This just in - you may want to tune your radio dial to 102.1FM in Calgary before you read.

The Calgary Girls Choir has just won the CBC Radio Choral Competition in the Youth Choirs Category! The choir performed this afternoon as part of a "live-to-air" broadcast today, April 30. If you were unable to attend in person, tune in to CBC Radio Two tonight at 7 p.m. MST or listen via the internet (see below).

A huge congratulations from all of us at Calgary Arts Development to the Calgary Girls Choir, artistic director Elaine Quilichini and all the hard-working parents and volunteers behind the scenes!

Internet Listening Instructions

1. Go to http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/  read more »

Last night I had the pleasure of attending two incredible musical events. The first was Mystic Signs a concert by the Renaissance Singers with guests Calgary Men's Chorus and EnChor. This amazing concert of ancient and contemporary choral music was presented in the dome theatre of the Telus World of Science. It was a selll out show with audience ranges from eight years old to seventy eight years old. After the concert I went over to MacHall to see Guitar Mania, a presentation of the Calgary MidWinter Blues Festival just in time to catch blues legend Hubert Sumlin. It was an amazing show, transforming MacHall for one night into one of the best Blues clubs in North America. Another sell out with an incredible range of audience, I even ran into Marge our favorite elevator operator from our office building.  read more »

Vancouver 2010.  Having been there and in Whistler for the past week, there are sites earmarked all over the area for development ahead of the Winter Olympics.  A series of high class venues and buildings, all built to house this great sporting event. 

However, my friend, who lives in Whistler, was wondering about all this construction.  Why, she asked, when you're surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery in Canada, would you want to erect a series of "iconic" buildings?   read more »

Major music happenings have occupied my thoughts lately. Richard Branson strode into town awhile back on a crazy horse-drawn carriage to kick up a big fuss about the Virgin Festival coming to Calgary this June (right around the time of Sled Island and followed by the Calgary Folk Music Festival). Michael Green, Blake Brooker and the rest of the team at One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theatre announced January's sizzling High Performance Rodeo line-up - there are some fantastic music events including a new arrangement of Tubular Bells, presented in collaboration with Alberta Ballet and Honens.`And of course, the 2008 JUNO Awards are coming to Calgary this April!  read more »

I usually make a yearly trip to my childhood home of Summerside, PEI, taking in as much arts and culture as I can manage between beach trips and card games. This trip, ending last week, reminded me again of what a small art town Canada is...  read more »

The latest installment in Yann Martel's whatisstephenharperreading.com project is Orwell's book Animal Farm. After reading this article from the Globe and Mail, it seems that the newest great thing about being prime minister is getting really good books hand-delivered to your door every two weeks along with an insightful letter about the book by one of the country's best writers.  read more »

This website from CanLit rock star Yann Martel caught our attention. Here's an excerpt from Arts News Canada that provides a good synopsis of a fantastic arts action project taken on by one of the country's top artists:

Many of you would have seen Yann Martel's article in the print edition of the Globe and Mail over the weekend. Martel, one of the 50 artists selected by the Canada Council to represent the work of the Council over its 50 years of being, complained that the recognition of Canada's artists last month went mostly unnoticed by the powers that be in Ottawa during the celebration.  read more »

The Art Gallery of Alberta has been getting some great press coverage lately with their new show, Free for All. Hundreds of people have been lining up to submit their own artwork to the gallery -- kind of like a Canadian Idol audition for visual art.

The tremendous popularity of this initiative is really inspiring, showing just how important art is to so many people. Check out this link from CBC Arts Online for more information, and if you find yourself at the Art Gallery of Alberta over the next month (the show runs March 3-24), be sure to let us know what you think (an entry in our Creative Calgarians Journal would be an ideal way to share this information!).

There was an interesting article in the weekend's Globe + Mail by Margaret Atwood. In it she provides her thoughtful and angry response to the Federal Government's cuts to funding for promotion of Canadian artists internationally.

If you do not have an on-line subscription to the Globe, you can read the article in its entirety through the North Edmonton Sculpture Workshop's bolg, Studio Savant .  read more »

Take a look at this piece by Sean Carrie in today's National Post. Sean looks at the story of the creation of Calgary Opera and the Banff Centre's Frobisher, making its world premiere on January 27th. Here are a couple of great quotes that speak to what we're starting to think is Calgary's authentic story:  read more »