Wednesday night was a big night out for EAP this week. We had plans to attend the Canadian Council for the Arts reception at the Four Seasons Centre and then go home early. But our good friend Sharron Matthews let us know, via Facebook, that THE Julia Murney was in town performing at Roy Thomson Hall as part of the TSO's pop series. If you aren't familiar with Ms. Murney, you need to watch this, she's amazing!
Anyway we are getting ahead of ourselves. The Canadian Council reception was wonderful. The was a very good turn out of local arts persons. Several Board members, including the charismatic Vice-Chair Mr. Simon Brault spoke about the current goals of the Council, and outlined their strategic plan for the next five years. Mr. Brault who is also the author of the recently published, No Culture, No Future talked a lot about the importance of utilizing the Council's arts contacts more effectively and embracing new technology, hence the strategic plan for the next five years is called Strengthening Connections. We actually took some audio recordings of Mr. Brault and others during the event, and are going to try and get a few highlights up here on the blog, when we figure out how to do that.
After the reception we made our way down to Roy Thomson Hall to get $20.00 rush tickets for Broadway Divas. What an inspired program. Broadway Divas was presented as part of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's pop series, and was conducted by the legendary Steven Reineke. Reineke is best known for his work with The New York Pops, and is considered the foremost pop conductor today. He performs annually at Carnegie Hall and throughout North America.
We knew we were in for an amazing night of music when the orchestra opened with the overture from Gypsy, perhaps one of the most incredible overtures ever written. And it only got better from there. Ms. Murney was joined in concert by another Broadway veteran, Jennifer Laura Thompson. Ms. Thompson is perhaps best known for originating the role of Hope Cladwell in Urinetown, for which she received a Tony nomination. But vocally Ms. Murney really stole the show. Her rendition of the Kander and Ebb classic Ring Them Bells was almost as good as Liza's, (Minnelli that is, not me.)
We knew we'd love Ms. Murney but it was a surprise to discover that the real star of the program was Mr. Reineke, who developed and conducted the program. The pop series is a great way for the TSO to reach out beyond the Symphonic crowd, and Broadway Divas was a fantastic night of music. Let's hope that Mr. Reineke will make a stop in Toronto a regular thing. Thanks again to Sharron for alerting us to the show. We are glad we didn't miss this once in a lifetime chance.
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