All Heart
by Jane Ledwell
Catherine O'Brien (photo: Alanna Jankov)
It seems the things I fear the most, I have to do,” says Catherine O’Brien, gamely. A nationally successful musical theatre performer, she is “absolutely apoplectic at auditions”—a fact that has not prevented her gaining roles in prestigious festivals across Canada, including the Charlottetown Festival, which brought her to PEI. Catherine arrived here in 2000 for roles in Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon on the Confederation Centre mainstage, and, she says, “I not only fell in love with the Island, I fell in love with an Islander.”
|
The Concertmaster
by Ann Thurlow
Hok Kwan
There’s a moment right before the PEI Symphony starts to play. As if on cue, the audience grows quiet. The orchestra members stop their last minute practice. Then, into the silence steps concertmaster Hok Kwan. The audience applauds, as is the custom. The oboe plays a single note. Section by section, Kwan makes sure all the instruments are in tune. Then, the symphony is ready to begin. And, as Hok Kwan raises bow to violin, he takes yet another step in what has been a long musical journey.
|
Open Windows
by Jane Ledwell
Susana Rutherford (photo: Alanna Jankov)
I’m in the family business,” stained glass artist Susana Rutherford has been known to say drolly, when asked what she does. “I’ve often joked to people I wanted to be an accountant—but I wasn’t a rebel.” Despite growing up in a family that included visual artists Ambika Gail Rutherford and Erica Rutherford, Susana wasn’t always encouraged to choose a life in the arts. “I’d say my parents were perhaps discouraging of a career in crafts at a certain point. ‘You’ll never make a living with that,’ they said. And you know, they were probably right,” she laughs.
|
| September 2009 |
| Matthews, Jon
|
Staying Busy
by Jane Ledwell
Jon Matthews
This summer, if you pulled up to a drive-thru to buy a burger, you could expect to be asked, “Want fries with that?” If you pull in to a concert to hear a favourite fiddler or band, expect to be asked, “Want Jon Matthews with that?” The busy musician, producer, and Magic 93.1 broadcaster has only had six nights off since mid-June. “It’s one of those cases that you have to make hay when the sun shines—if you want to be a full-time musician living on PEI,” he says. All summer, Jon performed at Brackley ceilidhs with Cynthia MacLeod, various venues with the Celtic Ladies, and on the side with many others—in addition to bar shows with his own band.
|
The Apprentice
by Jane Ledwell
Brittanny Banks (photo: Alanna Jankov)
If you’d asked me a year ago, I definitely didn’t see myself at UPEI,” says Brittany Banks, a dancer and singer already well-known to Island musical theatre audiences even though she has just completed her first year of studying music at the university. “I saw myself AWAY,” she admits.
|
|
| February 2010 |
| Jackie Waddell
|
All About Nature
by Nina Linton
Jackie Waddell
Standing on the snow-covered ground Jackie Waddell looks up, a delicate veil of afternoon sun drapes her in a soft light. Ageless trees tower above, their craggy limbs, outstretched, create a sinuous web overhead with pockets of blue peeking through the meandering branches. A self confessed lover of nature, Waddell is at home under the big sky.
|
| December 2009 |
| Sandi Clark
|
In the Music Room
by Jane Ledwell
Sandi Clark
Music is a great thing to have in your life,” is Sandi Clark’s simple philosophy for teaching music for little ones. Tucked behind Sandi’s Kensington home is an outbuilding that might once have been a garage and that has definitely housed an insurance office and even, at one time, a pony. These days, local children and parents know it as a music room, filled to bursting with keyboards and tambourines and books and seasonal and musical decorations to inspire the children and parents Sandi welcomes into the room for the Music for Young Children program. She has been teaching the program for 27 years, 18 of them in her music room.
|
| October 2009 |
| Ford, Melvin
|
Mr. Go-getter
by Jane Ledwell
Melvin Ford (photo: Alanna Jankov)
No reclining armchair or closed-in desk in Melvin Ford’s office—no time to sit. The manager of the King’s Playhouse is busy and plans to be even busier building up the repertoire and reputation of what he calls “the busiest theatre on PEI.” He says, “It feels like [summer] doesn’t end. We have 14 shows before Christmas. We’ve had 64 different live productions in 2009. That’s whopping numbers for a theatre this size.”
|
Fleet of Foot
by Jane Ledwell
Cameron Francis
He may be billed as “the fastest feet on PEI,” but just-turned-16 step-dancer Cameron Francis is happy to be eligible for a beginner’s permit to drive. The busy performer wants to give his parents a break from driving from their Lady Fane farm to dance lessons, year-round ceilidhs, and summer performances at the College of Piping in Summerside.
|
The Music Within
by Jane Ledwell
Shirley Anne Cameron (photo: Alanna Jankov)
When things don’t work out chronologically as they should, what is meant to happen has to happen at some point. People I know who are happy and fulfilled are doing what they are meant to,” says singer, music teacher, and musical director Shirley Anne Cameron, philosophically.
|
|
