BEST OF RICHMOND: Arts & Entertainment

Anna Vavilova, who has won numerous awards for her excellence in piano playing, was voted Best Music Teacher in this year’s Best of Richmond Readers’ Poll.

Seung-Chul Baik photo

Best song David Foster wrote for a local

With John Parr’s help, Foster penned “St. Elmo’s Fire” for Richmond’s own athlete and spinal cord injury research champion Rick Hansen. With lyrics like, “Gonna be your man in motion, all I need is a pair of wheels,” the song became the theme of Hansen’s Man in Motion Tour. Now Hansen is in the midst of planning a nationwide relay to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his original fundraising journey. But alas it appears the song’s “future’s lyin’” elsewhere—not with this new relay.

Best ongoing live music that’s now history

For seven years, local singer-songwriter Cherelle Jardine gave Richmond Musical Expressions, an ongoing concert series that brought 90 musical artists to venues like the Richmond Cultural Centre and Britannia Heritage Shipyard. But Jardine has announced June 4 will be the final show. Lindsay May is the last act she’ll bring in. It’s the series a city with few live music venues took for granted. Now it’s gone.

Best YouTube video

UBC LipDub—co-produced by Richmond’s Andrew Cohen—began its YouTube feeding frenzy in April. Today, the video has 1,100,000 views, and there’s little wonder why. Filmed mostly in a single tracking shot and featuring 1,000 lip-synching people rocking out at the Vancouver campus of University of B.C., the video boasts incredible production quality and drips with creativity. Cohen and his crew even got punk band Marianas Trench to perform on the video.

Best local ticket around the world

The Pacific Piano Competition has become a true international event. Once an annual event, the competition now happens every few years and attracts high-level pianists from around the world. Earlier this year, nearly 40 competitors, ages 17 to 28, competed for bragging rights and a $5,000 prize. Beijing, Moscow, Japan, Toronto, New York, Dallas and Pittsburgh were all represented. No doubt a ticket price of $5 to $15 is a lot cheaper than a plane ticket to Salzburg, Austria.

Best heritage sites doubling as music venues

Richmond’s heritage buildings serve as great musical venues. Richmond Steveston Folk Guild holds monthly concerts in the Chinese Bunkhouse in the Britannia Heritage Shipyard and the City of Richmond has hosted six opera performances in Minoru Chapel. Cherelle Jardine has also hosted concerts at Britannia in her summer Musical Expressions series. Maybe London Farm could host a black metal concert.

Best show of the season

Gateway Theatre’s production of The Forbidden Phoenix was the best bit of theatre here—and possibly south of the Fraser—this season. Marty Chan’s East-West musical was a mix of art forms blended seamlessly with a remarkable story undoubtedly suited to a city of new immigrants. The show earned a pair of Jessie Richardson Theatre Award nominations this week, but deserved more.

Best name for a band passing through

Dave McArthur’s Steveston Folk Guild brings a great variety of folk acts to Britannia Heritage Shipyard each month, including one with an unforgettable name—Willy Blizzard. The band took its name from a real person—a former neighbour of the band’s bass player. She was a hard-working farm girl who grew up in the Depression. The band saw her as a true Canadian prairie pioneer and an environmentalist long before the term became popular. Here’s to Willy.

Best music school promotion

With intense interest in piano and the arts among parents of young children, more and more schools and studios that cater to a child’s artistic side are setting up shop in Richmond. Local piano teacher Anna Vavilova has found a creative way to promote her school World of Music and Arts: free concerts. Every so often Vavilova pairs with another instrumentalist to deliver a free one-hour concert at her school. It’s no Chan Centre, but a space nonetheless.

Best way to spend a (free) weekend

The tall ships return to Richmond next weekend, and with many of the events entirely free of charge, what better way to enjoy a sunny (hopefully) weekend than spending time with family and friends in historic Steveston Village. Starting Friday, June 3 through Tuesday, June 7, locals will get a taste of what life was like living aboard these classically masted sailing ships. The Lady Washington, Hawaiian Chieftain, Adventuress and Zodiac will be offering free viewing and shipboard tours. “We are looking forward to welcoming people aboard to feel what it was like to live on these ships when the world was such a bigger place,” said Capt. Tommy Cook with the Lady Washington. Ships to Shore Steveston 2011 kicks off Richmond Days of Summer, a series of events held in Richmond sprinkled throughout the summer.

Best concert hall to host a lost legend

It’s no secret River Rock brings in the classic musicians of yesteryear. But in the past year, there’s been a few honourable guests who our younger generations might have considered long passed. Performers like Don Rickles and Dionne Warwick have become staples at the resort’s theatre, but for others like Frankie Valli, Hall and Oates, and Sergio Mendes—who knew they were still performing?

Best letter

The Richmond Review receives oodles of fantastic letters from our fair readers, but one particularly impassioned piece of prose came from Kathy Goss of Shreveport, Louisiana, who came upon a brief story last year about Tanya Tucker playing River Rock Show Theatre. One of country music’s “finest singers and entertainers,” the writer said. An “icon” with an “impressive” career, she gushed before boldly delivering more: “She is the Queen of Country Music.” We’re not arguing with this lifelong fan.

Best Biebs moment

The shove heard around the world happened right here in Richmond, at Planet Lazer, a few days before Justin Bieber played Rogers Arena. In defence of Biebs, he was just a teenager trying to enjoy a little fun—on Lulu Island of all places. But some kid allegedly had to make things difficult. Let’s hope the experience doesn’t sour his opinion of our fair city. Biebs! We’ve got go-karts!

Best Chinese-Canadian representation

This comes at Richmond Music School, where the vast vast majority of students are from Chinese immigrant families. It’s a significant change from when the school began in 1980, and the school’s students continue to rack up awards and accolades. In a recent year, one-quarter of all students who took Royal Conservatory and Associated Board examinations, passed with distinction, first class honours and honours. The school’s students also won 45 awards in music competitions that year.