#NiagaraPerforms online

The FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre is launching a new online series featuring live concerts from Niagara musicians every Sunday at 4 p.m.  and content from community partners every Thursday at 7 p.m.

Performances will be available for viewing through the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre’s Facebook (click here) and YouTube (click here)channels.

#NiagaraPerforms kicks off on Sunday 19 April at 4pm with a performance from the home studio of musician and producer extraordinaire Mark Lalama, to commemorate what would have been the final Hear! Here! Niagara Music Series performance of the 19/20 HOT TICKET season.

The first two-week line-up includes:

• Sunday, April 19 at 4 p.m.: Mark Lalama – Celebrated local producer, musician and hosting artist of the Hear! Here! Niagara Music Series.
• Thursdat, April 23 at 7 p.m.: Gordon Cleland – Principal Cellist for the Niagara Symphony Orchestra and Music Department Instructor at Brock University’s Marilyn I Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.
• Sunday, April 26 at 4 p.m.: Lauren and Hulley – Local Hear! Here! alumni Laurel Minnes and her musical partner Taylor Hulley will bring their blend of vocal harmonies and laid-back grooves.
• Thursday, April 30 at 7 p.m.: Suitcase in Point – Known around the FirstOntario PAC for their hilarious holiday sketch comedy cabarets, will provide some quarantine comic relief.

#NiagaraPerforms will provide a platform and professional artist fees for local artists to share performances with online audiences as a home-grown take on the National Arts Centre’s #CanadaPerforms series.

“We are pleased to join this national movement through a local lens,” says Sara Palmieri, Programming and Marketing Manager. “We want to continue to find ways that connect our local artists and arts organizations with audiences and the online space is definitely a place where we can all still meet.”

The first batch of #NiagaraPerforms artists were selected by the programming team from previous editions of the popular Hear! Here! Niagara Music Series as well existing partnerships with local arts organizations. The online series will be announced two weeks at a time as the FirstOntario PAC continues to monitor the changing realities of the COVID-19 crisis.