Live music for free
Nothing beats a coffee, sandwich and live opera
TIMOTHY BROWN STAFF
PHOTO: EVAN JOHNSON
The University of Manitoba faculty of music and the Daily Bread Café in St. John’s College present Live Jazz, Opera, Classical & New Music every Thursday from 6-9 p.m.. Have you heard of this? Maybe, but most likely not. Should you have heard of this? Yes, you really should have. Now, let me explain why.
If you know anything about the faculty of music, you’ll know that it is incredibly diverse and houses some amazing talent. For a lot of other faculties, however, the chance to witness that talent is almost completely non-existent. That’s why people like Steve and Anna-Lisa Kirby (faculty members in the faculty of music) want to give you that chance. They have found a time and a place to show off what the faculty of music is capable of. Now they need an audience, and that audience is you.
Last Thursday was the second performance of the year, and believe it or not, it was opera. One might find this to be a little unappealing at first, but if you really think about it, where else can you see opera performed with such precision for free? “They get world-class performances for nothing. Just for the price of spending the time it takes to walk over here,” said Steve Kirby after Thursday’s performance.
The opera was absolutely astounding. The evening was hosted by Robert Maclaren (another faculty member) who also participated in a decent portion of the songs. Just being able to see the students perform as well as they did was amazing. With each song, the performer would transport themselves into that scene, into that character, and we, the audience, would watch the emotions pour out. Passionate, elegant, beautiful, and captivating are just some of the words that can describe the performances.
Robert Maclaren described performing in the Daily Bread Café as being “scary as hell.” Maclaren explained that opera is usually performed in settings that aren’t as intimate and as small as a café, and thus performing in such a small venue adds a greater challenge, not only for his students, but for himself as well. This is just a small example of the level of performance one could witness every Thursday night.
This event isn’t just for people on campus: everyone is encouraged to attend. “I want everybody to know about it and I want people to come from off-campus. It’ll tear down the wall between the university and the perceived ivory-tower image and the community. I want the community to know that this is a place where they can come and be safe and be intrigued and be entertained,” explained Kirby, very passionately.
The people organizing, hosting, and performing are doing this to promote great music and entertain people, not to make a profit. All you have to do is go and lend them your ears for an evening. Your presence is what makes events such as this the success they ought to be. So read the first sentence of this article again, maybe even read it a third time. After that, all you have to do is show up.
