Collingwood Summer Music Festival Reaches Triumphant Finale with CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS/THE HOCKEY SWEATER

On Sunday, Aug. 11, at 3 p.m. at New Life Church, the Collingwood Summer Music Festival reaches a triumphant finale with an exhilarating new musical attraction for the entire family to enjoy together: Carnival of the Animals/The Hockey Sweater.

The festival wishes to engage as many children as possible, so kids under age 16 may attend the show free of charge (accompanied by a paying adult).

The festival's artistic director Daniel Wnukowski - also the father of two young children - describes Roch Carrier's The Hockey Sweater as "a heartwarming Canadian story that over the last four decades has captured the hearts of hundreds of thousands of Canadians."

Music for this performance was written by Canadian composer Abigail Richardson.

Wnukowski is equally thrilled to announce that "this treasure of Canadian literature will be placed together with another family blockbuster that is a regular feature of symphonies from all around the world - Carnival of the Animals - which in 14 movements describes a veritable bestiary of animals.

"We are all very excited about hosting this world-premiere production right here in Collingwood and have invited a stellar cast to join us. From both moving and witty poetry, narrated by great Canadian stage and screen actor R.H. Thomson to the kangaroos, tortoises, chickens, fossils (!) and swans, portrayed magnificently by renowned mime artist Trevor Copp, it will surely be a blast and an event long-remembered."

It is Thomson's belief that: "When music entwines with story, as it does so delightfully with both The Hockey Sweaterand The Carnival Of The Animals, it can make magic. Our goal is to find that magic."

Copp, who impersonates the animals, shares that: "Whenever I attend orchestral performance I visualize the music - that's the way that I have to access it. Images, physical movement, stories; music paints a picture that I imagine and animate in my mind. So when I heard this music I could see the animals in the savannah, the ocean, the forest. This is a rare chance to get the full experience of the orchestra playing while having the animals come to life in front of you."

Top Canadian violinist Michael Schulte who will also lead the instrumental Incite Ensemble in providing musical accompaniment for the one-hour program states: "These two narrative and descriptive compositions by Abigail Richardson-Schulte and Camille Saint-Saëns, are so delightfully evocative of the human condition, and of the endearing character of familiar wild animals that we cannot help but laugh and feel deeply for the characters. Both works are very clever, not surprisingly popular, and showcase the skills and humour of ten of Ontario's finest chamber musicians, narrator R.H.Thomson, and mime Trevor Copp."

Individual tickets are $30 per person (age 16 and over).

Ticket ordering, event information and artist biographies are available at the festival's website.

To post a comment, you must register and login.