June 10, 2023 at the North Peace Cultural Centre, 10 am to 3 pm
What do you get when you cross heavy industrial machinery with artists? Why, BIG ART naturally. Join us on Saturday, June 10th for our Big Print Day and Art Market. We’ll take a road roller and use it to create some incredible large-scale prints. The North Peace Potters Guild will also be in attendance with their Raku kiln fired up! The North Peace Spinners and Weavers will also be there demonstrating the skill to take loose fibres to incredible textile arts. Tye Dying, demonstrations of Highland Dance and much more will also be on the menu. FSJ Co-op and Moose FM will present live music on our outdoor stage throughout the day. The day will finish off with a concert by the Northern Lights Youth Choir and the North Peace Community Choir inside the Centre on the Mainstage.
Get ready for a service the likes of which you’ve never attended before, where the message is served up fresh and loud by Clayton Bellamy and the Congregation through a high-octane blend of gospel, R&B and riff-driven hard rock.
For Bellamy, Welcome to the Congregation is a complete reset. “I felt I had to shed my skin and do something that spoke to where I was now, to strip away fifteen years of writing country songs and draw from a completely different well.”
Audiences will know Bellamy from The Road Hammers and from his solo records (Everyone’s a Dreamer and Five Crow Silver). “But you don’t know this,” he says. “It’s like I’ve finally found my music, a combination of the blues, rock and gospel; a mixture of all my favourite bands in one.
As on previous efforts, Bellamy captures all the fire and furious energy of his live show on record – something that helped the Hammers (a SOCAN, JUNO and 5-time CCMA Award-winning act), become the highest-selling Canadian country band of all time. But this is not a country record. On Welcome to the Congregation Bellamy channels a huge range influence from rock legends like The Who and Cheap Trick, to 90’s Alt rock and vintage R&B – a perfect storm of musical influences. “I started from scratch, but I knew exactly the ultimate target was a rock and roll tent revival.”
Characterized by Bellamy’s blazing guitars and signature urgency as a vocalist, replete with jagged rock and roll edges and Aerosmith-worthy riffs, Welcome to the Congregation is a no holds barred, rip-it-up rock record. Unapologetically raw and undeniably powerful, it’s music he intends to lose himself in on stage and invite audiences to do the same. “That’s the whole idea of the Congregation. Live, you’re part of it. It’s rock and roll church; we’re bringing the gospel and I’m the preacher man.”
That’s a persona Bellamy’s going to live to the limit on stage when he comes rumbling through your town with a ten-piece band made up a revolving cast of players and featuring two drummers, full horns and a backup vocal section. Live, Bellamy says, they’ll really be ripping it up, growing the congregation, and bringing the love at every show.
“It’s a scary time and that was another impetus for Welcome to the Congregation. It seems strange to have to repeat it, but we really have to love up on one another. That’s what this is all about. We’re all here to listen to music, to be transported for a short period of time from whatever we’re going through to a place where we’re just enjoying ourselves and getting uplifted.”
Art Community! Are you looking for a fun and creative way to spend your Saturdays? Then come join us at Peace Gallery North for our new program, “Art for All”! Starting May 6th, 2023, from 2 to 5, we’ll be opening up our doors to people of all ages and skill levels who want to explore their artistic side.
With “Art for All,” you’ll have the opportunity to experiment with different mediums, techniques, and styles in a free and inclusive space. Whether you’re an experienced artist or just starting out, we welcome you to bring your materials and inspiration and join us for an afternoon of artistic exploration.
Featuring Violinist Frank Ho and Pianist Joachim Segger
May 19, 2023 at 7:30 pm at the North Peace Cultural Centre Tickets: $26
The concert will feature 3 sonatas for piano and violin by Beethoven ). They span roughly a decade in Beethoven’s compositional career, and cover his early, middle, and “heroic” periods.
The first sonata on the program (Op. 12, No. 2) is full of energy and cheerfulness. The second (Op. 30, No. 1), a middle period work, is more contemplative and serene. The final work on the program is the famous “Kreutzer” sonata (Op. 47), which is grandly conceived and virtuosic in spirit.
Violinist FRANK HO enjoys a career as soloist, chamber musician and teacher. A graduate of Yale University, he studied there with Sidney Harth (former concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony, New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics) and Erick Friedman (noted pupil of Jascha Heifetz). Further studies with Yfrah Neaman at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, England, led to performances on three continents and recordings for the CBC.
As a performer, Frank has performed at venues such as Royal Festival Hall (London), Merkin Hall and Alice Tully Hall (New York), and the Winspear Centre here in Edmonton. He remains active locally as the concertmaster of the Concordia Symphony Orchestra and as a frequent collaborator in chamber music. Recent highlights include the complete Beethoven Violin Sonata cycle with pianist Joachim Segger.
He is currently on faculty at the MacEwan University Conservatory of Music, King’s University and Concordia University. His students have been prizewinners in local, provincial, and national competitions in Canada, and have gone on to further studies at universities and conservatories in Canada, the USA and Europe. Several of his students have performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall, and are members of professional orchestras in Canada, notably the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, the Victoria Symphony, and the Thunder Bay Symphony. Frank is also a member of the College of Examiners for the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and was president of the Alberta String Association from 2019 to 2022.
DR. JOACHIM SEGGAR (BMus, MMus, Performer’s Certificate, Eastman School of Music; DMus UAlberta) is a versatile musician who performs regularly as a soloist and as a collaborative artist. Primary mentors and teachers were Ernesto Lejano, Cécile Genhart, Kurt Neumuller, Helmut Brauss and Menahem Pressler. As winner of the New York Canadian Women’s Club competition he performed a solo recital in Carnegie Recital Hall, NY. He recorded the Ravel G Major Piano Concerto with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and performed numerous concertos with the ESO and the Edmonton Youth Orchestra. Joachim’s solo piano CD “Bravato” was recorded on the iconic nine-foot Yamaha concert grand once owned by Glenn Gould, now housed in Knoppers Hall at The King’s University. It features works by Brahms, Mendelssohn, Ginastera, Haydn and Beethoven. Most recently Joachim performed the complete Beethoven violin and piano sonatas with Frank Ho at The King’s University.
Joachim regularly joins Marnie Giesbrecht as the internationally well-known Duo Majoya (Edmonton Cultural Hall of Fame, 2014; Honorary Fellows RCCO, 2015). Together they have commissioned and played more than twenty contemporary works for organ duet, piano duet and the unlikely but magnificent organ/piano combination. Joachim is well known in Canada for his piano and organ improvisations and workshops. Joachim is enjoying his teaching at the U of A this year as a sabbatical replacement for Jacques Despres.
Dr. Segger is Professor Emeritus of the Music Department at The King’s University, Edmonton.
