Hear that? Cantos spreads the good news about the National Music Centre at the Canadian National Exhibition

Well, the word is out. What was once considered Calgary’s “Best Kept Secret” is on the loose in Toronto at the Canadian National Exhibition. Cantos Music Foundation is spreading the good news about our National Music Centre Project through a display at the CNE in collaboration with CARAS (The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences….the people behind the JUNO awards and many other initiatives like MusiCounts and BandAid, supporting Canadian music making ) The last couple of days have been spent unpacking and putting together our displays of some artifacts from the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame, a collection of country music memorabilia which is now under the umbrella of Cantos. Some performance outfits, instruments and photos are included from Canadian music icons Hank Snow, Anne Murray, k.d. lang, and Terri Clark. “Where are the keyboards….the forte pianos, the Minimoogs, the harpsichords, Mellotrons, and hurdy-gurdies?” you might ask. Just as Cantos is expanding its geographic reach from the Calgary area to cross the country, so too the scope of our collection is increasing beyond a keyboard focus to tell a national music story for Canada, one which is made up of many different voices.

Statue of one of Canada’s musical icons, Glenn Gould, outside the CBC building)

Statue of one of Canada’s musical icons, Glenn Gould, outside the CBC building)

Several different Cantos representatives will be in attendance at the CNE display throughout the duration of the exhibition which runs from Friday, August 20 to September 6th. If you’re in Toronto, come pay us a visit at the Direct Energy Centre in exhibit hall A. Look for the “History of Rock and Roll“ banners, since we’re part of that larger display. Or look for the Jacuzzis, since we’re close to them, too.

To help spread the word about our exciting project, Cantos reps at the CNE will all be sporting provocative black t-shirts emblazoned with the caption “Ask me about NMC” and handing out bookmarks quipping “Hear that? It’s coming from Calgary’s East Village” on one side with a rendering of the architectural design for the new National Music Centre on the other. I decided to have a little fun with the idea, so I drew up a simple “Hear that?” sign to engage curious people on the street as I make my way around the city. The response so far has been amazing and varied. Everywhere this little sign goes there has been interest…. from subway passengers, busking musicians, and even well-known Canadian radio show hosts…and this is just two days in! Here are some samples of the interested (and interesting) folks I’ve met:

Ukrainian violinist, Ruslan, of Pavlov’s Dogs Orchestra, serenading subway passengers with classical music at Union Station

An indulgent shop keeper at Kala Kendar, an amazing shop in Gerrard Street East’s Little India, let me take his picture after he sold me a shruti box.

A Toronto International Film Festival presentation of classic silent movies with live musical accompaniment outdoors on the lawn beside Roy Thomson Hall. What with Cantos’ history of silent movie presentations, and one of the collection’s most popular instruments, the Kimball silent movie theatre organ, we had to pay tribute and go check it out. It turns out that one of the musicians was Andrew Downing, who I’ve been a big fan of for several years, starting with hearing a riveting performance with the Great Uncles of the Revolution back at the Halifax Jazz Festival years ago. I’ll admit it, I gushed a little. Andrew was on cello duties, Tania Gill on keys and Nick Fraser on drums.

We inadvertently crashed a wedding party at a little street-side café in the Kensington Market area when we saw Ezra Azmon (violin) and Derrick Greenly (harp) begin to play. We sat and sipped iced tea for awhile, listened and chatted, and discovered that Ezra, originally from Israel, calls Medicine Hat home and is temporarily living in Toronto making music….and plays klezmer music with some friends and neighbours of mine in Calgary. Toronto is starting to feel like a small town…and music is really starting to feel like a common thread running through the vast and varied fabric of Canada.

Jian Ghomeshi, well-known Canadian radio broadcaster and musician, trying out his new specs at Rapp Optical in Little Italy. I am a huge CBC Radio fan, but I would never stoop to stalking my favorite radio hosts while they’re being fitted for glasses. Again, I’ll admit it, I gushed a lot. (Now, if I could just bump into CBC Radio 2’s Tom Allen at the barber shop that would make my week complete.)

Stay tuned for more from Toronto!!