Music Connects Us
Notes from our Artistic Director
May 2, 2022
I’ve been planning festivals and events for many a year, but there has never been a year – or should I say years – quite like the countdown to a first Huron Waves festival!   It’s really been three years, or at least three planned festivals, that have brought us to a point where we genuinely can say to potential audiences, “We’re on the cusp of the countdown…just one month to go until we Celebrate Music and Celebrate the County!”   Here’s a rundown of what’s happening today.

We’re Hiring.    Thanks to a federal program that supports summer youth employment, Huron Waves is about to welcome someone from Huron County to work closely with our General Manager to help us prepare and carry out a month of music.  If any of our readers knows of someone who would enjoy this opportunity, please share this information with him/her:

Administrative Assistant – Office

Are you wishing to learn how an arts organization operates?  Huron Waves Music Festival has one student administrative position funded through Canada Summer Jobs available.    The placement is for 9 weeks, 30 hours/week, and may begin as soon as May 9, 2022.  The student must be between the ages of 15 and 30 years old. Access to transportation and a valid driver’s license will be helpful.  The Student will work closely with the festival’s G.M. who is located in Blyth, though working from home anywhere in Huron County is entirely possible to carry out some of the tasks, while travelling within the County is also an active part of this position.

Huron Waves management team has a combined 80+ years experience managing arts organizations in southwestern Ontario.   The successful candidate will participate in developing and implementing marketing and communications strategies, event management – ticket sales, volunteer recruitment and orientation, coordinating hospitality, travel and accommodation needs for visiting musicians and monitoring financial aspects of a multi-event Music Festival.  Huron Waves will work to provide the student a deeper understanding of the Festival’s mandate and its importance to the social and economic viability of our community.

This position provides an opportunity for a student to further develop organizational, digital, communications, teamwork, networking, time management and leadership skills.

Huron Waves is an equal opportunity employer that strives to create a respectful, accessible and inclusive work environment.

Please send your resume and cover letter to kstewart@huronwavesmusicfestival.ca.
Everything’s Coming Up Music.   Have you seen – or should I say heard – our current logo?   Thanks to designer Lisa Levy and harpist Sharlene Wallace, the Huron Waves logo has both animation and music.   This is certainly a first for us, and it may well be a unique creation for music festivals anywhere in Canada.   Check out the designer’s and the composer’s creativity by clicking on the logo here…

We’ve Started Production.      On the weekend a film crew from FauxPop Media in Goderich began work on the third Huron Waves video;  after two successful seasonal videos in Decembers, 2020 and 2021, we’re simply calling this production A Huron Waves Spring.  The new video will be released on June 1 to mark the opening of our 2022 calendar of concerts and events. Clearly, it will involve a fine group of young filmmakers to capture the music and the six settings around the County where I’ve chosen to film our video segments.   Seldom do the crews behind the scenes get the attention they deserve but photographer Bonnie Sitter caught the full group together at Trivitt Memorial Church at the conclusion of the first segment’s work.  Here they are with the episode’s featured young artist, his parents, his teacher (Frank Leahy, extreme right), our General Manager, Karen Stewart, and me.  Thanks to everyone in the crew!
Let the Filming Begin.  Saturday’s shoot in Exeter focused on a violin prodigy, Sam Wong, whom we’re very pleased to introduce to our viewers, in fact, to introduce to the world.   Someone watching the filming turned to me and whispered, “We’re seeing a young Joshua Bell in the making!”   Sam is 6 years old and by memory he played his repertoire (a difficult Bach for solo violin and a challenging Allegro by Joseph-Hector Fiocco that I’d only heard once before in a performance by Itzhak Perlman).  And did I say that Sam is only 6 years old?  What a pleasure for Huron Waves to have Sam among the other musicians (percussion, harp, Dixieland, contemporary, country) whom we’ll be filming in the next two weeks!
Let’s Announce the 2022 Huron Waves Season

Earlier I referred to the uniqueness of this festival season and it is genuinely among a score of circumstances beyond one’s control that Huron Waves is about to get underway…at long last!  We still have to balance these unique factors and to do that as one sees the path ahead, I’ve chosen to unveil the details of the season in a variety of releases and notices rather than as one big announcement.  This means that you can expect a series of information eblasts to come your way in May as a patron/supporter/reader of the monthly newsletters.  At the same time these releases will also hit the inboxes of area media or take shape on social media sites;  rather than our making one big announcement, each release will be timed to be precisely one month in advance of the actual date when that concert will take place.

This definitely isn’t the traditional way of announcing a festival season, but given the unique circumstances under which Huron Waves, like so many of our colleague festivals in Ontario and perhaps elsewhere in the County, must react to situations and conditions beyond our control, I think this the best way for us to share our good news publicly.

Let me close simply by saying that the Huron Waves team is working full-out to organise and present a great season with concerts and events we hope local audiences will find interesting, unique and appealing; and regional audiences will find worthy of their coming to Huron County to enjoy for themselves because they can’t see these artists and ensembles in live performances in their own communities.

Enough said…now, stand by for the first release, coming in just days.

Till we’re together again… stay safe and healthy.  And remember that Music Connects Us.

John A. Miller, Artistic Director
JohnMiller@HuronWavesMusicFestival.ca 
May 2, 2022