The Guest List
Thursday September 14th, 2023 with Joe Reilly
Interviews with Claire Coupland, Tony Dekker of Great Lake Swimmers and Alexander Shelly, the musical director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra

We open the show today in conversation with singer-songwriter Claire Coupland. She released her first full length album, New Light, earlier this year and she is appearing at CityFolk on Thursday, September 14th at 5:30 p.m. (So if you're listening to the show live on the radio then rush down to Lansdowne Park to see her!) We talk about how Claire mixes songs that explore serious themes such as women escaping domestic violence with bright folk-pop numbers that are truly uplifting. For more information about Claire Coupland visit these sites: https://www.clairecoupland.com https://clairecoupland.bandcamp.com/album/new-light And for information about CityFolk visit this site: https://cityfolkfestival.com Next we check in with Tony Dekker, who is the lead vocalist and the songwriter for Great Lake Swimmers. The group released an amazing new album in the Spring, entitled Uncertain Country. It has a stunning album cover and Tony tells us about that during the interview. We also talk about how the natural world inspired the creation of the new songs on this album and the fantastic vocal harmonies and choral pieces featured in a couple of songs. Tony tells us that the group Miniscule worked on these choral arrangements and that Miniscule will be appearing with Great Lake Swimmers at the National Arts Centre on Friday night, September 15. Both groups will perform their own sets and Miniscule will join the Great Lake Swimmers for several songs in what will be an amazing night of music in the Babs Asper Theatre. For more information about Great Lake Swimmers visit their website: https://greatlakeswimmers.com And for tickets to this concert use this link: https://nac-cna.ca/en/event/34495 And we wrap up talking about the National Arts Centre Orchestra with musical director Alexander Shelley. The NACO is kicking off the 2023-2024 season with a very special festival FOCUS: Clara, Robert, Johannes and Alexander Shelley explains how this festival was developed, the music that it will feature and the special guests that will join the NACO over the next two weeks for these concerts. He also tells us about a new recording coming from the NACO on September 22 - the fourth album in the orchestra's series featuring the music of Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms. Alexander Shelley is an amazing story teller as he relates to us the history of these three composers and why he loves their works so much. For more information about this series of concerts use this link to the National Arts Centre's website. https://nac-cna.ca/en/series/focus-clara-robert-johannes Get out and see some live music this week. Support independent music in any way that you can. Thanks for listening.