A cappella set to perform at Arts on 817

By Melissa Piche Times Contributor

Members of the adult a cappella ensemble ONCUE are preparing to bring their high-energy, voice-only performance at the Strathmore United Church on March 7 as part of the Arts on 817 concert series.

Alida Lowe, a member and manager of ONCUE, said the group is “thrilled to be a part of it,” adding that the invitation feels especially meaningful on a personal level.

“For me, actually, I grew up in Strathmore, so it’s kind of a fun coming home,” Lowe said. “I went to elementary school at Westmount. We’ll be right across the street from my old stomping ground.

“We think we’ve got a really great experience for people to come out and see, and we are happy to bring our music and our fun performing. We love being on stage. We love sharing what we do with an audience.”

ONCUE is the adult ensemble of the Youth Singers of Calgary, a longstanding arts organization that offers programs for ages three through adult. While the umbrella organization focuses on youth education, ONCUE itself is made up of adult performers.

“We are actually an adult choir,” Lowe explained. “We are a group of instructors and alumni and community professionals who really just love making music and love doing it in an organization where what we bring to the table supports youth education.”

That connection between professional performers and youth mentorship is especially visible through ONCUE’s director, Dean Lauderdale.

Lowe has been with the group for eight years and said the experience continues to be rewarding. The 11-member ensemble performs entirely a cappella, relying solely on their voices to create full, layered arrangements.

“We’re a fully a cappella group, so everything we do is just with our voices,” she said. “It’s a unique music experience that a lot of people may or may not have had the chance to sit in a performance like that, and we bring a great, energetic, really fun show.”

ONCUE performs in a wide range of venues, from large-scale productions to intimate community concerts.

“We do everything from a couple of shows with the full singers’ company at the Jubilee Auditorium to this kind of smaller venue,” Lowe said. “Around Christmas time, we do a lot of downtown office buildings. They’ll hire us to come and sing in their lobby for an hour, bring some holiday magic to people walking by for their lunch.”

While large venues offer full staging and a massive, combined cast, Lowe said smaller concerts like the Arts on 817 concerts provide a different kind of artistic opportunity.

“What we can do for a concert like this one is some of the music that just translates best to a captive audience in a space of beautiful acoustics, and we can just really show off the musicality of what we’re doing,” she said.

Also taking part in the evening is the choir from École Brentwood, under the direction of music teacher Loralee Laycock, who will serve as the Opening Act. Continuing with the theme this season of the Opening Acts, the Arts on 817 has chosen a local group of talented performers to delight the audience and perhaps give them a taste of what to expect from the upcoming Strathmore Performing Arts Festival. 

Laycock said her students are “very excited” to take part in the concert, even if some may not yet grasp the scale of the opportunity.

“To be honest, I think that a lot of them don’t really comprehend what a big deal this is,” she said.  “Probably once they get in there and they realize, ‘Oh, this is the big time,’ then I think they’ll be really excited about that.”

For Laycock, being invited to perform in the community is always meaningful.

“Oh, it’s always wonderful to be asked to have your choir perform somewhere in the community,” she said. “Having people who live where we live getting to see our school choir is unique, because lots of times our choirs are seen mostly by their friends and family. This will be really fun to have them get to perform for members of the community.”

She added that the venue itself adds to the experience.

“The United Church is such a beautiful little venue acoustically, and it’s intimate, and I think it’ll be really great for the kids,” Laycock said. “We’re doing six songs total – it’s supposed to be about 25 minutes’ worth of material.”

With the concert taking place just over a week before festival season begins, Laycock said the timing could not be better.

“That’s only a week and a half before the festival, so we couldn’t have asked for a better preparation,” said Laycock.

The Arts on 817 starts at 7 p.m. sharp on March 7. Tickets can be purchased ahead of time from the Vault or online at www.smoreuc.com or at thevaultonline.ca/collections/tickets.