Submitted by Pat Carrie Smith for the QCI Arts Council-The QCI Arts Council will start its new season with two awesome musical concerts. Tim Harwill, a country and gospel style soul singer and songwriter with original acoustic music, will play three concerts for the Arts Council: in Sandspit on Saturday, Sept. 16 at The Willows, at the United Church in Skidegate on Sunday, Sept. 17, and in Masset at Green Church on Wednesday, Sept. 20. All Harwill concerts start at 7:30 pm, with doors opening at 7 pm, and cost $10, or $8 for Arts Council members.
Two weeks later, Keith Bennett, the "blues guy," who visited our islands in early 2005 to very enthusiastic audiences, will return to the islands. He and a different music partner, Edwin Mohoric, will entertain us at Green Church in Masset on Friday, Sept. 29 and in Skidegate at the United Church on Saturday, Sept. 30. Bennett and Mohoric are both accomplished musicians and composers, and Bennett had the honour to be invited this summer to Supertramp to play harmonica. They are willing to do guitar and harmonica workshops while they are on the islands. If anyone has an interest, please contact Elizabeth at 557-4491 or weavers@qcislands.net. Both concerts will start at 7:30 pm, and will cost $15, or $12 for Arts Council members.
The Arts Council will be hosting a Golden Spruce Art Show, a joint project with the Queen Charlotte Visitor Centre, on Nov. 1. Get your entries in before Nov. 1 to the visitor centre! Any media: words, wood, fibres, metals, glass, stone, paper, etc. for a literary, visual, environmental, culinary, or other arts piece. Your inspiration is the Golden Spruce-the tree itself, its legends, or the recent book by John Vaillant.
A very exciting event this year, a joint project with Literacy Haida Gwaii, will be the arrival of CBC Daybreak North's Russell Bowers to head up two readings of Dickens "A Christmas Carol." One will be held in Masset or Port Clements, and the other will likely be in Skidegate. The readings take place on either the last weekend in November or the first weekend in December. This is a CBC tradition, and we are fortunate to have been picked out of many requests from other British Columbia communities. Watch for details soon!
Other upcoming musical events this year are Mary Murphy and David Francey, who will do concerts for us on the weekend of Nov. 17, 18 and 19. They are also very interested in doing a workshop on "guitar accompaniment" at both ends of the islands.
In January, we will host Daniel Bolshoy, a classical guitarist, who will do one concert only on Jan. 25, most likely in Skidegate or Charlotte, and in April a pianist, Sara Buechner, will be here for two light classical performances, one north and one south, around April 7.
2007 will also see two writers on the islands: James MacKinnon, author of the award-winning "Dead Man in Paradise," in August, and Paul Quarrington, author of the recently published "Galveston" and "Fishing With My Old Guy," in February.