3 minute read
Catch a sound wave
AWASH sound WITH
By Janis Wallace
MUSIC FESTIVAL COMES TO HURON COUNTY
TOP Cellist Thomas Beard and his sister, Emily Beard, playing harp, are both originally from Wingham. Pictured here, they were filmed at FauxPop Media studios in Goderich for the December 2021 video, A Huron Waves Christmas. ABOVE John Miller, artistic director of Huron Waves Music Festival.
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR JOHN MILLER hen artistic director John
WMiller met with the board of an aspiring new music festival in 2019, he gave them an assignment: think of a name for it. When they reconvened, Aimee Rau told the story of driving home thinking about Miller’s request. On one side of the road, the wind whipped the water of Lake Huron into waves. The crops in the fields on the other side also waved in the breeze. Then she thought of music traveling in waves and suggested Huron Waves for the festival.
Huron Waves was ready to launch its inaugural festival in the spring of 2020. The pandemic caused them to cancel programs in 2020 and 2021. But they released videos in December of each year.
Miller said they will also release a video June 1, 2022 to open this season, followed by other videos by local musicians. Live concerts featuring artists brought into the area will take place the first three weekends of June.
Music lovers can attend those concerts in several communities throughout Huron County: Exeter, Goderich, Wingham, Blyth, St. Joseph and Hensall. Board members live in various parts of the county, and they wanted to bring music to as many places as possible rather than concentrate in one location.
The music will also be wide-ranging. “One of the goals is to add to the interest and awareness and fun of music by bringing in groups that would not necessarily appear in Southwestern Ontario,” says Miller.
Miller was unable to provide specifics pending government funding approval at time of writing. He gave hints the concerts will include classical, country, Indigenous, multi-instrumental and percussion performances.
His challenge has been finding venues. “I needed to adapt programs and find sites as close as feasible for the artists or ensembles we’re bringing in. Looking at an arena automatically eliminates delicate performances or small ensembles. You’ve got to go big, with 100 or more performers. As a producer, I have a responsibility to the audience that they get a good sound performance and to the artist who deserves the best communication with the audience.”
Miller also wants to explore what he calls experiential music. “I’m striving to use the concept of music in the widest possible sense – a music garden, an exploration of the sound of waves, of trees, of nature. The public doesn’t think about nature and sound as an aspect of music.”
Sounds like a fresh wave of new musical experiences will wash over Huron County in June 2022.
