News

  • The Avanti Chamber Singers celebrate the release of their new CD “Beauty is Before Me” with their concert Viva La Musica!

    Saturday, November 01, 2014 | By

    voice-of-niagara-cdSaturday, November 15, 2014, marks the release of the Avanti Chamber Singers’ third CD “Beauty is Before Me,” the fifth installment in the “Voices of Niagara” CD series, featuring works by local composers.

    The release will occur in conjunction with the Avanti Chamber Singers’ (ACS) season-opening concert, Viva La Musica! Presenting compositions from 1600 to the present day, this concert is a celebration of the joy and power of music. Rising Toronto oboist Aidan Dugan will perform as the featured guest artist.

    The CD is a collaborative project by ACS, Brock University’s student choirs, and the former Niagara Vocal Ensemble, all conducted by Harris Loewen. The sequence of works on the album flows through a variety of themes: the beauty of nature, the patron saint of music (St. Cecilia), the War of 1812, elegiac reflections, and a group of spirituals.

    The occasion also marks the re-release of the first two CDs in the series, recorded by the Niagara Vocal Ensemble, an all-women’s ensemble that was active in the Niagara Region between 1991 and 2011. All CDs are available through ACS and the Department of Music at Brock University.

    As with all five recordings in the “Voices of Niagara” CD series, the music on every track is written or arranged by composers with a Niagara connection, most recorded for the first time. Composers represented on this latest recording include Penny Blake, John Butler, the famous Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943), Erik Gero, Brock professors Peter Landey and Harris Loewen, Gail Poulsen, folk singer Stan Rogers, Matthew Tran-Adams, and Ronald Tremain (1923-98), Brock’s first Professor of Music.

    The concert opens with a rousing fanfare written especially for the occasion, based on the familiar round “Viva La Musica.” The program includes works by the great Renaissance composers, Jacob Handl and Orlandus Lassus, as well as a variety of more modern pieces. Canadian composers (e.g. Stephen Chatman, Eleanor Daley, Ruth Watson Henderson) are well represented, and the concert also provides samples of works from the latest CD. Oboist Aidan Dugan will perform lyrical pieces by familiar 19th century composers Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann.

    Conductor Harris Loewen states, “This latest album marks an exciting milestone in this multi-choir CD project that has been developed and released to the public over the last few years. I’m so extremely grateful for the fine and energetic musicianship that all the singers and instrumentalists have contributed in both concert and recording. It’s a truly wonderful choral legacy for the region.”

    The Viva Voce Choral Series, presented by the Department of Music, is a key part of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts’ mandate in building connections between the community and Brock University.

    Come and enjoy this choral celebration and CD release on Saturday, November 15 at 7:30 p.m., held at St. Barnabas Anglican Church, 31 Queenston Street, St. Catharines. Admission at the door is $25 for adults; $20 for seniors & students; $5 for the eyeGo program for high school students. A $5 discount is available for advance tickets (excluding eyeGO) and can be purchased at two St. Catharines locations: BookSmart (Scott & Vine Plaza) and Thorold Music (Glendale Avenue).

    For more information contact: Marie Balsom, Communications
    Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts
    T: 905-688-5550, ext. 4765 | E: mbalsom@brocku.ca | W: brocku.ca/miwsfpa

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    Categories: Announcements, Events, Media Releases, News

  • ‘The Changing Face of Theatre Criticism in the Digital Age,’ A remarkable two-day colloquium with international reach, part of the Walker Cultural Leader Series for 2013-14

    Wednesday, February 19, 2014 | By

    Jill Dolan

    In photo: Jill Dolan

    Listening to theatre companies, they’ve never needed theatre critics more. Listening to them after a bad review, they’ve also never resented them more. This strange dance of mutual need has been going on since the first time someone recited dialogue on stage, and someone in the next day’s paper wrote “it doth sucked, verily.” But what of that relationship today? Do critics matter? Can anyone with a blog call themselves a theatre critic? Are critics there to serve theatre companies or readers? (John Law)

    See the complete article by John Law in the Niagara Falls Review about his upcoming participation in the two-day colloquium ‘The Changing Face of Theatre Criticism in the Digital Age‘ organized by Professor Karen Fricker of the Department of Dramatic Arts on the occasion of the special visit by Jill Dolan, Annan Professor in English, Professor of Theater in the Lewis Center for the Arts, Director, Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies, at Princeton University, noted theatre blogger (thefeministspectator.com) and a Walker Cultural Leader for 2013-14.  Special guests J. Kelly Nestruck of The Globe and Mail and Richard Ouzounian of the Toronto Star will join local guests and luminaries including cultural leaders like Jackie Maxwell, artistic director of the Shaw Festival, and Steve Solski, director of the St. Catharines Centre for the Performing Arts.

    The two day program begins this Friday morning with the public lecture, “Moving the Body Politic: How Feminism and Theatre Inspire Social Re-imaginings” by Professor Jill Dolan.  The lecture is presented in association with the Department of Dramatic Arts and the Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies.

    For a complete list of participants and more information please see the Brock News Article, the Department of Dramatic Arts and the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts web pages.

    Come join us! There is no charge to attend and engage in what will surely be a remarkable exchange of ideas and opinions in this “blossoming” cultural scene of Niagara (Professor Karen Fricker).

    All events will be live-streamed at BrockVideoCentre’s DART channel  [Click on the “live video” button on that page.]

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    Categories: Announcements, Current Students, Events, In the Media, News

  • Powwow held on Campus Sept.7

    Sunday, September 09, 2012 | By

    Adrienne Smoke. Photo By: DK Martin

    Adrienne Smoke. Photo By: DK Martin

    (Source: The Brock News, Monday, August 27, 2012 | by )

    Students, staff and Niagara residents were invited to start their school year off to the beat of a different drum.

    The Student Justice Centre hosted a powwow on Friday, Sept. 7 in Jubilee Court to celebrate the fall harvest in partnership with the Tecumseh Centre for Aboriginal Research and Education, Aboriginal Student Services and Brock University Students’ Union.

    The event featured inter-tribal drumming and dance demonstrations, and opportunities for audience members to participate in traditional dancing.

    “It’s a gathering to celebrate life and be thankful as well as to hang out with old friends and make new ones,” said Adrienne Smoke, a third-year drama student, who came up with the idea for the event. “Powwows are about sharing our culture to help educate people about the current native people not the ancient ones we read about in old outdated textbooks.”

    This free event also featured a barbecue, vegetarian options and samples of traditional food, such as three sisters soup, corn bread and strawberry juice. The Brock farmers market was also held during the powwow.

    Doors opened at 10 a.m. with the grand entry happening at noon. Closing ceremonies were at 3:30 p.m.

    For more information or to participate as a dancer, drummer or vendor, email the Student Justice Centre, visit them online or call 905-688-5550, ext. 6325.

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    Categories: Announcements, In the Media, News

  • cSTAC Prof hits national airwaves this Sunday in CBC quiz

    Friday, June 22, 2012 | By

    Prof. Sharilyn Ingram's knowledge of Canada will be tested on CBC Radio Sunday.

    Prof. Sharilyn Ingram’s knowledge of Canada will be tested on CBC Radio Sunday.

    (Source: The Brock News, Friday, June 22, 2012 | by )

    Humanities professor Sharilyn Ingram will put Brock University on a national stage this weekend. She’s one of three academics who will duke it out in a pre-Canada Day quiz on CBC Radio’s flagship current affairs program, the Sunday Edition.

    The show was pre-taped with host Michael Enright earlier this month, though Ingram is sworn to secrecy about who prevails in the good-natured derby between herself, University of Calgary professor Rebecca Sullivan and Anthony Stewart of Dalhousie University.

    She says the experience was fun, if a bit nerve-wracking. The questions cover a broad range of topics, from history to geography and pop culture.

    “There are some very creative answers, and we all laughed a lot,” said Ingram, who teaches in the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture. “The quiz was meant to be a light-hearted look at all things Canadian, and I think it lived up to this goal.”

    Staging a quiz with contestants in three different studios across Canada has its challenges. She said each contestant was asked to bring their own noisemaker to signal their attempt to answer.

    “I learned that it was most important to be the first to get the noisemaker going, and only then worry about whether you knew the answer – which accounts for some pauses, as well as some wild guesses.”

    Ingram ended up on CBC through a twist of fate. At a recent social event in Toronto, a producer for the program was mentioning the search for an academic who is a good fit for a pop-culture quiz on Canada. A friend of Ingram’s was present, and the rest is history.

    “One of my former employees said I would be perfect – never defeated in Trivial Pursuit.”

    The quiz will air June 24 during the show’s final hour, between 11 a.m. and noon, on 99.1 CBC Radio One.

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    Categories: Faculty & Instructors, News

  • Brock welcomes more community partners to downtown project

    Wednesday, June 20, 2012 | By

    Artist's rendering of the Marilyn I. Walker School for the Fine and Performing Arts

    An artist’s rendering of the Marilyn I. Walker School for the Fine and Performing Arts showing the new theatre for the Department of Dramatic Arts.

    (Source: The Brock News)

    As Brock University prepares to select a contractor for its new arts school in central St. Catharines, community members are coming forward to financially back a project many people see as being a crucial bridge to future economic and cultural health.

    This summer, contractors will be invited to bid on the major job of renovating and expanding the old Canada Hair Cloth textile mill into the new home for Brock’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts. Work is to begin this fall.

    Besides relocating 500 students, faculty and staff into the downtown, the new school will also complement and share some facilities with a public Performing Arts Centre being built by the City of St. Catharines on an adjacent lot. Both projects are scheduled for completion in 2014.

    Brock’s school has a construction budget of $39.6 million. The Ontario government has given $26.1 million to the project, and the University is continuing efforts to raise more than $10-million to pay its share.

    Important supporters of the Brock project were revealed today when it was announced that three donors with strong ties to the community and Brock University are making gifts totaling more than a quarter-million dollars.

    Peter and Janet Partridge are giving $100,000 to the project. Art and Val Fleming have also committed $100,000. And the St. Catharines law firm of Lancaster Brooks & Welch is donating $75,000 to the new school.

    Peter Partridge, Vice President and Portfolio Manager with RBC Dominion Securities and a past member of Brock’s Board of Trustees, said their gift is a way of giving back to the community.

    “To have a cultural campus strategically positioned in the heart of the downtown is very important,” he said. “This is going to bring a whole new level of artistic experience not only to young performers but to an audience here in Niagara.”

    The Flemings are also eager to see the Walker School flourish.

    “We really believe in Brock,” said Val, a Brock graduate and past member of the Board of Trustees. “We especially want the Walker project to succeed. It’s a wonderful opportunity, and we believe the downtown will definitely be rejuvenated because of it.”

    At the offices of Lancaster Brooks Welch, senior partner Dave Edwards said the law firm believes the benefits of the new school will be more than economic.

    “This will change the culture of the city centre for the better by bringing students into the downtown during normal working hours,” said Edwards, a former member and chair of the Brock Board of Trustees. “It will provide an integration that’s entirely different compared to when they’re only downtown at nighttime.

    “It makes you think of Kingston, and how students there are often in the downtown during the day. This will help our restaurants, stores, coffee shops, and bring a new vibrancy to the downtown throughout the day.”

    Douglas Kneale, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Brock and a member of the committee overseeing the University’s downtown project, said the support is very heartening and much-needed.

    “The truth is, we really are all in this together, this strengthening of the community,” said Kneale. “And when you have partners like these marvelous people, it is this kind of support that helps make these dreams come true for everybody.”

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  • Graduates of the Department of Dramatic Arts are on the boards again and this time they are playing IN THE SOIL.

    Tuesday, April 17, 2012 | By

    clockmaker-poster-three-220w

    The Clockmaker by Stephen Massicotte

    April 27 @ 8:00pm and April 28 @ 2:00pm
    Sullivan Mahoney  Courthouse Theatre 101 King Street,  St Catharines

    Tickets: $10 at the door
    Festival pass: $25 through inthesoil.on.ca

    Nathan Tanner MacDonald – Director
    Geoffrey Heaney – Performer
    Dylan Mawson – Performer
    Michael Pearson – Performer
    Caitlin Popek – Performer
    Kate Hardy – Stage Manager
    Finn Archinuk – Designer

    Nathan Tanner Mac Donald – a resident of the St Catharines and recent graduate of the Department of Dramatic Arts – has brought together a company of DART students to present The Clockmaker by Stephen Massicotte.  A metaphysical rollercoaster, The Clockmaker may seem like little more than a love story set inside a murder-mystery-to-be, but it just might end up exposing the very truth of existence itself. The show will be performed April 27 @ 8:00pm and April 28 @ 2:00pm at the Sullivan Mahoney Courthouse Theatre in downtown St Catharines.

    Nathan recently performed in the 2011 STRUTT wearable art show and this past summer he wrote and directed Circus, which played at Factory Theatre in the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival. Nathan’s company includes graduates and Geoffrey Heaney, Dylan Mawson, Michael Pearson, Caitlin Popek as Performers, current student Kate Hardy as Stage Manager and graduate Finn Archinuk as the Designer.

    In the Soil Arts Festival brings Niagara artists from a range of disciplines together to provide unique audience experiences. The festival nurtures the creation of new work, showcases talent, encourages innovation, offers learning opportunities for youth and provides intimate and uncommon platforms for audiences to experience work by contemporary performing and literary artists, musicians and media artists. In the Soil is Niagara’s homegrown arts festival and is working to make a Niagara that is self-determining and culturally distinct.

    for more information see the IN THE SOIL website.

    Break-a-leg, Nathan, Caitlin, Dylan, Finn, Geoffrey, Kate and Michael!

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    Categories: Alumni, Current Students, Events, News

  • Spring Course opportunity in Dance Education

    Wednesday, March 21, 2012 | By

    Looking for a unique course opportunity this Spring?

    Register for PEKN 2P06, running April 30th to June 1st , Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:00 to 13:30.  Registration opens for non-PEKN majors after April 5th.

    PEKN 2P06
    Dance Education
    Introduction to dance as an art form through making, performing and appreciating dance. Emphasis on the creative process, dance skills and vocabulary through exploration of dance concepts and observational skills.
    Lectures, lab, 3 hours per week.
    Restriction: open to BPhEd, BPhEd (Honours)/BEd (Intermediate/Senior), BPhEd (Honours)/BEd (Junior/Intermediate) until date specified in Registration guide. After that date available to BKin and BSc (Kin) majors until date specified in Registration guide. Students must have a minimum of 4.0 overall credits.
    Prerequisite(s): PEKN 1P90 and 1P93 or permission of the instructor.
    Note: students will be expected to pay the cost of a ticket to a dance performance on campus. Modes of instruction/evaluation will normally include vigorous physical activity.

    The foundation of this course is Laban’s Movement Principles coupled with Valerie Preston-Dunlop.  There will not be a critique based on a live performance in the spring session.  To view videos from past sessions of the course please go to the IRC and review the collection on reserve under PEKN 2P06.

    For more information contact Janet Westbury at jwestbury@brocku.ca

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    Categories: Announcements, Current Students, News, STAC Courses

  • Work to begin on Brock’s downtown arts school

    Tuesday, March 20, 2012 | By

    The new home of the Marilyn I Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.

    After more than a year of planning and design, construction will soon begin at the future home of Brock University’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts in a vacant factory in downtown St. Catharines.

    Following a tendering process, a contract has been awarded to JMX Environmental Inc. to conduct preliminary work this spring at the site of the former Canada Hair Cloth textile mill at 198 St. Paul Street.

    This “Early Works” phase involves clearing interior space and abatement of hazardous materials within the building. Work should begin in late March and take about three months to complete.

    Crews will remove some interior non-load-bearing walls and redundant services, and deal with hazardous materials that are common in older buildings. Asbestos floor and ceiling tiles will be removed, as will asbestos insulation on water pipes. Workers will also remove or seal surfaces containing lead-based or chromium-based paints. All environmental abatement work must pass inspections and meet regulatory requirements.

    The Walker School will put about 500 students, faculty and staff into the city’s downtown when the facility relocates from the main Brock campus in 2014. It is part of a collaboration that includes a new Performing Arts Centre being built on adjacent land by the City of St. Catharines.

    from University Marketing & Communications
    March 20, 2012

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    Categories: Announcements, News

  • Industrial Fabric2: Festival of the Arts

    Thursday, March 01, 2012 | By

    Brock University
    Media Release
    St. Catharines, ON
    March 1, 2012

    Industrial Fabric2: Festival of the Arts
    Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts
    March to April 2012

    The second Festival of the Arts showcasing the remarkable talents of students enrolled in the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts will be held March to April 2012. Industrial Fabric2 signals that time of year when students who have been preparing individually and collectively will bring their in-class, independent or studio projects to fruition. In the spirit of openness and mutual generosity, we invite you to celebrate their achievements on stage, in studios and galleries, and at regional venues.

    As part of the culminating activities that signal the end of the academic year Industrial Fabric2 offers a dynamic range of creative events open to the University and community at large from theatre to musical performances to art exhibitions. Enjoy original student-written and performed plays produced as part of the Department of Dramatic Arts’ Gimme 3 or One Acts Festival, and a production written and produced by fourth-year students called Shadows of a Toymaker; a rich selection of concerts from the Department of Music including its Tuesday Music@Noon series, Student Recitals, the ENCORE! Professional Concert Series, the VIVA VOCE! Choral Series, and the University Wind Ensemble; exhibitions from the students of the Department of Visual Arts reflecting their achievements in photography, drawing, book making, and intermedia as well as the annual juried show, and a fourth-year honours exhibition hosted by Rodman Hall Art Centre. This year we are honoured by the participation of Donna Szoke, Visiting Artist, whose video installation and all watched over by machines of loving grace will be installed at CRAM Gallery.

    “Industrial Fabric2 represents the creative thread that binds students in common effort, to perfect and bring their creativity to audiences both large and small, on and off campus. It promises to deliver over the course of two months a rich plethora of collective and individual talent mentored under the guise of our tremendous faculty and staff. This continues to be a testimony to the strength of our academic programs – where else can one find such brilliant vitality and collaboration that manifests itself from year to year with such vision, energy and dedication?” states Derek Knight, Director of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.

    The Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, part of the Faculty of Humanities at Brock University, is comprised of the Departments of Dramatic Arts (DART), Music (MUSI), and Visual Arts (VISA), and the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture (cSTAC).

    All are welcome.  Click here for a calendar of events.

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    Categories: Alumni, Announcements, Current Students, Events, Faculty & Instructors, Future Students, Media Releases, News

  • Looking for a unique Spring/Summer course? sign-up for Introduction to Physical Theatre

    Thursday, February 02, 2012 | By

    Theatre Beyond Words - object-based theatre and full-body mask

    Theatre Beyond Words – object-based theatre and full-body mask

    Looking for a unique Spring/Summer course? sign-up for a three week-long intensive Introduction to Physical Theatre taught by the resident theatre company of Brock University, Theatre Beyond Words, during the Spring session of 2012.

    DART 2F04: Physical Theatre – Education through Collective Creation
    Students will explore a wide range of physical theatre styles (mask, mime, pantomime, graphics, theatrical clown, and commedia dell’arte) by recreating a series of scenes from professional repertoire using masks, puppets, costumes and sets from international touring theatre ensemble and Brock Resident Theatre Company, Theatre Beyond Words. This is a 3-week intensive, full-credit course, running 6 hours per day, 5 days per week. There will be a final performance for invited friends, family and staff at the end of the 3 three weeks. As this is a practicum course, attendance at all classes is mandatory.

    More information about this full-credit course may be found here. Enrollment is limited to 20 students. Don’t delay!
    Applicants without previous theatre training at Brock University may enrol with permission of the instructor.

    for more information contact dramatic.arts@brocku.ca

     

     

    Here are some examples of the masks and object-based theatre used by Theatre Beyond Words:

    dart_2f04_composite_72

    And here’s a trailer for their current show on tour, created and performed by Brock students:

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    Categories: Announcements, Current Students, Future Students, News, STAC Courses

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