A new arts season

This past summer cultural season has been outstanding thanks to Bob Halvorsen and staff at the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium. There were so many great concerts and the variety appealed to a wide demographic range.
Since May Thunder Bay audiences have had a chance to see k.d. Lang, John Fogerty, Slash, Stone Temple Pilots plus all the first-class talent that participated in the Bluesfest.
During spring and summer the auditorium also welcomed a lot of local events like graduations and dance recitals.
I would also like to thank the Thunder Bay Art Gallery for the fantastic retrospective of Roy Thomas’s work that was on display between June and the first week of September. It was stunning and attendance for the show was as strong as it had been for the major Norval Morrisseau show a few years ago. It was a fine tribute to Roy, a much-mourned giant of the Canadian visual arts community who should have lived many more years for his family and his art.
If people regret missing their chance to see this show locally they will have to travel to the Esplanade Art Gallery in Medicine Hat or the McMaster Museum of Art in Hamilton.
Now we are at the start of a brand new arts season and my family and friends are excited about the new Thunder Bay Symphony schedule. The Masterworks series looks outstanding this year — Mozart’s Requiem with the Elmer Isler singers and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Gryphon Trio. Wow!
We are also looking forward to Pops concerts like Matt Andersen Brings the Blues and we will be celebrating a friend’s birthday at the Music of Michael Jackson.
Thunder Bay has an amazing cultural infrastructure. It’s food for the mind, the soul and it’s fun.
Karen Skochinski
Thunder Bay
Editor’s note: We hasten to add Rodney Brown’s concert with the TBSO Oct. 19 to launch his newest CD, Songs From Fort William, coinciding with his successful effort to have a burial plaque for Fort William’s namesake, William McGillivray, installed at St. James's Church in London.