On Sunday, June 14, at 11am, Sharbot Lake United Church will host the 48th anniversary of the founding of the grouping of churches known as the Centenary Pastoral Charge, and all are welcome.

Forty-eight years ago, in Centennial year 1967, the three congregations of Maberly, Sharbot Lake and Parham joined together to form one unit to serve God by sharing prayers, resources, clergy, sacred spaces, and sharing their joys and sorrows together. The three churches will join up for a joint celebratory worship service at the Sharbot Lake site followed by a light lunch, and they hope that many will come.

Rev. Jean Brown will lead the worship. Special music is planned. It is hoped to raise the roof in praise and in singing some of the older hymns from our founding years.

The founding year of the United Church of Canada, a uniting and united church, was 1925 when three denominations - Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational, “united” to form one denomination. It was the first union of churches in the world to cross historical denominational lines and hence received international acclaim. Impetus for the union arose out of the concerns for serving the vast Canadian northwest and in the desire for better overseas mission. Each of the uniting churches, however, had a long history prior to 1925. Throughout the following years, this pattern of amalgamating, joining together to serve God and community, and sharing spaces continued, and it continues today as Maberly United Church prayerfully looks ahead to amalgamating with Sharbot Lake United. Past amalgamations in Sharbot Lake included Zealand and Oso, while Parham included Oconto, Tichborne, Wagarville and Long Lake.  

At this week's open mic and jam that takes place every other Sunday at Bedford Hall near Godfrey, owners and keepers of music and musical instruments set up a sale in the basement where musicians of all sorts came to peruse a number of unique items that were put up for sale. Up for grabs were numerous guitars, fiddles, a stand up bass, banjos, electric keyboards, a Hohner accordion, plus a number of woodwind instruments, sheet music and much more. Buyers who attended made off with some exceptional deals.

The idea for the sale came about when many regular performers and guests at the jam decided they wanted to get rid of musical items that have been collecting dust around their homes and others who have either outgrown their instruments or wanted to see them used and treasured by other players. Dave Dawson had three gorgeous instruments for sale, one Martin classical guitar, a Gibson guitar and a gorgeous mandolin (interested buyers who missed the sale can contact him at 613-279-2280). There was no charge to the sellers and the sale in no way interfered with the lively and very well attended regular Sunday open mic and jam that took place upstairs in the main hall where no less than 35 performers took to the stage.

For those not in the know, the Bedford Open Mike and Jam happens every other Sunday from 1 – 5pm. Now under the direction of Wilomene Card, it is a great place to relax on a Sunday afternoon and a great place to enjoy the talents of so many local performers. Olde time country crooner Mitch Barker, who got his start in the early days of the Bedford jams that were formerly held at Piccadilly Hall, was also in attendance selling his latest CD just out one week ago titled “Mitch Barker Showcase” and he said he participates regularly in the jams because “It's the best jam going and it feels so much like home.”

The next jam takes place on Sunday June 14. In lieu of a cover charge, organizers suggest a donation of $2 per person. Light refreshments are also available. The Bedford hall is located at 1381 Westport Road near Godfrey.

by Julie Druker

Members of the Land O'Lakes Quilters recently presented 16 beautiful hand-made quilts to Jan Easton. Easton is the national vice-president of Quilts of Valour – Canada, an organization whose mission is to ensure that Canadian Armed Forces military personnel and veterans are recognized for their service and commitment to the country by presenting them with quilts by quilters from all across the country

Some of the quilts included special “Hug in a Mug” quilts. For the price of $5 each, quilters purchase commemorative gift mugs containing the materials to construct single blocks for a quilt from Quilts of Valour. The blocks are collected and grouped, and the quilt is then finished off by an appointed volunteer.

Many other gorgeous quilts were created and donated to Quilts of Valour by individuals in the group, which has over 20 members. The quilts were at Pineview Free Methodist Church in Cloyne on May 26.

Quilts of Valour - Canada was started in 2006 in Edmonton, Alberta, when three soldiers recovering from serious injuries they suffered while serving in Afghanistan were each presented with a quilt. Since that time the organization has presented over 6000 quilts to Canadian military personnel who were either injured in the line of duty, or are recovering from post-duty stress, as well as to war veterans across the country.

Easton herself is a professional quilter who owns and operates Stonehouse Quilts in Plainfield, Ontario. She has presented hundreds of donated Quilts of Valour to Canadian military personnel and said that she has received hundreds of emails in return from the recipients, who all have been incredibly moved by them.

“These quilts are very special and mean a lot to the recipients. They are much appreciated simply for the fact that they have been put together by loving hands and are something that the recipients and their family members use and get comfort from every single day.”

Following the presentation to Easton, the quilters also enjoyed a “Trunk Show” presentation by Sue Fiddes, Pesident of the Heritage Quilters Guild in Napanee. Fiddes spoke of her long quilting journey, which started at the age of 18 when she made her first quilt. Fiddes brought 80 quilts with her to the presentation and said that she is a quilter who “loves to try everything” and who “thrives when teaching quilters and seeing their enthusiasm when they finish a project.” Fiddes showed some of her own creations, including a horse head quilt, a raw-edged applique piece that incorporates free form thread painting to create the horse’s mane.

For those who would like to see the Land O' Lakes Quilters' donations to Quilts of Valour, the quilts will be on display at the Trenton Valley Quilters’ Guild show, which will take place at the Community Centre in Brighton, Ontario on Saturday & Sunday, June 6 & 7.

May 31st was a bittersweet day for Betty Wagner, the longtime leader of the 28 member Frontenac Women's Chorus (FWC). She was conducting the chorus at a concert titled “Thank You for the Music” her final concert with the group. Over 100 listeners attended the concert a the Grace Centre in Sydenham. It was a lively and heartfelt celebration marking the groups 20 year anniversary.

The FWC was founded by Jennifer Bennett in 1995 and led by her until 2001 when she passed the reins over to Wagner. Wagner recently announced that she will be stepping down after her 14-year run with the group who have performed regularly in and around Frontenac County. Wagner, who has a bachelor's degree in music from Queen's University, has been singing and playing since she was five years old and has taught voice and piano for 35 years in and around Kingston. She has sung with many world renowned conductors and is now stepping down to be able to spend more time with her family.

She said that her role as conductor has been to help the choir to successfully “convey the messages in the songs they perform. I encourage the singers to listen to what the music says because it tells them exactly what the composer and the lyricist had in mind.”

The Grace Centre was a fitting location for the finale because is also where she conducted her first concert with the choir 14 years ago and its high ceilings make it the perfect acoustic venue for the 28 accomplished singers. Wagner praised the hall for its unique acoustics and called it “one of the best in Canada”.

She said prior to the concert that when South Frontenac Community Services took over the building and were considering installing baffles in the hall during renovations, she encouraged them to preserve its acoustic integrity. Sunday's concert proved that their decision to keep it as is was the right one.

The singers performed a lively programme that included classical, pop, jazz and blue grass tunes. They opened with a song titled “To the Goddess”, an original piece composed by Jennifer Bennett with text by local flautist Anne Archer. The group sang a gorgeous rendition of Irving Berlin's “Blue Skies” proving that these ladies can swing with the best of them and choir member Suzanne Regan's impressive scat solo was a highlight. Choir member Patty Smith sang the solo in “Song for the Mira” proving that she has impressive vocal chops. More importantly for the choir, she also possesses musicality, liveliness, and openness, which will stand her in good stead as she takes over the baton from Wagner.

A trained singer and voice teacher, Smith graduated from Humber College's jazz vocal program many years ago and later received her bachelors of music and teaching degree from Queen's University. Currently she is teaching voice at St. Lawrence College in their music and digital media program which she said she loves.

She jumped at the chance to take over the reigns when Wagner offered her the position last year and has been singing with the FWC since January as their new conductor in training.

Smith praised the group of singers and said she has been warmly welcomed. “It's been like landing in a group of ready-made friends,” she said. She said that she has some new ideas for the group and suggested the possibility of performing Simon and Garfunkel's "Baby Driver" and John Denver's "Starry Starry Night". While the group is no doubt sad to see Wagner depart, they are also looking forward to exploring the new musical horizons that Smith has to offer.

Patty Smith will be conducting her first concert with the group at their annual 2015 Christmas concert that will take place at the Bellrock hall on Saturday, November 28.

This year’s SHS Drama Department production was “You Can’t Take It With You” by Hart and Kauffman. Set in the late 1930’s, the play features a happy, loving but highly eccentric family whose daughter becomes engaged to the son of a very proper and well-to-do local businessman. Complications peak when the future son-in-law’s parents arrive a day early to meet his fiancee’s family. Of course everything comes out well in the end, with a strong endorsement of the importance of quality of life, and the courage to follow one’s dreams.

It’s a good choice for a school play: large cast, room for some great over-the-top cameos, fast-paced and funny.

But this production came about in a highly unusual manner.

Typically, an annual high school play is chosen, cast and directed by the drama teacher. Other staff members pitch in with stage design, costumes, makeup and advertising.

Not this time. According to the program notes, drama teacher Rutherford had “a very ambitious grade 11 and 12 split drama class that wanted to have a challenge that would bring them together as a community.” So he suggested they produce the annual play all by themselves. He would be available for consultation.

It sounds as though consensus didn’t come easily, but finally the class chose “You Can’t Take it With You”. Three people wanted to direct and against all likelihood, three directors, Adam Brown, Melissa Pugh and Jadon Chow are listed on the final program. Auditions were held, a cast was chosen, and “the rest of the students that didn’t get a part, they became stage designers, wardrobe, hair and make-up or backstage and technical.”

To this member of the audience, it seems the drama class completely achieved their goal: the sixteen-member cast with the support of the backstage folks worked together smoothly and confidently as an ensemble, supporting and complimenting their fellow actors. Amy Walton as Alice inhabited her character with great consistency and Max Karan’s Russian accent and middle European manner were thoroughly convincing. It’s not easy for young people to play older roles: full credit to the makeup department for not falling prey to drawing a lot of unconvincing lines on their faces, leaving it instead to the actors to show their maturity through their movements and mannerisms.

Mr Rutherford deserves full credit for one of the most difficult but best forms of teaching: enabling his class to discover for themselves their ability to come together as a cohesive whole through what must have been some rocky situations, to the reward of a well-earned standing ovation.

A pity it was so modestly advertised, and ran for only three days last week!

Nature has forever been one of the key muses for poets through the ages. It's no wonder that a mixed group of close to 30 accomplished and aspiring poets and poetry lovers gathered at Wintergreen Studios, the off-grid educational retreat centre that opened in 2008 near Burridge, for a special reading by award winning Canadian poet Lorna Crozier. Crozier. Crozier, who is soon to be a recipient of an honorary doctorate degree from McGill University, has published 17 books to date and is no stranger to Wintergreen Studios. She has returned there almost every year since 2010.

Most recently she led a five-day workshop from May 17 to 23 for 11 poets who came from across Canada and the United States, all at various stages in their careers, to gain some insight from her. Rena Upitus, owner and operator of Wintergreen Studios, said Crozier is“an incredibly inspiring and gifted poet and a very generous person whose workshops fill up as soon as they are posted”.

Midway through Crozier's workshop, Wintergreen opened its doors to local poetry lovers, who for the $40 ticket price enjoyed a scrumptious home cooked meal, courtesy of Louise Cooper (Wintergreen's in-house chef) followed by Crozier who read poems from her brand new book, The Wrong Cat (2015, McClelland and Stewart).

She is indeed a unique talent with a wide ranging sensibility for the comic, the perplexing, and the purely imagined. She writes poems that cover the entire range of unbridled human emotions, and is also a gifted reader with an expressive, vibrant and precise voice able to pierce her listeners' hearts and minds.

She began her reading with a number of short poems from her new book. She read a poem highlighting different imagined points of view of animals towards humans. Crozier said animlas likely “don't think much of human beings since we have done them a lot of wrong and go on doing so.” From “Crows Take On Man” she read, “They don't know their shadows have blood in them...their souls build nests of sticks to hold the shiny things they can't get by without.”

She read a series of short poems that under the overall heading - Notes for a Small Pocket. One of them, “Spider” includes the following: “So what if there is no money in our wallets. How joyous the spider is though her eight feet have no shoes.”

In “Game” she tells of three raccoons playing “paper, scissors, rock” by a pond and in another, about moths, “Call and Response” she observes how “A moth's single thought is light" and in the next line, she wonders “is that enough philosophy to get by on?”

She read a poem from the new book that is the favourite of her poet husband, Patrick Lane, “A Common Life”, a longer poem that tells of the relationship between a woman and a man as reealed by the woman in hindsight, who describes the man as one who “didn't want her when he was younger and now he does”, who “claims his first affair which made everything go wrong, his flame with a flamenco dancer was a big mistake”. The dancer was “the daughter of a hotel keeper in Barcelona, the man who counted them among his foreign friends” and how she “saw them through the smeared glass of the green house, the girl in her red skirt,” and later on in the poem, how “what she remembers, twenty years later, is the skirt, its flame and flair, how it looked as if their pale torsos rose from the skins of large splayed animals she'd weep for in her dreams.”

One of her funniest was “Moose Poem” which she introduced with the words, “To be a true Canadian poet, you have to write a poem about a moose.” It showcased her delight in language. “A moose knows it's the most orbicular, the biggest nose of our country's ungulates mimicking as much as anything a crook necked squash, the one that won the ribbon at the country fair.”

She describes the animal as “so powerful, its singular is plural” and with a nose so funny that when you come across it, “its nose relaxes you and makes you laugh as if the craftsman assigned to the task had never made a nose before.”

Crozier no doubt inspired the workshop participants and she described her method of teaching the students as “a call and response technique where I give them nudges or a call and they come back the next day with a response.” She added, “We're just all thriving on each other's energy and love of language and poetry and it's been a fantastic time here at Wintergreen.”

Upcoming events at Wintergreen inlcude a community drumming circle on Saturday, July 25 with Lorrie Jorgensen; a Bio Blitz on Friday, June 12 and Saturday June 13; in October, a Buddhist psychology workshop; and in November a workshop on death and preparing for the end of life with Julie Vachon and Dr. Brian Goldman, the host of CBC Radio's White Coat, Black Art.

Rena Upitis said that along with their intensive arts and eco educational workshops, much of their upcoming programming includes eco/spiritual workshops which “seem to be drawing a lot of interest and showing us that people are definitely needing to process some of their own personal stuff.”

For more information about upcoming events at Wintergreen, visit www.wintergreenstudios.com.

Music students from GREC demonstrated their musical chops in an eclectic line up of musical offerings that delighted the large crowd who attended GREC's Celebration of Music event that took place in the schools cafetorium on May 25.

The evening included performances by the Young Choristers, a choir comprised of students from various local schools under the direction of Christina Wotherspoon, and the GREC Band who who offered three jazz and blues based offerings. In the second half of the show these two ensembles came together for two rousing numbers that included the Best of Glee which had many toes tapping. In addition to these larger ensembles, a number students who played either solo or in small groups covered a wide range musical territory from Lexi Pride's lovely Arabesque on piano, Devon Scott's heart felt version of Adele's Someone Like You, Brianna Drew and Kristin Collis' flute Minuet by J.S. Bach and Joelle Parr's delightful and boppy version of Bright by Echosmith.

One of the highlights of the evening was the trio known as the World Peace Rockers, headed up by Peter Potvan on ukelele and keyboards, Michael Running-Adams on drums and keyboards and supporting them on the keys , GREC staff member Shari Tallon. The group pulled off a great three song set after overcoming a few minor technical glitches that in no way seemed to phase them.

Their versions of K''Naan's World Cup Anthem Wavin' Flag, the Imagine Dragon's Radioactive and Matisyahu's One Day brought the appreciative audience to their feet in a very well deserved standing ovation.

GREC staff also had a chance to shine. Shari Tallon performed an original piano piece titled Theme for Zelda and Julia Schall and Andrew Kirby's performed The Weight by The Band with perfectly blended harmonies and with just the right amount of heft. Last but not least was a performance by the GREC's School of Rock band for 2015, The Undecided who performed a few of their own favorites, including The Way It Is, Clocks, Let Her Go and Lose Yourself. The band put on a solid performance and they were joined by Aidan Kempe who demonstrated that he is a natural. Thanks to a number of dedicated staff members, music education is alive and well in this local community and Monday nights show demonstrated how so many students are reaping the rewards that music education and practice can bring.

Lee Casement of the band “After the News” will hold a release party on June 6, 7pm, at BellRock Hall to celebrate the release of their new self-titled album, “After the News”. Songwriters Lee and Shaun Weima, joined by musicians Jamie Young and Lisa (Bresee) Menard have produced a fabulous new musical offering. The style is ambient folk/alt-rock. Guest artists Jon McLurg and two members of the group “Evening Hymns” (Jonas Bonnetta and Jon Hynes) will also be performing.

Sounds like an exciting musical evening featuring several of our own “locally-grown” musicians. It isn’t just the market gardens around here that are producing great products! Admission is free.

Visit http://tinyracket.com/bands/afterthenews

As the second of this summer's Blue Jeans Classical music series, MERA is presented the master pianist, Michel Szezesniak on Sunday, June 7th at 2:00 PM at the MERA Schoolhouse in McDonald's Corners.  Many music lovers will recall his memorable performance at MERA as part of the Woodwinds and Piano recital in November, 2014.

Entitled "Fascinating Miniatures", the concert will feature piano gems by Beethoven, Scriabin, Gershwin, Satie and compositions by the pianist himself.  The common thread will be that all of the composers of these charming piano pieces are themselves pianists.  Along with playing these pieces, Michel will use his considerable wit and wisdom to entertain the audience about the music and the composers.

Michel moved to Canada from the United States in 1983, and since then has as a soloist and part of chamber recitals on CBC Radio, with five major symphony orchestras across Canada, and his compositions and playing has been featured on two recordings.

He has been based in Kingston since 1989 where he is a piano instructor at Queen's University School of Music, pianist for the Kingston Chamber players and accompanist for the Cantabile Choirs of Kingston.

The third in the Blue Jeans series will be held at 2:00 PM  on Sunday, July 12th, featuring the dynamic duo of Keenan Reimer-Watts, piano, and Emily Kennedy, cello.

Tickets for these concerts are available for $25 plus administration fee at Ticketsplease.ca, by telephone at 613-485-6434 or in person at Jo's Clothes, 39 Foster Street, Perth.  Children accompanied by an adult are free.

Since the start of February, the six members of the Granite Ridge School of Rock have been working together to learn to play musical instruments, build a musical ear, improve team-work and boost self-confidence. The students and their teacher, Julia Schall, have been listening to, playing and debating the merits of a wide variety of musical genres – from old time rock and roll, alternative, indie pop, country and rap. Their band, The Undecided, is composed of grade 8 students (L-R): Aurora McCumber, guitar; Esther Hoffmann, bass; Dawson King, guitar and vocals; Finn Limber, keyboards and vocals; Nic Smith, keyboards; and Maya Chorney, drums. The Undecided are very excited to be performing at the Celebration of Music at Granite Ridge on Monday, May 25 at 7 pm. Sharing the stage with the School of Rock will be the Granite Ridge High School band and the Young Choristers under the direction of Christina Wotherspoon, as well as other talented student and staff performers. The cost for the show is $5, with children under 12 free. We hope to see you there!