With the holidays coming, bringing with them time off, no school and possibly visitors from out of town, it might be a good time to remind you that this city is home to some amazing places to spend some time and open your mind.
One of the newest is the National Music Centre’s home in the East Village, Studio Bell, with all of its interactive elements and immersive exhibitions.
If you haven’t been or need another reason to return, they’ve provided one thanks to a new exhibit titled Showcase: 2017 Inductees.
On Wednesday, they unveiled the new temporary exhibit which is a salute to the newest Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame inductees, Harvey Gold and Calgary’s own Paul Brandt, as well as the 2017 class entering the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, Bruce Cockburn, Neil Young, Beau Dommage and Stéphane Venne.
Both of the Hall of Fames, as well as the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, are housed in Studio Bell.
“Many of popular music’s most iconic songs have been written by Canadian artists, forever etched in the hearts and minds of music lovers everywhere,” Andrew Mosker, president and CEO of NMC, said in a statement. “Thanks to our national halls of fame partnerships, we’ve been able to help celebrate and share the stories of some of Canada’s most beloved music creators.”
Showcase: 2017 Inductees features personal items and memorabilia from all six of the artists, including instruments, hand-written notes, lyric sheets and songbooks. It can be viewed with paid admission into Studio Bell until the fall of 2018. Hours of operation are Wednesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Aside from the many exhibits — including other recent ones dedicated to k.d. lang, Sarah McLachlan and Alberta music festivals — a big part of NMC’s mandate is programming, and they also announced this week a pair of upcoming concert series.
One of them is a monthly showcase, titled Alberta Spotlight, which features some of this area’s finest talent in performance. The acts on tap for the first three shows are: Calgary bands Raleigh and Crystal Eyes at the King Eddy (Jan. 18); Edmonton’s Northern Cree at Studio Bell (Feb. 15); and former local artist Rae Spoon with duo F&M from three hours up the road at Studio Bell (March 15).
Advance tickets are available now from their website here, and for more information on Raleigh, check out our recent feature on them here, and listen to the latest Scene In the Wild Podcask featuring Spoon as the guest here.
The second concert series is Crossroads, which kicks off with a full-day festival on Jan. 25. Designed as “a cross-cultural exploration of music in Canada,” the opening event features family-friendly and educational performances.
Some of the participants include: jazz artists Jens Lindemann and Gilad Dobrecky; buskers from the Jewish-Canadian community; children’s singer Carl Berger; and Persian classical music performer Amir Amiri.
Tickets for the Lindemann and Dobrecky concert are $30 and available now from the website, with programming during the day — dubbed Deserts, Mountains and the Sea — free to attend thanks to support from Sam & Ida Switzer, Jenny Belzberg and The Alvin & Mona Libin Foundation.
Other Crossroads events will be announced in the coming weeks.
