May 21 -- That Delightful Strain: Tales of Musical Misadventures

I’m involved in a fun show at the National Arts Centre’s 4th Stage on Thursday, May 21st at 7:30. A combination of storytelling and music, it provides some true and fictional glimpses of the bumpy side of learning and performing music. Kim, Alex and I have had a riot putting “That Delightful Strain” together.  If you or someone close to you have ever sung in a choir, taken music lessons, or found yourself in a predicament in front an audience, this collection of original stories and songs should strike a chord with you. I hope to see you there! 

 This show is the second-last instalment of this season's Ottawa Storytellers series at the 4th Stage. Here’s the official blurb:

"From the earliest ordeals of the childhood piano lesson to the full-blown perils of the concert stage, the best-laid plans of musicians can go disastrously wrong.  What then?  Storytellers Kim Kilpatrick and Tom Lips, with pianist Alex Vlamis, share lighthearted stories and songs about  musical mischance, choral calamities, and the pitfalls of the pianoforte.  A choir director makes the ultimate gamble to recruit some good tenors.  A child faces the terrors of the Kiwanis festival. Two aging punk rockers play the strangest gig of their lives.  A bagpiper moves into the apartment upstairs. A blind musician braves the orchestra.  All this and, yes, perhaps just a little opera..."

NAC's 4th STAGE (53 Elgin Street)
Thursday, May 21, 2015, 7:30 p.m., doors open at 7:00
Ages 12 and up
Tickets: $22 at the NAC Box Office, seniors $18; Live Rush & subscription available

For more information, contact: Laurie Fyffe, Artistic Manager (mad@ottawastorytellers.ca), 613-322-8336, www.ottawastorytellers.ca)