Category: Events

Wexford Gleeks. Wexford Collegiate for the Arts. Photo Credit: Nicholas Seguin

Where: Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 190 Princes’ Boulevard on the CNE Grounds
When: April 20 – 21, 2013
Cost: Nationals – Preliminaries, April 20: Tickets $25, Early Bird Tickets $20. Junior/Middle School Invitationals, April 21: Tickets $20,  Early Bird Tickets $16. Nationals – Finals, April 21, Tickets, $35, Early Bird Tickets $28.
Weekend Pass, $50 includes admission to National Preliminaries and Finals, Junior Invitationals, Early Bird Weekend Pass, $40. All tickets can be purchased online at www.ticketmaster.ca or by calling 1.855.985.5000

Details: The Show Choir Canada Nationals is an open division competition for high school glee clubs and choirs. Choirs that place 1st – 6th will be awarded trophies and prizing courtesy of Yamaha Music Canada totaling $20,000. In addition, $5,000 worth of scholarships to the Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts for exceptional individual performers will be awarded.

Show Choir Canada’s mission is to play a vital role in the development and support of show choirs in Canada by creating opportunities that inspire, challenge, and encourage its youth participants.

Jordan Clark, Season 4 winner of So You Think You Can Dance Canada, will host and perform this year. After being named “Canada’s Favourite Dancer” in 2011, Jordan added screen acting to her resume, landing starring roles in the new Family Channel series The Next Step, debuting this spring, and the upcoming dance film East Side Story.

More Info: www.showchoircanada.com

Portrait of Raja Deen Dayal by staff photographer E. Craig, April 1904, Gelatin silver print, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, PH81.91

Where: Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queens Park
When: April 20, 2013 to January 12, 2014
Cost: Adult – $16; Senior (65+) and Students (15-25, with ID) – $14.50; Child (4-14) – $13; Infant (3 and under) Free; Members – Free; Persons with disabilities – Free; Group and School rates available. Purchase online at www.rom.on.ca

Details: Between Princely India & the British Raj: The Photography of Raja Deen Dayal, is a feature exhibition in this year’s Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, highlighting the photographic work of Raja Deen Dayal, one of the most renowned photographers in 19th-century India. The exhibition takes place in the ROM’s Level 3, Hilary and Galen Weston Wing.

Born in Sardhana, near Delhi, Raja Deen Dayal (1844-1905) was the first Indian photographer to earn international renown. Noted for remarkable beauty, aesthetic nuance and technical skill, Deen Dayal’s photographs capture the architectural heritage of India, its landscape and people, and provide a lens through which we can explore a dynamic time in India’s history and the role Deen Dayal had in fashioning a new identity for an emerging nation.

This exhibition features over 100 works from three major collections, including the ROM’s collection of photograph albums produced by his studio in the latter decades of the 19th century. It also features one of the cameras used by the Dayal Studio in the last decade of the 19th century.

More Info: www.rom.on.ca

Shannon Graham

Where: Gallery 345, 345 Sorauren Avenue
When: April 17, 8pm show (doors at 7pm)
Cost: Tickets: $10 (includes CD)

Details: Musical prowess and a passion for spirit-changing sound will shine as Shannon Graham and The Storytellers launch their debut CD at Gallery 345 as part of the TDJ Special Projects Initiative.

Formed in 2011, Shannon Graham and The Storytellers is a 10-piece chamber jazz ensemble led by saxophonist, singer, violist and composer Shannon Graham. With voice, strings, saxophone, brass and a jazz rhythm section, The Storytellers provide the instrumentation to Graham’s personal diary. In her search for meaning, the 20-something saxophonist and songbird is guided by the group as they come together to create a poignant narrative composition which breathes new life into the meaning of creative jazz.

Graham’s goal with her self-titled album is to bring audience members together, through instrumental art music, to reminisce about and reflect on their personal experiences. Her love of pop music gives her classical composition approach a unique, accessible touch, while her music’s undeniable artistry makes it perfect for soul searching.

In this project, happiness, heartbreak, irony and beauty are relentlessly brought to the forefront of listeners’ minds through improvisation, composition, and song

More Info: www.torontojazz.com or www.shannongraham.ca

Where: Zemra Lounge, 778 St Clair Ave West
When: April 6, 2013 @ 9pm
Cost: $10

Details: Toronto based Trinidadian-born multi-award winning jazz trumpeter brings his straight-ahead hard-swinging acoustic trio (Brownman Ali – trumpet, Mark Cashion – bass, Mike Kosowski – drums) to Zemra Lounge for a Saturday night of 50′s & 60′s jazz ala Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Joe Henderson, Duke Ellington and the American jazz songbook.

Heralded as “Canada’s preeminent Jazz trumpeter” by NYC’s Village Voice, Brownman Ali – born on the small Caribbean island of Trinidad, & schooled in NYC – is a multiple award-winning NYC-schooled protégé to his teacher, Grammy-winning trumpet legend, Randy Brecker. Tirelessly leading 7 unique ensembles of his own, when not in high demand in the studio world with over 300 CD appearances to date, Brownman delivers stylistically authentic horn playing over a wide range of styles from bebop to hiphop. He is considered to be one of the most unique and provocative improvising trumpet players on the scene today and is widely regarded as a vanguard for the evolution of Jazz in Canada.

More Info: www.zemrabarlounge.com or Brownman.com

Where: The Painted Lady, 218 Ossington Avenue
When: March 28, 2013, showtime 9:30pm
Cost: Tickets – Advavce $7 at ticketweb.ca

Details: Seeing Lily Frost perform at any venue is a treat… but when she takes to the teeny stage and mega sound system at The Painted Lady, it’s simply other-worldly! This Ossington Street hotspot has been packing them in on Monday’s for the Open Mic night hosted by Jef Farquharson as well as their hip roster of DJ’s and indie bands.

Lily and her band will perform songs from various recordings including her latest, “Do What You Love”. This show is bound to sell out so get your tickets in advance!

More Info: thepaintedlady.com