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CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Century-old piano fine tuned to restore Montreal's Notre-Dame Basilica
The piano was made by famed Parisian manufacturer Gaveau, founded in 1847. A century-old piano has taken centre stage in one of North America's most visited monuments. The Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal is hosting a series of concerts featuring music from its newly acquired instrument to raise money for a years-long restoration project to preserve this jewel of history. The piano was made by famed Parisian manufacturer Gaveau, founded in 1847. Montreal restorer Daniel Farah bought the piano from an estate in 2008. Farah has been in the business of giving new life to old pianos for a quarter of a century. The instrument was in far from mint condition at the time. 'My first thought was that it was a wreck,' says Farah. 'But I could see it was a wonderful design.' Montreal piano Montreal restorer Daniel Farah bought the piano from an estate in 2008. Years of dry winters and summer humidity had inflicted a lot of damage. The piano had to be rebuilt from the strings to the sound board to the housing (the outer structure). 'I stopped counting how much time I spent on it when I reached 800 hours,' he says. His goal was to respect the history of the piano while bringing it into a new era. 'This piano will surprise you sometimes,' says Farah. 'It is from the Impressionist era, where people were trying a lot of different things with music, so it has to have a more open, varied sound.' A sponsored donation led the piano to a new home at the Basilica, through the foundation which is raising money to complete a major undertaking to restore the masterpiece of Gothic revival architecture. From the Maurice 'Rocket' Richard funeral to Celine Dion's wedding, the Basilica has been the site of ceremonies that captured Canada's attention. However, parts of the building were threatening to crumble as the jewel of patrimonial history began to show its age. Workers have been fixing the towers and rebuilding the stone facades since 2020, but still have five years of repairs left. 'The main challenge we have is expertise,' says Notre-Dame Basilica Director of Operations and Tourism Activities Mathieu Verreault. The piano will feature in a series of concerts with proceeds going to the restoration project. The program includes a performance spotlighting jazz music in cinema, which is not exactly traditional church fare. 'It's pretty new that we feature jazz music,' says Verreault, adding that he hopes this will attract young and old. 'Before other Reverends did not allow it. They were not into that modern music.' That modern music will come from an old piano, marking a new chapter in the history of the Notre-Dame Basilica. Inaugural concerts for the restored Gaveau piano will be held at the Sacred Heart Chapel of the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal: Jazz in Cinema on Saturday July 19, 2025, at 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. Mozart and Schubert Piano trio on Saturday August 9, 2025, at 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Pair of rare, multicoloured lobsters new summer stars of Dartmouth ocean centre
A rare blue-and-white "Cotton Candy" lobster named Moonmist, left, and a rare half-red, half-black lobster named Bingo, are seen in this undated handout photo from the Back to the Sea Centre in Dartmouth, N.S. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - Back to the Sea Centre DARTMOUTH — Burrowing under seaweed and crawling around a large open-top tank at an ocean centre in Dartmouth, N.S., are two beady-eyed alien-like creatures named Moonmist and Bingo. One of them is half bright red and half black while the other has baby-blue and white 'cotton candy' colours. Moonmist and Bingo are lobsters. The extremely rare duo, with colour combinations that are estimated to occur only in one in 50 million and one in 100 million, respectively, were likely headed toward someone's supper plate or lobster roll, until staff at a large Bedford, N.S., fish market identified the unique crustaceans and donated them to the Back to the Sea Centre in Dartmouth, N.S. Magali Grégoire, head of the non-profit centre that offers sea-life education, said the pair have quickly captivated the centre's visitors, who may be used to seeing dull brown-coloured lobsters in grocery stores or fish markets. 'It's been really exciting for both us and our visitors. A lot of people have never seen lobsters like this,' Grégoire said in an interview Thursday. Visitors have been flocking to see the half-red and half-black lobster, named Bingo, who likes to sit under seaweed on the opposite side of the tank from bright, pale-blue Moonmist — named after the beloved Maritime ice cream flavour. The centre ran a naming contest that generated a few hundred votes and suggestions before Moonmist and Bingo came out on top. 'The split coloured-one, that is Bingo. People did try to name the pair after the famous kids TV show 'Bingo and Bluey,'' which is a cartoon about a blue and red dog duo. While the name Bingo earned top votes, Moonmist beat out Bluey, Grégoire said. Grégoire was first alerted to the baby blue and white lobster by staff at Fisherman's Market in Bedford, N.S., where the lobster was set to be sold. The fish retailer offered to donate the unique creature that was caught off the coast of Canso, near Cape Breton, to the centre. When Grégoire arrived at the market to pick up the blue lobster, she was offered the second rare lobster as a donation as well. 'We don't actually know where the second one comes from, so that one's a little mystery,' Grégoire said. Ian MacSween, director of retail operations with Fisherman's Market, said in a statement it was a 'pleasure' to donate the two unique lobsters to the Back to the Sea Centre. 'We knew they would be kept in good hands and given an opportunity to showcase and educate all of their visitors this summer,' MacSween said. Although Bingo is not as rare a specimen as Moonmist, Grégoire says the former seems to be getting more attention from visitors due to a clear straight line that appears to go almost all the way down the lobster's body. It makes it look like Bingo was perfectly half-cooked, with one side of its tail completely red, while the other half is black. Grégoire estimates Bingo is between eight and 10 years-old, and Moonmist, who is slightly larger, is likely between 10 and 13 years-old. She said staff have had some difficulty identifying the lobsters' sexes, but they think Bingo is a male and Moonmist is a female. When the two were first united, Grégoire said it looked like they would be fast friends, but this didn't last. 'The first day we brought them in, they were being very nice to each other. But we know lobsters can be territorial. So we have built a little rock wall that separates them,' she said. In the mornings when staff return to the centre, Grégoire said they often find the lobsters have rearranged the seaweed and rocks in their tank. 'We are finding they're crawling over the wall. But when one crawls over, the other moves away to the other side. Giving space,' she said. The pair will spend much of the summer in the centre, giving visitors as much time as possible to see Bingo and Moonmist before they are returned to the ocean. 'Just as the name of our centre says, Back to the Sea, all our creatures do get to go back to the sea,' she said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 18, 2025. Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
Experimental music festival asks the question - 'What is jazz?'
They say jazz is about the notes you don't play — or in some cases, the horns you don't honk. The harbour symphony has been a time-honoured tradition in St. John's since 1983, and the arrangement performed on Wednesday marked the beginning of the Sound Arts bi-yearly festival Onsound. This year's theme is What Is Jazz?, a question perfectly suited to a song made from the deep ringing — or barmping — of several ships' horns. This time, it was a symphony of one, with a Coast Guard vessel acting as the first and only chair in its oceanic orchestra. Harbour symphony assistant Mahina Graham-Laidlaw said the uncertainty is part of the beauty of the 42-year-old act. "You never know what to expect," she said, looking through the harbour fence as the barmping started to fade. "There's always something different each time I've done this and that's my favourite part of it." Wednesday was Jacob Cherwick's first time composing a harbour symphony. He wrote a score for four horns, but ended up with only two horns on one boat. It wasn't a problem, according to Cherwick. "It's more about the experiment than writing an actual melody," he said. The musician says there's something freeing about exploring new sounds without being confined by theory or traditional song structure, and that's why he was happy to be involved with the jazz edition of Onsound. Sound Arts executive director Michelle LaCour says Newfoundland and Labrador is seeing a revival of that same carefree music-making, and jazz along with it. Featured musicians Ana Luísa Ramos and Florian Hoefner have noticed it, too. "When I came here 11 years ago, there wasn't much of that," said Hoefner. "That's really changed. It seems like the scene is really alive." Ramos added she'll be bringing her signature bossa nova style to the festival. "I think that's really interesting too, to kind of explore different styles of music from around the world outside of the Western canon of jazz music," LaCour said. Onsound also hosts a range of workshops and touring musicians from the rest of Canada at venues across St. John's. The festival ends on Saturday, July 19.
