2021-10-20

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by GAYLE WILSON

  • <p>FACEBOOK PHOTO, LUNENBURG&#8217;S 260TH BIRTHDAY</p><p>Pearl Oxner is touted as one of Lunenburg&#8217;s most significant contributors to the musical life of Nova Scotia.</p>

Maritime Concert Opera paying tribute to "Mrs Music"

Maritime Concert Opera (MCO), a semi-professional regional opera company based in Lunenburg, is presenting a tribute to Pearl Oxner Oct. 23-24.

Touted as one of Lunenburg's most significant contributors to the musical life of Nova Scotia and often referred to as "Mrs. Music" in Lunenburg, Oxner was "a driving force in the music scene of the town and to Nova Scotia for over fifty years," board member Deborah Glassman told LighthouseNOW in an email. She established the Lunenburg Male Choir in 1929 and started a Girls Choral Club beginning in 1937 at the Lunenburg Academy, where students also mounted operettas annually from 1938 until 1963.

Oxner gave lessons in her home to hundreds of children, two of whom will be singing in the chorus for this production. She herself appeared in operas and musical shows and was one of 24 Canadians selected to sing in the Coronation Choir in Westminster Abbey for the crowning of King George VI. She led numerous choirs in the area and directed a multitude of musical performances. In recognition of her lifelong contributions to music in Nova Scotia, the annual Kiwanis Festival awards the P. Oxner Baton to the most outstanding choral conductor each year. The music presented in the tribute portion of this concert is selected from repertoire that she herself would have used, featuring an all-Nova Scotian cast, with an adult and children's chorus, according to Glassman.

Following the Oxner Tribute, MCO will present a concert performance of Mascagni's one-act opera Cavalleria Rusticana, with the same cast and chorus. Both performances will take place in the historic Lunenburg Opera House, making this the first time that opera will be presented in that venue since the 1920s.

Lunenburg's Peer Gallery hosting Ink and Glaze exhibit

Celebrating 20 years in operation, the 14-member Peer Gallery of Contemporary Arts on Lunenburg's Lincoln Street is hosting a showing of work by Anne Tweed and Carol Morrow called Ink and Glaze. Running from October 28 to November 7, the exhibit explores parallel challenges faced by these two artists in their work. Both are using the layering of materials (inks or glazes) to produce unique and unpredictable visual effects. "The moment of truth is when the kiln is opened, or the print is pulled, and the beautiful and serendipitous results are revealed," the gallery reports in its promotion.

"Using mono type printmaking as her medium, Anne continues her exploration of colour and mark making to create vibrant, non-objective images inspired by the natural world in this new series of work.

"Carol has produced a series of vessels representing a panoply of fierce women and mighty girls. Starting with simple vase forms that are altered and modified with text and lush layered glazes she shows her chosen figures clothed in the power of their words and actions," explains the gallery.

The gallery will be open every day, noon until 5 p.m., throughout the exhibition.

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