The Guest List
Thursday November 7th, 2024 with Joe Reilly and Slo' Tom Stewart
LIVE from the National Arts Centre we talk to Caroline Ohrt, Julie Stella, Darren Hicks, Max Cardilli and Kellylee Evans

This was a fun, jam packed show coming to you live from the Atrium O'Brien at the National Arts Centre. The first remote broadcast of the Guest List in well over 30 years. The Guest List is sponsored by Spaceman Music at 388 Gladstone Avenue - just west of Bank Street. It's the place to go for all of your music creating needs - guitars, basses, keyboards, amps and other accessories are all at Spaceman Music. They buy and sell used instruments, offer music lessons and have a great repair shop. Visit them today and tell them you heard about them on The Guest List! https://www.spacemanmusic.com/ It was fantastic to have Slo' Tom join me as the show co-host - something he graciously does once during every Funding Drive. Yes it's CKCU's annual public funding drive and we need you to select "Donate Now" to make a donation so we can meet the costs of keeping a radio station functioning on the air in 2024! Tom has a bunch of upcoming gigs across the eastern Ontario and western Quebec. Tom tells us about those gigs - but mostly Tom spent much of his time encouraging you to make a donation to our funding drive while singing the praises of community radio. Find out more about Tom's music here: https://slotomandthehandsomedevils.bandcamp.com/ Then Caroline Ohrt, the Executive Producer of Dance at the National Arts Centre, joined us to talk about the new season of Dance at the NAC. It is Caroline's first full season of programming Dance for the NAC, and she told us about taking over the helm from Cathy Levy who had run the Dance Department for 20 years. Caroline told us about the power of contemporary dance to reach audiences on a visceral level and stir up powerful feelings. She also picked some highlight performances still to come in the NAC's 2024-2025 Dance season. To learn more about Caroline: https://nac-cna.ca/en/bio/caroline-ohrt And for more information about the NAC'S Dance season: https://nac-cna.ca/en/discover/dance After this interview with Caroline, we played the musical piece "paillettes" by Laurier Rajotte from the upcoming Dance production "Fables" by Compagnie Virginie Brunelle. For more information on that production: https://nac-cna.ca/en/event/36050 Then, Tom and I were joined by local singer-songwriter Julie Stella. She is performing tonight (November 7th) at Live on Elgin. Julie talks to us about her moody songwriting style, and how she started writing songs during the pandemic lockdowns as a means of expressing how she was feeling during those times. Julie is also a CKCU producer/host, and can be heard on the program Indie City Madness on Mondays. Check out Julie's music on Bandcamp: https://juliestella.bandcamp.com/track/like-a-ghost Next up we talk to two members of the National Arts Centre Orchestra. Darren Hicks is the Principal Basoon and Max Cardilli is the Assistant Principal Double Bass. Both players joined the NACO in 2022, and they tell us about early, impactful educators who turned them on to making music back in elementary school and how they both jumped at the chance to join the NACO. They also tell us about a brand new recording that is coming out next Friday, November 15th. It is called Two Orchestras, One Symphony and features the NACO with Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec and Toronto's Mendelssohn Choir. This album is a grand-scale interpretation of the late Quebec composer Jacques Hetu's monumental Symphony No. 5. Max and Darren explain the significance of this work and how amazing it was making this recording. For more information about the National Arts Centre Orchestra use this link: https://nac-cna.ca/en/orchestra To learn more about Darren Hicks and Max Cardilli use these links: https://nac-cna.ca/en/bio/max-cardilli https://nac-cna.ca/en/bio/darren-hicks Finally, Kellylee Evans joins us via Zoom to talk about her brand new album, Winter Song and to tell us about her upcoming seasonal show at the National Arts Centre on December 7th. Kellylee tells us that she finally produced an album of Christmas songs because so many of her fans asked her to record one after seeing her perform seasonal concerts in the past. It's an album full of some great traditional Christmas songs, and originals like the title track of the recording. For more information about Kellylee Evans and her music: https://kellyleeevans.com/ https://kellylee.bandcamp.com/ And for tickets to see Kellylee Evans at the NAC on December 7th: https://nac-cna.ca/en/event/36816 Thanks for Dylan Hunter for technical production on the show today - and for getting all of our gear set up at the National Arts Centre for this special broadcast today. Also thanks to many members of the National Arts Centre's team who helped make this show possible today, including: Amanda Baumgarten, Alexandra Campeau, Sylvain Lavoie and Noah Richardson. And thanks again to Slo Tom Stewart for joining me at the NAC for this special broadcast. Get out and see some live music this week. Support independent music in any way that you can and don't forget to donate to CKCU's Annual Public Funding Drive... and support the Guest LIst by using this link: https://www.canadahelps.org/me/6chQ8C6Y Thanks