By John Swartz
(September 9, 2020) You’ve heard Aaron Davis play piano, I’m sure of it. He’s part of Holly Cole’s band, works with Measha Bureggergosman and was in Manteca, and also played with Mary Margaret O’Hara, Ron Sexsmith, Marc Jordan, the Art Of Time Ensemble, Ed Robertson, Steven Page, Alison Krauss, Natalie MacMaster, the Canadian Brass, Sarah Slean, and Molly Johnson. He’s also arranged music for the San Francisco Symphony, the Finnish National Opera and more than 100 movies, documentaries and TV series.
He’s playing a concert September 19 at the Opera House. There are only 50 tickets and some are already sold. The concert is being taped for an online six-concert series called Travel by Sound organize by Victoria Yeh.
Each is shot in a different venue and includes interviews and footage of the scenery in the communities the venues are located (Collingwood, Meaford, etc.). Orillia’s is a bit different though.
“All the other halls participating don’t have procedures in place to allow live audiences, except for the Orillia Opera House,” Victoria said. “They’ve been very forward thinking and bold with the vision to get audiences comfortable again coming to live shows.”
“It was actually Michael (Ladouceur) and Wendy (Fairbairn) that made this happen,” she said. “Orillia is really putting its best foot forward to try to help stimulate the economy and help reach out to the community through the arts.”
“I approached them and pitched them the idea. It’s a concert and adventure series, connecting people through music and helping people explore things in their region.”
The first and last concert features one side of Victoria’s music.
“Jean Luc Ponty is my biggest influence, so we’re playing a mix of some of my original music which would fall more under a Fusion genre and some re-imagined (mainstream) covers that people would not otherwise recognize,” she said. A third concert in the middle of the series focuses on the classical side.
Aaron’s band includes Kevin Breit (guitar), Ian De Souza (bass), John Johnson (winds), and Victoria. People who get a ticket for the concert will find themselves in the recording.
“You may see yourself in the distance. There will only be 50 people in the audience. You will hear your applause,” Victoria said.
The other concerts features Paul DeLong’s jazz fusion band, One Word (covering music by the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report, Jeff Beck, and Return to Forever) and the Freeman Brothers.
To see the other concerts visit the website above. You can get online credentials to see the ones you want (unlimited views) for $40, or all of them for $100. Until the end of the month take 50% off those prices.
To get tickets for the concert here, visit the Opera House ticket page.