The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, April 25, 2012 · 16 Symphony, soloists join choral society By Dominik Kurek OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Artscene The Sweetheart of Swing, Alex Pangman, will perform at St. Mildred's-Lightbourn School tomorrow. The concert raises funds for the Oakville-based ArtHouse children's program. let's do jazz: The 75 voices of the Oakville Choral Society won't be alone at their upcoming concert on Saturday (April 28). The choir will be joined by the Toronto-based NYCO Symphony Orchestra and four young soloists who were winners of the 2011 NYCO Mozart Vocal Competition. Partnering the choral society and the orchestra is not new, as the groups have performed together several years ago. "It's a partnership that came out of circumstances of needs of both groups and I happened to be in a position where I was able to facilitate that partnership and dialogue," said David Bowser, musical director of both groups, who will conduct the Oakville concert. "It suits both groups because we don't compete for the same audience. We're in two different cities. This really is an economical way and an enthusiastic way and a partnership-building way to create music." The two groups recently performed half the repertoire of the upcoming concert in Toronto where the orchestra regularly plays. "It's a rather unique approach to have an ongoing collaboration between the two groups and you'll find that there's a lot of enthusiasm and lovely noise that comes when we get together," Bowser said. Furthermore, each of the past two years, the orchestra has held a vocal music competition, which is open to trained and in-training singers aged 16 to 35. Singers are only permitted to sing music written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The winners then get an opportunity to perform as soloists with the symphony in Toronto or the choir in Oakville. "This is a real good opportunity for people to get experience with orchestra, which is expensive and rare for a young singer who doesn't have access to those groups," Bowser said. At the Oakville concert, four of the soloists will perform Mozart's Coronation Mass, along with the entire choir and orchestra. Three of the soloists will also perform the other piece in the concert, George Frideric Handel's Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne. "The repertoire is extraordinary. We rarely hear this Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne, which is a masterpiece," Bowser said. Bowser said maintaining a partnership between a choir and an orchestra provides a great learning experience for both groups. But more importantly, it allows both groups to do something they cannot do alone. "There's a really exciting repertoire that includes both and it's very exciting for a chorus to have an orchestra support them and accompany them," Bowser said. The four soloists in the concert are soprano Erica Warder, mezzo-soprano Heidi Jost, baritone Jeremy Ludwig and tenor Michael P. Taylor. The concert takes place at ClearView Christian Reformed Church, located at 2300 Sheridan Garden Dr. It starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $25 for adults or $15 for students. Children under 12 get in free. For tickets, visit www.oakvillechoral.com or call 905-827-6129. submitted photo Sweetheart of Swing sings at ArtHouse concert By Dominik Kurek OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF People have a chance to listen to some award-winning jazz music that harks back to a bygone era while supporting a cost-free children's art program right here in Oakville. Alex Pangman and her five-piece jazz ensemble the Alley Cats will perform at Oakville's St. Mildred's-Lightbourn School tomorrow (Thursday). The concert, titled Second Wind, is part of ArtHouse Festival Series, which is the fundraising arm of ArtHouse children's programing. Pangman, also known as Canada's Sweetheart of Swing, performs a style of music commonly heard in the days of such greats as Ella Fitzgerald, Connie Boswell and Ruth Etting. The Oakville show will be no different. The Toronto-based musician who was born and raised in Mississauga will entertain the audience with tunes off her most recent album 33, a CD named for her age at the time of the release and for the tracks that grace the album's back. "Primarily, it's music that was popular in the year 1933," Pangman said. "There was a lot of really interesting music that came out of a period that was a rough time in American history and there was some really great music that came out of it. Some of the songs are quite positive." thing was pre-packaged. I discovered it through a fellow equestrian at the riding stables," she said. "I immediately felt a kinship with it. I appreciated the melodic component and the poetic component way better than stuff I've been hearing on commercial radio. It was a pretty seamless transition for me." Since then she has been hooked and has released her debut album They Say in 1999, produced by the late Toronto blues-rocker Jeff Healey. Pangman has gone on to win a Genie Award for best original song for the 2003 feature film Falling Angels. She has also received nominations for National Jazz Awards. She's a regular performer in and around Toronto and beyond. Her next performance is in the Black Box Theatre of the Oakville school. "I am looking forward to it. The theatre space looks pretty sweet and I like getting to play theatres," she said. "We'll be playing some ballads, some up-tempo swing, some jazzy blues." The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $40. Seating is limited. The school is located at 1081 Linbrook Rd. For tickets, visit www.arthouseonline.org. "There was a lot of really interesting music that came out of a period (1933) that was a rough time in American history." Alex Pangman, musician Pangman calls music a catharsis, and says it has helped her through her own rough times. Pangman is a known organ donation advocate, after having gone through a double-lung transplant only a few years ago, which was a result of her ongoing battle with cystic fibrosis. The album 33 came not long after and it features some of her favourite music from 1933. The musician was never formally trained in jazz music, but it was a style she was drawn to from the moment she discovered it. "I was a little turned off how every- Fiddler on the Roof at White Oaks Secondary School The students of White Oaks Secondary School are doing a performance of the musical Fiddler on the Roof. The show opens tonight (Wednesday) and runs until Saturday in the school's South Cafetorium. Each show begins at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $10 for students and $12 for adults at the door. The high school is located at 1330 Montclair Dr. For pictures from the production, visit www.oakvillebeaver.com.