Committee News

Date: TBD (Postponed)
Time: 7-10pm
Location: Joel Steele Community Centre upstairs
Cost: $10 at the door
Ages: 12–17

The Ottawa Police Service Pipe Band was founded in 1969 by serving Ottawa Police officers to promote police community relations and to contribute to memorials for slain officers.  This dynamic band has paraded and performed across North America in both Canada and the United States. They have thrilled audiences with their pageantry and show stopping styles at Carnegie Hall in New York City, in Bermuda, Normandy, Colorado, Vancouver, Cleveland, Buffalo, New Hampshire, Toronto, Montreal, Prince Edward Island, and all across Ontario.

Through the nineties to the present day, the Pipe Band has won various titles over the years including the Glengarry Games North American championship in grade four, and Ontario Championship Supreme in grade two in 2012.

The Band wears the ‘Red Ross’ Tartan in honour of Ottawa’s first Chief Constable, Roderick Ross.  The Pipe Band and its highland dance troupe currently number close to one hundred members. Pipers and drummers are serving police officers as well as civilian volunteers under the direction of Pipe Major Jamie Ritchie and Drum Major Chris Renwick, both of whom are sworn members of the Ottawa Police.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/opspipeband/

Ashley is the studio owner and director. She has been dancing since she was just 7 years old. She danced at her local dance studio where she studied ballet, jazz, and lyrical. She competed at various competitions throughout Ottawa, Toronto and Quebec. She has won numerous awards, however her biggest accomplishment was being asked to join the Extreme Team where she performed on the stages at Disney in Florida. Ashley has been teaching at her childhood high school, she is the dance teacher for grade 7 & 8 at De La Salle. She has been teaching in the Ottawa area since her return from York in 2011 and opened her very own studio in 2017.

Jerry and Bonnie have been ministering to families since being married in 1979 and are well known in the Christian music scene. Their unique blend of art and music has taken them across Canada and U.S. ministering in churches, camps, schools, and outdoor festivals. More than mere entertainment, and never preachy but always fun, the Wallaces use their programs to present the gospel of Jesus Christ to people of all ages. Together they make up the evangelistic team of Adventures in Art and Music.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wallaceministries/

Amanda Veryl was born and raised on a dairy farm in Inkerman, ON.  She developed a love of artists such as Merle Haggard, Patsy Cline and Johnny Horton while riding with her dad in their John Deere 2755. She still uses that tractor to farm 75 acres where she raises her children and finds inspiration for the songs she writes.

Kyle Ivan is a singer-songwriter who loves to hit the road and play live with his band as often as possible. Fans often compare him to a rougher Shawn Mendes or Max from Arkells… must be the hair? You will hear stories behind his songs that pull you in, entwined in pop-infused melodies that you’ll be singing in the shower the next day.

Playing over 100 shows every year, he has found his way onto the stages of Ontario’s ‘Festival of Small Halls’, Ottawa’s ‘CityFolk Marvest showcase’, the ‘Rockin’ 1000’ concert in Florence Italy, and this year is featured at Ottawa Bluesfest, opening for The Backstreet Boys on July 14th!

Whether it’s a dead silent room listening to his story while sitting on the floor, or someone from the crowd pouring a beer down his throat after an improvised verse, his live show will give you something to rave to your friends about.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thekyleivan/

Mighty Harmonics is a small but mighty acoustic band based in Ottawa. We are versatile and fun with a love of performing songs that have pure melodies and sweet harmonies. The group puts their own harmonic spin on tunes from the 1950’s to present day, while staying true to the spirit of the originals. Currently, the group’s repertoire includes well over 100 songs, covering pop, rock, alternative, country, oldies and standards. The band performs throughout Eastern Ontario in a variety of venues.

Our Beginnings
After a decade-long break from the music scene, guitarist Darren Fajcz decided to act upon his longtime desire to form a band. Darren envisioned forming a band with like-minded individuals who shared the same musical sensibilities as he: love for both a good melody and harmonic singing. He sought out other fun-loving artists who were dedicated to their musical craft, and in 2015, as luck would have it, Darren found four talented and harmonious musicians.

Mighty Harmonics are:
Darren Fajcz – Guitar, Vocals
Mike Andrew – Bass Guitar
Anne Burwash – Vocals, Keyboards, Percussion
Anne Misztal – Vocals, Percussion, Harmonica, Cajon
Nikki Terry – Vocals, Cajon, Percussion

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mightyharmonics/

Catch Neville Wells, Peggy White & One More Last Chance on Saturday, August 10 at Sweet Corner Park.

Neville Wells is a legend in country music in the Ottawa Valley and his recordings are known across Canada. A resident of Perth, Neville was named Country Music’s Person of the Year by the Canadian Country Music Association in 1984, he founded Country Music News, and played a lead role in starting the legendary Ompah Stomp festival.  He in an inductee of the Ottawa Valley Country Music Hall of Fame.  In the ‘60s, Neville and Peter Hodgson created the folk duo Nev and Pete and later played in The Children (w. Bruce Cockburn, Hodgson and David Wiffen.)

Peggy White is a singer and guitar player who toured Canada for several decades with country bands. She’s recorded two albums “Fair Is Fair” (2002) and “Falling” (2009). These days, Peggy is internationally acclaimed – in Canada, Japan, the US, and Europe – as a maker of beautiful acoustic guitars. She returns to the stage and her country roots with One More Last Chance. Peggy lives in Almonte and was recently named by Japan’s prestigious “Guitar Magazine” as one of the best 100 guitar builders in the world.

Frank Koller is a guitarist who, in the 1970s and ‘80s, was a jazz, country and folk player, session musician, recording artist (“Single Malt”) and band leader (TV, radio, July 1^st on Parliament Hill,) then lured away to 3 decades of international reporting for CBC News. Back then, he played with everyone from Anne Murray to Englebert Humperdinck to Ian Tamblyn to Colleen Peterson to Bobby Vee to Robert Charlebois to Roy Rogers. He’s back and pumped to bring together 7 other great players in One More Last Chance.

Peter Beaudoin has been one of Ottawa’s most respected drummers and band leaders for 4 decades, playing Latin jazz, country and pop music. Peter studied at Humber College, in New York and L.A.. Peter has performed with an incredible range of stars, Canadian and international, and travelled the globe with them.

Michael Ball Ottawa + Fiddle = Michael Ball, whether in his own band Ball & Chain, in countless other bluegrass, country and traditional fiddle groups and now, in One More Last Chance. Over many years, Michael has toured across Canada, the US and Europe with a wide variety of musicians in a wide variety of styles.

Randy Demmon is a pianist, composer-arranger, double bassist and teacher with six collections of original piano music to his credit. As a band leader and performer, he’s traveled extensively in Canada and abroad. His musical travels have taken him from Resolute and Grise Fiord in Canada’s Far North to Tasmania in the southern hemisphere.   

Ken Kanwisher is a bass player, cellist, keyboard player, recording engineer, studio owner and teacher. He’s played bass for Amanda Bon, Charlie Major, Ian Tamblyn, The Telegrams, the NAC Orchestra, his jazz group The Sugarsticks, many TV and theatre performances and countless recordings. The list of albums he has produced is simply too long to list.

Dan Artuso has played pedal steel and guitar for everyone who is anyone in and around Ottawa for the past 3 decades. Most recently, he has played and toured with the Two Lynns: Juno award winners Lynn Miles and Lynn Hansen. Dan was a key musician in the legendary Ottawa band Fat Man Waving. He toured Europe with Dario Dominguez and appeared many times on TV shows, backing artists on the Tommy Hunter Show, the Rita MacNeil Show and George Hamilton IV.