Issue 39 | Summer 2013 Amy Wright Summer Theatre Round Up Über Cool Art summer 2013 thebeatmagazine.ca | 1 The Beauties Matt Dusk ALANNAH MYLES - LIVE OCTOBER 11 & 12, 2013 DOWN ON THE CORNER: MUSIC OF CCR NOVEMBER 8 & 9, 2013 CHRISTMAS ROCKS DECEMBER 13 & 14, 2013 KINGS OF CORDUROY: SONGS OF THE ‘70S JANUARY 24 & 25, 2014 MATT DUSK: MY FUNNY VALENTINE FEBRUARY 14 &15, 2014 THE BEST OF THE BAND MARCH 28 & 29, 2014 START ME UP: MUSIC OF THE ROLLING STONES MAY 16 & 17, 2014 SUBSCRIPTIONS ON SALE NOW! 2 | thebeatmagazine.caorchestralondon.ca 519.679.8778summer 2013 summer 2013 thebeatmagazine.ca | 3 Editor’s Beat EDITORIAL Summer 2013 London seems to have made headlines for all the wrong reasons this year: record-high unemployment, Publisher/Managing Editor stagnant immigration figures, and a mayor with Dance Richard Young 30 legal issues. [email protected] Amy Wright London-based Amy Wright is one But summer is finally here, and with it comes plenty of Editor of Canada’s top choreographers. reasons to celebrate living in the Forest City. Nicole Laidler Anan Islam [email protected] In fact, there are so many cultural events going on in Cover photo by David Cooper and around town over the next three months that it Online Theatre Editor Photography was hard to squeeze them all into one issue. Donald D’Haene [email protected] For me, summer doesn’t truly start until Sunfest takes visual arts theatre over Victoria Park. Nothing epitomizes how London Copy Editor 06 spotlight Beth Stewart Vincent and Ondaatje 24 has changed from the homogeneous town of my Beth Stewart Deborah Hay childhood like seeing people from all corners of the Kathy Rumleski Art Director world come together to experience the sights, sounds Lionel Morise visual arts and tastes of each other’s culture. [email protected] 08 Out of Africa 26 indie Über cool art For three days, the centre of London truly becomes a global village. It’s too bad we can’t bottle the Photography Silence Genti Jay Menard good vibes and share them with the rest of the planet. Deborah Zuskan nooks & Paul Miszczyk 10 crannies Of course, the grand old lady of summer music festivals is Home County – rebranded a few years London’s fugitive slave chapel spotlight back as Home County Music & Art Festival. Now in its 40th year, festival organizers have worked Website 28 Jason Rip Celebration of life hard to bring the event into the modern age without severing ties to its folk music roots. Renaissance Monkey Design Chris Loblaw The best thing about Sunfest and Home County? They are free. If you can’t spare a toonie (or a Printing 12 day tripping twenty) for the donation jar this year, you are still welcome to sit back and enjoy the show. Wonderland Printing Ltd. Ingersoll – festival town 32 classical beat Geoff Dale Lucky 13 More free music is available just up the road at Ingersoll’s Canterbury Folk Festival. There’s lots Arts Calendar Nicole Laidler going on in Ontario’s self-proclaimed “Festival Town,” and writer Geoff Dale shares some of the Valerie Cavalini highlights in this issue. [email protected] 14 word 519 870-0846 Penn Kemp & Jack Layton There’s plenty on offer for local classical music lovers, too. Richard Young 34 sound bites Festival season ADVERTISING/MARKETING From mid-July to the end of August, Stratford Summer Music presents free concerts on the Music music Bob Klanac Barge, live opera in local cafes, early-morning tributes to Canadian composer Murray Schafer, and Advertising Manager 16 spotlight Marque Smith behind some outstanding international stars. Artistic producer, John Miller, is committed to making the Richard Young Dawn Lyons 36 the scenes festival accessible to all. Don’t be scared off by the big names – tickets are probably more affordable [email protected] with Kathy Navackas 519-870-2328 than you think. Nicole Laidler 18 Q & A The same can be said for the Bach Music Festival of Canada, which returns to Exeter in mid-July. In with Louise Fagan this issue, executive producer Louise Fagan sits down for some Q&A about bringing international CONTACT INFORMATION Daniela DiStefano 37 final word The Beat Magazine Endings stars and sell-out crowds to a small town in rural Ontario. PO Box 25294 Deborah Windell And of course, it wouldn’t be summer without summer theatre. Susan Scott gives a run-down London, Ontario N6C 6B1 20 feature Summer stage of what’s on stage across the region, while Kathy Navackas invites us behind the scenes at the The Beat Magazine is published Susan Scott London Fringe. quarterly and has a circulation of 38 final frame 10,000 magazines. Reproduction of Ice cream! So put on your rose-coloured glasses and kick up your heels. It’s summer in the city, and it’s time to any material published in The Beat 22 word Deborah Zuskan remember why we all call London home. Magazine is strictly prohibited without Attic Books expands Kym Wolfe written permission from the managing Nicole Laidler is the editor of The Beat Magazine and a London freelance writer and copywriter. editor. The views and opinions expressed in The Beat Magazine’s Visit her at www.spilledink.ca. contents and advertisements are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect4 | thebeatmagazine.ca those of the managing editor. summer 2013 summer 2013 thebeatmagazine.ca | 5 visual arts visual arts visual arts visual arts visual arts visual arts visual arts to explore the artist’s practice and This is visible in Vincent’s recent pencil images Vincent and Ondaatje: highlight three significant series: of London which, as Getty points out, feature her Hill works of the mid-1960s; building cranes in the distance, showing the A retrospective intersect Arthur Rowe her Piccadilly Street interiors of the changing face of the city. ARTISTIC DIRECTOR By Beth Stewart late-1960s; and her Factory works of And it is seen in Ondaatje’s Factory series, in the early-1970s. which the artist puts the factories front and Museum London curator of art centre, a deliberate act Getty attributes to the Cassandra Getty confirms the artist’s insistence in their status as a “new kind of coincidence of the exhibitions was landscape” as well as her concern about pollution. absolutely intentional. GRYPHON PARKER TSUTSUMI There are additional parallels in each artist’s use Says Getty, “We see a shared theme of geometric form. Saturday September 28 amongst the works; the artists did The GRYPHON TRIO not really know one another and did Getty says, “Many of Bernice Vincent’s later paintings involve harder-edge, abstract elements, Friday October 18 not follow the other’s work, though Jon Kimura PARKER PIANO they did know London artists such within the scene itself and used as margins or as Greg Curnoe and Jack Chambers border, to control and enframe the view.” Friday November 15 and were in the artist community at “Ondaatje’s factories also emphasize the Benjamin BUTTERFIELD TENOR the same time.” hard edges and flat planes you find in a large and Arthur ROWE PIANO She adds, “In their personal lives, industrial complex.” Friday December 6 they would have had much in The absence of people is apparent in both The AFIARA STRING QUARTET common in terms of raising their Vincent and Ondaatje’s work. But one gets Friday January 24 “Dom Tar with Truck, London” by Kim Ondaatje, families and working, and making the impression that the “absence” is transitory Tsuyoshi TSUTSUMI CELLO acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 162.0 x 203.0 cm, work about that context; they both – something that just happened – and as such and Arthur ROWE PIANO from the Factory series, 1970 (collection of the artist). concentrated on interiors of the suggests the presence of people. home in their practices.” Tuesday February 25 Getty says, “With Vincent’s work it approaches The EMERSON STRING QUARTET The works of two well known artists intersect Getty calls Vincent’s domestic scenes and Surrealist work like de Chirico, where you Friday March 14 beautifully at Museum London this summer: Ondaatje’s Piccadilly Street interiors “similarly feel like you want to look around a corner, or Susan HOEPPNER FLUTE Bernice Vincent: Time and Travels runs from meditative.” pick up the painting and look at its back, to see July 6 to September 29, while and Angela PARK PIANO Kim Ondaatje In addition, both artists deal with human where everyone just went.” runs from July 20 to October 6. Friday April 4 intervention with the environment in their work. While Vincent and Ondaatje share some James EHNES VIOLIN Both women have ties to the Forest City; elements of high realism seen in the work of Vincent is a life-long resident and a artists like Christopher and Mary Pratt or Alex Friday May 2 longstanding member of the London art Colville, Getty says there is a difference: “I The ALCAN QUARTET community, whereas Ondaatje lived and would link it more with an approach that was worked in London from 1967 to 1971. being developed – importantly, by Vincent and Bernice Vincent: Time and Travels includes Ondaatje as well as artists like Chambers – here Museum London acquisitions, loans in London.” from the McIntosh Gallery, and works Catalogues for both exhibitions are EMERSON HOEPPNER EHNES borrowed from private collections. The forthcoming later in 2013. jefferyconcerts.com selected works follow a retrospective approach, including paintings, drawings Beth Stewart is a secondary school teacher, visual All concerts at 8 pm at and installations produced from the early artist and writer.