Arboretum Festival 2015 [August 19, 2015]

Finally the wait was over and it was the start of the fourth annual Arboretum Festival for 2015.
First of four nights and one of two shows at St. Alban’s Church.

It was the first time that this Toronto project called Queer Songbook Orchestra stepped out their comfort zone and went outside of the city to do this show for the festival.

Here is the info about them:
“The QSO is an eleven piece chamber-pop ensemble of top Toronto and Montreal-based queer and allied musicians, from across the pop, classical and jazz spectrums.
Lifting the rug on the last century of popular song, the QSO are looking back at this history with the queer lens intact and drawing on little known queer histories of influential songwriters and performers, and collecting personal narratives from within the community for songs that hold deep meaning and have empowered queer individuals.”
There were three different narrators that told a story of the songs being performed.
It moving, heartbreaking and powerful.

Alanna Stuart did a wonderful rendition of Constant Craving!
They ended the show with their orchestral version of Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off!

The show started off with Melody McKiver.
Performed an absolute experimental instrumental viola music.
Also did a synch of short films being shown at the Asinabka Festival.

Overall this was a great night and kick off to the festival.
Click below for more photos.
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