. Epidemiologists travel the world trying to keep us safe from deadly diseases—from high-tech labs in Canada to remote villages in Africa. Learn how these “disease detectives” are coming up with new ways to fight disease, and find out if you have what it takes to become an epidemiologist, too!
The Bounty Mutiny
The Bounty was a British ship visiting Tahiti in 1789 when some of the crew overthrew the captain, William Bligh, and set him adrift in a tiny boat with sailors loyal to him. The mutiny resulted in a number of trials–both of the men who mutinied and of Bligh for losing command of his ship. These fascinating events have been the source for numerous Hollywood movies, most recently The Bounty. The Bounty Mutiny: From the Court Case to the Movie explores the famous case and the movies it inspired.
