Northern Students to Perform at Limestone Crystal Ball

Jeff Green | Aug 11, 2011

The Crystal Ball Black Tie Gala fundraiser for the Limestone Learning Foundation hasn't taken place yet, but it has already taken off beyond the wildest dreams of its organizers.

“We were originally planning to sell 250 tickets, and then we went to 350 and 500, and finally we have ended up at the KROC Centre with 700 tickets available, and there is still a waiting list,” said Leslie Myles, a long-time Learning Foundation Board member who took on the executive director role just a few months ago.

The gala will be held on the floor of the KROC centre and will include gourmet food and drink as well as a solo acoustic headline performance by Sarah Harmer. But in addition to Sarah Harmer, three other well-known Kingston area musicians, Chris Koster, Emily Fennel and the Tragically Hip's Paul Langlois (more about the 'the Hip' later) will be performing songs along with 12 Limestone District School Board students.

The students auditioned to perform at the gala by uploading videos of their performances onto a Facebook site.

The contest took place during June, and 70 students from the school board, which has schools in Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington counties, uploaded videos.

Nicholas Babcock of Sydenham High School was one of the 12 who were chosen. Nick has a You Tube channel where he has posted a number of his interpretations of songs by a wide range of popular artists, ranging from Eminem to Leonard Cohen. “I’ve yet to find a kind of music I don’t like,” he said, describing his eclectic tastes. It literally took him seconds to audition for the Crystal Ball event. He simply posted a link to his You Tube versions of “Cry” by Justin Bieber and “Everything” by Michael Buble.

Nick lives on Sydenham Road and attended Elginburg Public School until grade 6. He then went to Loughborough Public School for the challenge program in grades 7 and 8 and followed his classmates to Sydenham High School instead of attending a school in Kingston. He attended Napanee District High School for its music program during one term last year, and will be back at Sydenham for the first term this coming year. He is taking a break from his You Tube channel to work on a record.

Nick Babcock was chosen by Emily Fennel, and he will be performing with her at the gala, with piano accompaniment by Sam McNichols of Ernestown Secondary School.

“I have absolutely zero clue what we will be doing, he said, adding that he’s “excited and flattered at being chosen”, particularly because he was Emily Fennel’s choice, “since I’m a pretty big fan of hers.”

When Dallas Arney (photo right, courtesy Dallas Arney) from North Addington Education Centre uploaded some of her music to the Crystal Gala Facebook site, it was not the first time at least one of the judges had already been exposed to her work.

Paul Langlois of the Tragically Hip was already planning to record with Arney at the 'Hip' studio in Bath, and she is well known to Frontenac News readers from her performances at local and regional events, ranging from the Flinton Jamboree to the Tweed Fair. She has recorded a CD already, and is a prolific writer of country songs and an interpreter of some of the best songs in the traditional country repertoire.

For the gala audition she chose songs from her favourite artist, Dolly Parton, who is a fitting role model for Dallas Arney because Parton has had a long and successful career performing her own music and interpreting the songs of other artists.

For the Crystal Ball Gala, the Tragically Hip's Gord Sinclair and Rob Baker will join Paul Langlois on stage to back up Dallas Arney for the opening number or two. The Tragically Hip are known across Canada as a stadium rock band, but they have an interest in country music as well, so don't expect Dallas Arney to be singing rock anthems.

“I don't know what we'll be performing or how many songs,” said Dallas Arney in a telephone interview this week, “I'll be getting together with Paul to talk about that sometime soon. But we might do 'Wild Horses', which would be a lot of fun.”

Show organizers have said that Dallas Arney is opening the show because she has already had a lot of exposure to audiences, having performed in Nashville and on festival stages throughout Ontario.

Her feet are still well planted on the ground, however.

She is entering grade 12 this fall at the smallest school in the Limestone Board, and has had to ask for time off from her summer job at the Cloyne Pioneer Village in order to travel to some of the festivals at which she performs.

For more information about the Crystal Ball Black Tie Gala, call 613-544-6920 ext 210.