Arts Scene

BY WENDY ELLIOTT

welliott@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

Barber to play Festival Theatre

Stepping away from her folksier past, Jill Barber is touring in support of the launch of her new album Chances. She delivers her distinctive sultry vocals in an album of 10 original, fully orchestrated songs that strongly evoke – and could themselves become - classics. She is appearing at Festival Theatre in Wolfville Friday, Nov. 7. “The best songs ever written are the ones that somehow transcend time and fashion,” Barber says. ”They may be old, but they haven’t aged; it is that timeless quality I aspire to in my own songwriting.”

Back in January, at the Banff Centre, Barber collaborated with Ron Sexsmith and producer-arranger-guitarist Les Cooper in writing her new album. “This was the first time that I had opened myself up to the idea of a musical collaboration. It was an amazing experience and forced me to stretch my own songwriting muscles,” Barber said.

From Banff to Toronto, Chances was recorded at Blue Rodeo’s Woodshed Studios. It also features string and horn arrangements that were separately recorded at the famed Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto.

A seasoned performer with a growing fan base across North America and the UK, Barber was given the chance in February to perform in concert with Symphony Nova Scotia as part of its Pops Series. The results evoked the rich sounds of Patsy Cline, Edith Piaf and Etta James.

To recreate the magic of a live orchestra, she enlisted producer and long-time collaborator Les Cooper. His arrangements for a skilled backing band with a 10-piece string section were recorded live in Toronto.

Guest vocals by the Good Lovelies and The Sojourners and a special appearance by Sexsmith contribute to a contemporary album of songs that capture the lush sounds of a bygone era. “Now I can finally claim to be making ‘popular music’. So what if it’s only what was popular 50 or 60 years ago,” says Barber, who composed many of the songs during her intensive three-week artist residency in Banff. “They were kind enough to give me a studio space and leave me to my own devices. It gave me a chance to devote myself entirely to the writing process,” she said.

Barber co-wrote a number of songs with Cooper and Sexsmith, who has also collaborated with Elvis Costello and Coldplay. “At first I was a little intimidated to work with Ron, but when we sat down to work we had such a good time that I forgot what it was I was nervous about. We wrote five or six songs together in short order. Three of them appear on this album.” (‘Chances’, ‘Old Flame’ and ‘One More Time’).

Barber chose the album title as befitting her approach to both music and matters of the

heart. “Chances” is a love song, but it’s really about the mysterious role that chances play in our lives.”

Recently, she took another chance and relocated from her adopted home of Halifax to

Vancouver, as a result of the chance meeting that inspired the song. “I am drawn to write about love because it is a theme for the ages, she said. “Romance, on the other hand, seems to have gone out of style in much of modern music. I like to think of myself as a hopeful romantic rather than a helpless one.”

Barber has proven to be one of Canada’s leading singer-songwriters, having been nominated for over 20 awards. She was winner of the East Coast Music Awards for Recording of the Year and Female Solo Recording of the Year. Barber has toured previously with acts such as Wintersleep, Joel Plaskett, Josh Ritter and Ron Sexsmith.

Barber’s Wolfville concert is at 8 p.m. Tickets are available at the Acadia box office.

The album is available online and in stores. Visit www.jillbarber.com

Youth orchestra here

The Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra (NSYO), under the direction of music director Dinuk Wijeratne, will present a concert in Wolfville, with special guest artist David Parker on horn. The performance is set for Saturday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. in Wolfville Baptist Church. A Wolfville native, Parker has been principal hornist of Symphony Nova Scotia since 2000. Parker currently teaches horn and brass chamber music at Dalhousie University.

Tickets range from $10 to $15 and are available at the door.

Visit Banana Creek

Well-known Valley sculptor Nistal Prem de Boer is holding an open house in Canada Creek this weekend to celebrate the launch of a completely new body of work called Banana Creek. “There will be some bronzes, some terra cottas, but the focus is on my new multi-media reliefs. This also will be an opportunity to celebrate the latest addition to Banana Creek,” he says.

The theme of his latest body of work is Gaia dying. Not only the portraits, but the female figurines represent Gaia and the female principle in this exhibition.

An essential part of living in harmony with Gaia means living in a sustainable human ecology. ‘Recycling’, returning to the earth or closing the circle is the principle. “One reason that this body is very affordable is because almost all sculpture in this show is ‘recycled’. I used moulds of bronzes I made in the past and created new, totally different reliefs out of it. Each piece is unique even when the same mould has been used more than once.”

He says, “my long stay in Italy made me fall in love with the rich colours and patinas on old walls, sculptures and buildings showing the passage of time.”

Using painting, fresco and stucco lustro techniques, he “created the memory that what is new becomes old and what is old becomes more dear and valuable. The patinas on these reliefs also suggest the passage of time, different for each piece.”

The preview takes place Sunday afternoon, Nov. 9. Nistal’s work will preview on the Russia Road near the Black Rock Baptist Church.

Fundy Films

Fundy Film screens Man on Wire tomorrow. A first rate thrill ride, this film tells the story of the “artistic crime of the century.”

Tightrope artist Phillip Petits walked the fine line of fear and felony when he illegally attempted crossing a tightwire 1,350 feet in the air between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. It will screen at the Al Whittle Theatre in Wolfville Wed, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m.

Then The Visitor is lined up for the weekend. Walter, a widowed professor, attends a conference only to find a young couple, victims of a real estate scam, inhabiting his seldom-used Manhattan apartment. Together they embark on a funny and moving life adventure.

It is set for the Whittle Sunday, Nov. 9, 4 and 7 p.m.; Monday, Nov. 10, 7 p.m. Tickets at $8 are available 30 minutes before screening. www.fundyfilm.ca or call (902) 542-5157.

See Ionesco

The Acadia Theatre Company will presents Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros Nov. 5-15.

This terrifyingly funny play takes the themes of intolerance and creeping dehumanization, which are so current in modern society, and brings them to life through puppets, masks and stomping, and chanting rhinos.

Michael Devine directs this production. The play runs Nov. 5-8 and Nov. 12-15 at 8 p.m., with matinees at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 8 and 15. All performances will take place in Lower Denton Theatre, Acadia University.

Ticket prices are $12 regular and $10 for students/seniors and may be purchased at the Box of Delights Bookstore in Wolfville or at the door. Tickets may be reserved by calling the reservation line at 585-1766.

Campbell has new book

Wanda Campbell of Wolfville has a new book, Looking for Lucy, being released at a launch Nov. 6 at the Irving Centre Auditorium.

She lives with her husband and three daughters in Wolfville, where she teaches creative writing and women’s literature at Acadia University.

www.leafpress.ca

At Ross Creek

Classes for adults are planned for Nov. 16 in either photography or jewelry.

Sue Tileston, a renowned artist who has been working with refugees in Thailand for the past few years, uses photography as a tool for self-expression.

In her workshop, students will learn photography through building a story about a person, place, thing or event. Lunch will accompany the opening of Sue and Nat Tileston’s show “My Story” in the RBC Community Gallery.

Shannon Richardson will introduce jewelry techniques such as chain-making and cold connections with alternative materials. Students are encouraged to bring an assortment of materials, photographs, fabric, wood, and plastic they would like to experiment with.

She is a professional jeweler and juried member of the NSDCC. Phone 582-3842 to register or e-mail pr@artscentre.ca.

Coming up

Nov. 8

Roll Out the Barrel, St. Joseph’s Church, Kentville 7:30 p.m.

Nov. 9

The Armed Man: Mass for Peace, Festival Theatre, Wolfville, 3 p.m.

Until Nov. 23

George Walford’s Elemental, Harvest Gallery, Wolfville

Until Nov. 27

Erma Walker, Valley Regional Hospital Art Gallery, Kentville