Last Monday was the official tree lighting ceremony at Canuck Place children's hospice and I was honored to be able to provide some of the entertainment for the event. (My friend Rae gave me the heads up about the event so I emailed them and asked if I could be helpful.) The Vancouver Bach choir was the main focus of the night and they sounded just heavenly as they stood on the front steps near the tree and delivered their exquisite harmonies. They truly delighted the packed house full of CP supporters and VIP's who were invited to the event.
The Vancouver Bach Choir and Fin!
The property is quite large however and near the side of the house under the gazebo was another mingling spot where all the treats hot chocolate and coffee were being served. The chior could not be heard all the way over there so, the organizers requested I provide some carols for that busy area. I was thrilled to say yes!
I asked two of my dear gal pals to join me Layla Naomi Vaugeois and Kimberly Baskerville (who are both very busy singers working in this city). Layla sings at the Roxy nightclub in downtown Vancouver, if you have ever been to the Roxy on a Wed-Thurs-Friday night, you have seen Layla rocking it with her band Troy's R Us. Kimmy is part of the legendary March Hare band.
Kimmy, Layla, Rach
The girls and I decided on our wardrobe, got together over a glass of wine and ran some songs together before showing up to Canuck Place. There was a lot of laughter and straight up silliness between us which carried on throughout the whole night right up till the very end where we were skipping through the xmas lights and doing cartwheels on the grounds. I love these girls! We really enjoyed singing together too, and the crowd was so warm and appreciative........ it was just a joy to be a part of the event.
Rehearsing tunes and picking our parts!
~Carol Time~
We even got to jam a song with Canuck mascot Fin!
Fin ROCKED!
When you are in the city this December do take yourself a little detour to check out the beautiful grounds of Canuck Place. They did an amazing job decorating the grounds and as the story is told, the Vancouver Canucks themselves dedicated a whole day on site, helping to hang the tens of thousands of Christmas lights that now sparkle throughout the property. What a team! What a facility! I'm just thinking before I sign off on this post, if you are looking for a place to make a charitable donation to this year, you may wish to consider supporting Canuck Place. They do a world of good for so many families. How special would it feel to know that you helped provide a little bit of comfort to families who are facing the most difficult time in their lives.
Oh my it's been a busy week, I have much to tell but because I have been so busy and I am way behind in sharing things, I can't even post the most recent event right yet, what I have to do is go back to a long overdue video. Considering my past week which included a car crash, some big stupid bills, a sick cat who needs medicine and dealing with the snarky receptionist at the vet as just some of the highlights, I think a revisit to the World Kindness Concert is very timely. I could do with the energy of these amazing people right now so I am quite glad this was next on my list.
The World Kindness concert was something I covered on a kind of special assignment for Kelly & Rach's All access pass. The concert was amazing, the video has been made and I can't wait to share it with you but not before I confess at how dissappointed in myself I am..... I actually LOST the footage of the finale!! Come ON Rach. My heart fell into my shoes when I figured that out because the finale featured my dear friend Tiffany Hambrook, who is the sweetest most soulful beautiful person ever and quite possibly feels the world deeper than I do in an 'everybody and everything' kind of way. I had been waiting to see Tiffany sing live for a long time, and I can't believe that when I finally got the chance to feature how fabulous she was is in a video of mine, I lost the footage. Sorry Tiff, I owe you one. xo
All is not lost however, because I can refer you to Thesa who was also filiming the event. THANK goodness someone else was there filming. I've not met her before but I emailed her and asked her for footage to use and she very kindly offered to send me whatever I needed. Our formats are very incompatible however and it was too much for me to co-ordinate, so the next best thing I figure is to feature Thesa's video with her view of the finale here on my blog, let's just consider Thesa's video as part two....... and please do say hi to a new 'video kid' in town Thesa Pakarnyk (she's also a singer)!
So, what is the world kindness concert? Basically a group of INCREDIBLE singer/songwriters, musicians and performers who are brought together to put on a magnificent concert aimed at raising awareness about bullying. Brock Tully is the man behind the curtain and being a man of many talents, he is also up front and centre stage. Brock is a published author and travelled speaker and his story is quite incredible. He tours around the continent on his bike (a pedal bike) going into schools telling kids in a very engaging & moving manner, just how and why they need to be kind to one another. I don't know very many souls who are as gentle as Brock Tully yet still hold the passion and will to move people and encourage change.
Brock assembled a group of like-minded individuals, all as talented as the sun is hot, and put on a show that I was quite excited to shoot. Some stand-outs for me, Shari Ulrich. Shari has always just mezmerized me whenever I see her onstage, I just adore watching multi-instrumentalists and especially people who can improvise and play along to most anything, and be so good and natural at it. Watching her play is not only just pure musical joy, it's like going to school in a way. I am so pleased to see she has a brand new Cd out (and just in time for Christmas) with a name that certainly speaks to me, it's called 'Find our Way'!
Then there was the legendary Susan Jacks, and the supremely gifted songwriter Ron Irving both of whom I wholly enjoy everytime I have the chance to see them live (I've blogged about Ron Irving and his songwriting before). I was also very delighted to see Cecile Larochelle when I got backstage, she is a lady whom I have only recently met but she was a standout from the first introduction. If you haven't met her already, Cecile is a dynamic performer, an accomplished singing coach and as I learned on that night, an inspirational presence to many as the leader of a choir of talented singers. Michael Vincent was also there singing songs from his recently released CD including one of my favorite's of his which is his version of What's Goin On. (click on his name to hear the song)
There were a number of performers whom I had not met before and it was inspiring to listen to all of them, they each brought their own unique voice and energy to the night. Anna Beaumont, Ivan Boudreau, Denise Hagan , Veronica Iza, Aaron Junior Turner, and finally but possibly most noteably Michaela Slinger a 13 year old dynamo of a singer whom I suspect we will hear a lot more of in the future. All I can say about her is, wow~!
It was a beauty of a night, I can't say enough great things about it. Do watch for the World Kindness Concert to come around next year and please, and if bullying is a problem at your kids school, consider asking your principle to invite Brock Tully to bring his heartfelt message and program to your children and community.
More than 250 students from Kwaleen, Nesika and Cataline elementary schools came together last week at the Gibraltar Room in Wiliams lake for a mass concert in praise of nature.
The concert, called Up Your Watershed, was the culmination of weeks of work by individual teachers with their students, that was buffed up in workshops this week with Artists Response Team, Voices of Nature professional musicians Holly Arntzen, Kevin Wright, Shawn Soucy and Rachael Chatoor.
~ I have explained in greater detail what the Up your Watershed Tour is about in an earlier post, right here!~
Today, I'm sharing this video note to the kids, and below, I've included some of the pictures I took last week which should give you a glimpse of what our days leading up to the big show were like while hanging and working with the children !
~video note, this is a heart I send out to ALL of the kids~
SO, day one and we wasted no time at all getting to work! We went to two schools each day at first and spent a few hours at each. Here we are in the gym with the kids and the teachers, going over the songs and blocking out the concert.
~Holly Arntzen and Keven Wright are the creative force behind this whole operation, everything runs just tickety boo in this outfit. Part of the brilliance of this concert is the learning element that is inherent in the participation. Here, Holly and Kevin are reading the song introductions that the children wrote themselves. ~
~It was so cute, the intros that were chosen to be read out onstage, were read by the children who wrote them. They were so sincere and thoughtful. I'm not at all kidding when I say this, these kids had me very misty eyed several times throughout the week~
~rehearsals~
~more rehearsals~
~auditions for the solo parts~
~Shawn was named the official leader of the Salmon People~
~Shawn Soucy, Kevin Wright~
~Kevin had those kids in the palm of his hand~
~I think my guitar and bass look ideally suited for this gig don't you?~
~Holly, moi, and our totally adorable, especially helpful host Bev, out on a tour of Scout Island which is maintained by the Nature Trust. Bev Anderson and Marg Evans (not pictured) play a major role in the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society, they are great supporters of the Up your Watershed program.
~peaceful and pretty~
Bev from the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society invited the band out to lunch at the Gecko Tree Cafe. By all accounts this turned out to be the best little eatery in Williams Lake, we went there 3 times in 3 days because they served up such delicious and fresh food.
(which is just what you want when you are out on the road)
Finding fresh food on the road...... it is like finding fairy dust, you become very thankful for it.
I think that if we had known about this place on the first day, we would have eaten there even more frequently than we did.
So, it was 8 thumbs up for the Gecko Tree!
SHOW DAY!
~rehearsal morning, day of the show the kids are briefed by Holly, the energy is high, the room feels exciting, they can see now, this is a real show.......she has them entranced!~
~the Gibraltar Room~
Holly Arntzen
~show night was a thrill, the kids were ON~
(there will be promo DVD's of the concert if you would like to see the show)
Kevin Wright vocals, percussion, sax, bass
Shawn Soucy, drums, percussion, vocals
Rachael Chatoor vocals, bass, guitar
~totally awesome kids (and a gorgeous big hug for me from Danika)~
~more awesome kids~
~THANK YOU for all the treats and love you gave us all~
~after the show we signed a lot of autographs~
I was personally so very impressed, witnessing Holly's pure musicianship and magic while she is onstage performing. She is flawless, like liquid, just being the music. Not only is it fortunate for the children to be around her, but for me as well. I will learn so much from her as I go through this process. Already I've been required to push myself farther than I am comfortable going, already I have fallen and picked myself up. There was no reproach just encouragement. I can see there are things for me to learn here, and to give. I seem to be ideally set up to fill some of the holes that the project needs filling and that is important to me, perfect. I feel so awkward just taking. It's much easier on the soul to give back in some way, it feels right. And so what do I do? I share the project online, in my own special way, so that other schools and children may see how fulfilling a project this is, and perhaps, you want your school to be a part of it.
Interested to know more?
Talk to Holly and Kevin through their website, or come to a show.
More shows upcoming...... Surrey (Dec. 3 - Bell Performing Arts Centre), Vancouver (Jan. 21, 2010 - Norman Rothstein Theatre) Vancouer (Mar. 2, 2010 - Vancouver East Cutural Centre).
So after the show, still basking in the glow of it all, the band joined a super cute and sweet Shirley from the Daybeak Rotary Club (who was a big help in this whole project) for some after show chillax-ing Williams Lake style. We were discussing difficult situations where language barriers were clearly an issue, and I found it interesting when Shirley asked us if we knew what hand gesture could be most universally used to diffuse any difficult situation where language could be a barrier that would create misunderstanding?
We all gave our guesses which ranged from a hand held out for a handshake, to the indian placing his hand high in the air in the classic 'how', to the hippie love peace sign....... every one could be mis-interpreted somewhere for some silly reason. All except one........ .
Keep that in mind, it may come in handy one day.
I promised my friend Rae that I would say hi to Green Lake when I passed it. This was shot from a swiftly moving car shortly after I caught the one single teeny tiny sign on the whole 6 hours of road that pointed the way. And I said, " Hi Green Lake" as I drove past!
I have many complicated missions to achieve in a day you know. :)
Ok I am going to share some information with you that is as valuable as gold. The League of Rock corporate events are coming to Vancouver (& Toronto, New York, Chicago).
If you are working in a large corporation that occasionally offers leadership development and/or team building events for its staff, then I urge you to watch the below posted video and then send this link to your Human Resources person today.
I love it, this is not your dull boring corporate conference, this is genius rolled into engaging fun.
League Of Rock's coaches, professional musicians and event production team work together with this program to provide a truly powerful and unique opportunity. Bring together colleagues of vastly differing social and professional backgrounds and use the universal power of music to communicate on levels they never have before.
With individual personalities and specific goals in mind, you'll place them in a highly collaborative situation where they must prepare for a final performance under a compressed deadline. During the process our professional song writing coaches and musicians ensure great songs are produced while everyone enjoys the process.
Tell me you don't love this? Tell me you don't want to get up and rock at your next conference and have the chance to meet and learn from musical celebs and personalities. You want an experience for your company? I would! Call them. :)
And hey now that we are talking the League of Rock, what is happening with "League" side of things anyway? Yes, the corporate world aside, things are rocking! There are a bunch of folks who signed up for the second session and its funny but I can really see a difference in all of the returning members. Right away there was an air of confidence about them that wasn't present in the first session, it's as if they all just know its going to turn out fun and fine so they settle in and chill quicker. Most everyone by now is settling into their bands and finding their voice within them. The community is warm and supportive and everyone is starting to gel. We only have one more rehearsal before the first training showcase, which will be held at the Fairview pub. Its going to be very interesting.
So now, I'll take you back in time a few weeks to the session I was in because finally we have all the videos up from the final showcase for the League of Rock~!
I have posted just the videos from my band Know Mercy's performances, and then one video from another band, Wicked Skinny. You can see how my attempts at bass turned out after 10 weeeks of trying, and also enjoy Stephen Pallivicini's first time ever onstage. It was such a fun night, and its remarkable to think that none of us knew each other 10 weeks beforehand and now there we are up playing onstage at the Yale, having just recorded in a studio together.
If you would like to see more from all the other bands from the final LOR showcase you can veiw all the rest of the videos from the night here!
So.....
Want to join a band, or bring the League of Rock to your workplace?
Click this link and give Terry a call, tell him Rach sent ya!
I recently took a road trip over to the island for two days of rehearsals with Holly Arntzen and Kevin Wright over at their work studio in Crofton BC. The rehearsal setting was idyllic as the house was nestled in a mini countryside community at the edge of a cliff overlooking the water.
On a break from the rehearsal I took a windy path down to the beach and stood there breathing in the salty air as I looked out over the water to the island directly in front of me, and I noted to myself that it seemed quite perfect that I was learning songs about sustainability and the environment while situated in such a gorgeous setting. It felt good to be there.
.
We were there preparing for the concert that we are scheduled to perform next week in Williams Lake. You see last spring I was asked to be a part of an Artist Response Team. ART is a small group of musicians who travel into schools to rehearse songs with students for a concert performance/learning program called "Up your Watershed" sponsored by THINK SALMON, an initiative of the Fraser Salmon & Watersheds Program which is jointly managed by Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF) and Fraser Basin Council (FBC), two non-profits dedicated to ensuring sustainable Pacific salmon stocks.
The goal of the Up Your Watershed Tour is to promote broader understanding of the importance of watershed stewardship, and to inspire positive action and behavior change in residents of Fraser Basin communities. We do this by going into schools and using music to spread the message. In the the weeks leading up to the concert the schools teachers use ART’s Cycle of Life and Salish Sea learning resources to provide activities in their classes that are linked to song lyrics. The beauty of this program is that is was designed to also fulfill prescribed learning outcomes. I love that part in particular (for the teachers) because it helps them reach their teaching objectives, rather than burdening them with extra activities to fit into their cumbersome curriculum. The bonus for the children is that the information is delivered in an engaging and inspiring way. Win, win.
Local conservation groups are invited to provide additional resources, speakers, workshops and field trips to the schools. Involving the communities is another place where the win/win factor is high. The sponsors and companies involved all support one another in spreading the message.
The culminating event is a fabulous concert that features student choirs performing with Holly Arntzen, Kevin Wright and the Dream Band. Beautifully illustrated printed programs are distributed to audience members with lyrics and information. Students deliver song introductions that they create, talking about the issues in the songs, and what they think people can do to help. KEVIN WRIGHT
For more information you can check out the website, and if you think you want your school to participate just contact Holly or Kevin through this link!
I will be updating as we go through this process, there are a number of schools scheduled to be involved over the year including the school my own children go to. I have been helping with the shows there on and off for a number of years and I am terrifically excited to have been instrumental in bringing this particular program to our students. Our children will possibly even have the opportunity to sing on the next recording that Holly & Kevin do ( a project that will tie into a book launch my school is doing, the project connects to VANOC, which will be reported on later on this blog). More win/win.
There are many exciting things on the horizon in fact, for instance while we are on the road next week, there will be a video and documentary shot for and about the project. I'll make sure I keep some tabs on the behind the scenes for that as well, you'll be looped.
So next week I will be heading up to Williams Lake for my first performance as part of the Dream Band. Interestingly it was my new gig with the League of Rock (which had me playing the bass for the first time) that gave me the ability and confidence to try and to use an instrument that I never expected to have the opportunity to use purposefully.
What happened however, is that during our rehearsal we came across one song where they felt they really needed a bass part. I cautiously offered the info that I played a little bass. Normally there is a full band and all instruments are covered but for Williams Lake they are bringing a really small band, only 4 people (my long time pal Shawn Soucy who introduced me to Holly and Kevin was missing from the rehearsal this week but will be joining us in Williams Lake), so I was the only one available to play the part.
Eek, that meant I was going to actually be relied upon.
I felt that I could pull it off though, maybe anyway. A simple song, a good weeks worth of practise...............? hmmmmm. So, I picked up the bass, found the chords, looked at the chart and gave it a whirl. At the end of the song we all nodded, I had the part. I got excited at that point, noting that the synchronicity of life is so very interesting. I never would have even THOUGHT to offer myself up were it not for my recent LOR experience and now, here I was actually contributing musically, not just pulling myself out of the mix and hiding in the background.
This really jazzes me because I will have the opportunity to come in and teach/perform in front of 300 children and I will be in the very same position as the performers who came to my childhood school and inspired me.
Young kids are going to see me pick up two instruments and sing and teach them motions to the words they will sing with us. What better opportunity to be a good example will I ever have? What better chance to actually be a tiny part of the solution to a problem I have often wrestled with; that of the school system letting some otherwise bright children fall through the cracks just because they are not intellectuals by nature and are not inspired by or can't cope with the drone of the current unengaging methods of teaching that educators are bound by.
If even ONE student catches a glimpse of fresh understanding through this alternate form of teaching, then it will have been worth the effort. What each student and school will draw from the experience will be sincere and they will connect with the project in a way that is going to be exciting for everyone.
And I am sure the kids will see the joy on my face as we perform the music together. They may even see a tear once in a while because I am possibly the hugest suckball ever to walk the planet and I just know I will get choked up.
Really, if you think that YOU folks are important as an audience, just THINK about what 300 children under my wing are going to do to me. I'll be a mess, but in a good way.
The Up Your Watershed! Tour will travel to
Williams Lake (Nov. 5 - Gibraltar Room)
Surrey (Dec. 3 - Bell Performing Arts Centre),
Vancouver (Jan. 21, 2010 - Norman Rothstein Theatre)
Vancouver (Mar. 2, 2010 - Vancouver East Cutural Centre).
