SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW
Happy New Year to everyone! I hope everyone had a restful and happy holiday season and that 2025 has begun with good spirits all around for our SSM friends and loved ones!
While I began contemplating what to put into my first note of the year somewhere between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, I'm finally putting pen to paper (actually, fingertip to keyboard) when a lot is happening in the world. Our Prime Minister has stepped down (or is stepping down eventually). A former President of the United States has passed on after living to 100(!), and an Inauguration awaits for our friends south of the border. There is a lot that is going to happen in 2025! As an old Chinese proverb apparently says (translated, obviously) - "May you live in interesting times." We most certainly do.
At SSM we're starting off the new year getting ready for many events to share with you. We've already released a fair amount of info on our summer season, which you can peruse on our newly-upgraded website at your leisure.
Check out our NEW website!
We're announcing fresh news and upcoming programming that you won’t want to miss!
Stay tuned and visit us often to be the first to know about the latest happenings at Stratford Summer Music!
But we have more events before the summer to share! Next week we present NYX Drone Choir at The Tom Patterson, which represents a first-time collaboration between SSM, Lights on Stratford and The Stratford Festival. As well as a concert that brings an immersive experience in ways you've never heard before (trust me), there is also a public workshop that anyone (singer or not!) can attend. More information about these events are below.
Lights On NYX Live!
Saturday, January 18, 2025
7:30 p.m.
Tom Patterson Theatre
The idea of a "drone choir" may sound new, but like almost all music it is a combination of things from the past and ideas happening in the present. Whether it is a piece of music written 2 years ago or 250, all music shares connections that bind us together as listeners - in other words, we can be time travellers with our ears if we so choose. I find that to be one of the most rewarding parts of interpreting music. As an example, this coming summer one of our highlight events features the outstanding Canadian pianist Stewart Goodyear performing a work for solo piano written sometime ahead of 1741 (that's the year it was published). Isn't it incredible that we can sit together in 2025 and hear someone, born in a country that didn't even exist when J.S. Bach wrote the famous Goldberg Variations, and somehow gain such enrichment from the experience?
Here's a link to his performance this summer. We're expecting this to sell out, so worth jumping on this bandwagon early...
Stewart Goodyear performs J.S. Bach's "Goldberg Variations"
Sunday, July 20, 2025
4:00 p.m.
The Avondale
I became aware of something from musical history over the holidays that I previously had never known. Glenn Miller, one of the most successful musicians of the 20th century, went missing during the second world war and was last said to have been onboard an aircraft heading to France across the channel from England. He was 40 years old. I had heard the basics of this story as a child, but not the fact that the aircraft he was on was never found. Next to Amelia Earhart, it is considered the most famous "missing airplane" story of the 20th century. Here's an article about it, as the anniversary was just last month.
80 years later, Glenn Miller's sudden disappearance remains unsolved
December 14, 2024 5:00 AM ET
By Julian Ring
Even if you don't think you've heard Glenn Miller's music, you have. And there is an SSM connection as well, as John Miller brought the Glenn Miller band to Stratford in the past.
Our very best wishes to everyone for 2025! Let's make it a great one!!
Mark and the SSM Team
Supporter Highlight
Starting next week, we’ll be shining the spotlight on a different supporter of Stratford Summer Music each week! Get ready to meet the incredible individuals and organizations who help make our festival a success. Keep checking back to see who’s behind the magic!
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