So we’re changing a couple things for 2019. This will be our fourth year running and so we’ve learned a few things in the previous years.
We will no longer have box office hours in 2019. There are still several ways you can reach us/buy tickets. You can phone (519) 377-2358 or go online (to our website or the links we post) or email us ([email protected]). If you want to meet up with us, just use one of those methods to contact us and we can figure it out. And we will still open at 7pm the night of the concert with music starting at 7:30pm so you can come early and get your tickets at the door.
We are changing our pricing. The only way to get the $20 ticket price is to get a Season Pass. Otherwise, tickets are all $25. Season Passes will get you tickets to all 7 of our shows and a free snack or drink. (and reserved seating if requested). Season Passes are available up to our first concert in April.
Stay tuned for our 2019 Line-up Announcement! Coming soon….
We’ve added a “Videos” page. This page has videos of past performances. So you can check out an old favourite or find some new music to like. And if you do like it, come out to a live concert. Watching a video is just not the same as experiencing the music live and the moments that can happen between musician and audience. You’ll find the link to the Videos page in the top right hand menu or use this link: https://desboromusichall.com/videos/. Enjoy!
We’ve made it easier to find tickets on our website. It is its own link in the top right hand menu.
We’ve added a ticket button on the right side footer. SO you can buy tickets from any page. At this moment, you can get Season Passes or gift certificates.
Please let us know what else we can do to make navigating through our website easier. Thanks!
We have been wanting to have a string quartet in our Hall for a while now (especially after hearing the beautiful sound of violin and cello with James Hill and Anne Janelle). We threw around the idea of having “Classical Sundays” as we thought the acoustics would complement the sound completely. But we’ve been too busy during the year with our regular concert series and balancing life. Now that our concert series is finished, we finally found the time to organize this.
So Desboro Music Hall is very excited to offer a Winter Chamber Music Concert: Interro Quartet featuring Adam Despinic and Steve Koh on violin, Maxime Despax on viola, and Sebastian Ostertag on cello.
Interro Quartet will present an afternoon of music to bring warmth into the holiday season. Performing beloved works by Dvorak, Mendelssohn, Shostakovich, as well as excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s beloved “Nutcracker Ballet” arranged for string quartet.
Interro Quartet combines passionate performances with a curiosity to explore new sounds and venues in chamber music. The group’s repertoire includes works of classical music giants, as well as new compositions by emerging and established Canadian composers. Featuring award-winning graduates of University of Toronto, the Interro Quartet includes violinists Adam Despinic and Steve Koh, violist Maxime Despax, and cellist Sebastian Ostertag.
The mission of the Interro Quartet is not only to make quartet music accessible to those who seek it but also to broaden the spectrum of audiences through diverse programming. To complement this mission, members of the Interro Quartet are also avid educators and clinicians, dedicated to supporting education programs that encourage new ways for artists and listeners to share, experience, and incorporate chamber music into their daily lives.
We have made a few changes in our tickets. We heard your suggestion about having advanced ticket pricing.
So here is what we have done:
There will be 25 tickets available at the advanced ticket price of $20 ($17.70 + HST) for each show. They are available only until the Box Office hours the weekend before the show. It’s first come, first get and the tickets have to be paid for when they are bought. The tickets are available online with a credit card, in person with cash/credit card at our Box Office Hours or over the phone with a credit card. There will be no reservations at the advanced ticket price. As there are only 25, get yours early to take advantage of the cheaper price. After that, the tickets are $25 ($22.12 + HST), same as last year.
We’ve come up with a Season Pass for $140. You can buy one pass, which means you get ONE ticket to EACH of the 7 concerts at the advanced ticket price. ($20 x 7 concerts = $140) This must be bought before the first concert in April. Then we will reserve you ONE ticket to each concert. Bring your Season Pass to the concert to get admittance. If you can’t make it, just give the Season Pass to a friend (and let us know who will be coming in your place). The Season Pass is only good for 2017 and expires at the end of the Season. As a bonus for buying a Season Pass, you also get the VIP treatment. That includes a drink and snack for FREE at the Concession Stand and RESERVED SEATING (you pick your favourite seat and we’ll reserve it for you every show)
In Summary:
25 Advanced Tickets at $20 ($17.70 + HST) *Must be bought and paid for by Box Office hours the weekend before the show
75 Regular Tickets at $25 ($22.12 + HST)
Season Pass which is good for ONE ticket to EACH of the 7 concerts of our 2017 Series at $140 (which guarantees you the Advanced Ticket Price for each concert)
We have also slightly changed our Box Office Hours. They are:
The Saturday before the concert: 10am – 12pm
The Saturday of the concert: 10am – 12pm AND 7 – 7:30pm (If the concert is on Friday, we only have the 7 – 7:30pm times)
But as always, tickets are available online or by phone and at the door.
Any questions, let us know…and we’ll see you at the Hall!
We know things have been quiet lately since our last show. But even though we are shut down now for the season, we haven’t stopped thinking about the Music Hall.
We’ve looked over your surveys (BIGTHANKS to those who filled one out), had a meeting and are starting to put together next Season!
With all the snow in December it was hard to do much at the Hall but with the milder weather in January and February, we’ve had a peek inside and everything seems good. We’ll do some maintenance work like building some risers and various other work that needs to be done to a 130 year old building to keep it going in the spring.
As for the surveys, we aren’t able to follow all the suggestions (though we did discuss them all) and are trying to implement some of your requests. One thing we are able to do is bring you advanced ticket prices. More on that in our next post.
We’ve also been busy finding musicians for the 2017 Concert Series. It’s actually a really hard job as there are so many great musicians out there that we wish we could bring them all! So far, we’re very pleased with the musicians we’ve got coming. You won’t want to miss any of them. Stay tuned for the announcement of our line-up in a few weeks! And save-the-date: Saturday April 22, 2017 for our Opening Night!
We are very excited to reveal the rest of our season line-up. We are very proud of the musicians we are bringing to Desboro and have a variety of music coming your way. Most shows will open with a local musician as we also want to support our local artists.
Our Season Opener on April 30th will be a showcase of three local talents, Rob Elder, Drew McIvor and Larry Jensen. In May, we bring you the beautiful voice of Oh Susanna with the local favourite, Our Shotgun Wedding. June sees a night of storytelling through song with Ashley Condon, all the way from P.E.I., bringing her fresh voice and Paul J McInnis with his engaging music. July we rock out with the blues with Alfie Smith and Nicole Christian and our opener, Gathering Sparks‘ catchy tunes. In August, we get to hear “Canadian history in harmony” with Trent Severn and the talented Leah Mathies. September sees us switching gears with The Schotts, a husband and wife bluegrass duo and Zakary Miller with his “Canadiana swing” opening for them. Finally, our Closing Show is with the high energy Mark Reeves, his guitar and his harmonica. It’s going to be a great season.
Please come out and join us in our inaugural year. Tickets are available at our box office hours or online. See our blog post on “How to buy a ticket?” for more details.
Box Office Hours at Desboro Music Hall for April:
Saturdays: 9am – 12pm
Read more about each artist on their events page or on our facebook page. Click on their picture or on their name below to go to their events page.
Desboro Music Hall Concert Series Rob Elder and Friends Saturday April 30, 2016
Desboro Music Hall Concert Series 2016 Oh Susanna with Our Shotgun Wedding Saturday May 14, 2016 Photo by Heather Pollock
Desboro Music Hall Concert Series Ashley Condon with Paul J McInnis Saturday June 4, 2016
Desboro Music Hall Concert Series Alfie Smith and Nicole Christian with Gathering Sparks Saturday July 1, 2016
Desboro Music Hall Concert Series Trent Severn with Leah Mathies Friday August 12, 2016 Photo by Mark Maryanovich
Desboro Music Hall Concert Series The Schotts with Zakary Miller Saturday September 10, 2016
Desboro Music Hall Concert Series Mark Reeves with TBA Saturday Oct 1, 2016
We’re trying to figure out all the logistical things like the structure of the business, what we have to do to actually have a concert and what else the building can be used for. We are diving into unknown territory, having never owned a music hall before. We’ll need all the support we can get from the community to make this a success.
A few ideas we’re tossing around:
Music concerts (of course, this was our original idea. We would hold at least one concert a month)
Farmer’s Market. (we know Keady has one on Tues and it’s huge but ours would be smaller and hopefully take place maybe on Sat?)
Coffee Houses (where anyone can go up to sing a song, maybe all ages)
Talent show for local kids
Jam nights (where people get together just to play songs with other people)
A place for local groups to have meetings
Big Buck Day (bring your horns in to get assessed and graded)
Euchre/Crokinole Tournament
The whole reason we bought the old church is to fill a void in the community and we need your help to figure out where all the holes might be. So if anyone has any ideas, don’t be afraid to share them with us. If you’re looking for a space, let us know. We’re working out a rental agreement so that anyone in the community can rent the space, too. We’re always happy to hear what others have to say. You can reach us through our facebook page, email, twitter (@desboromusic) or leave a comment on this website. Let us know which is your favourite idea we’ve come up with and what other ideas you might have. Thanks!
We still have a lot of work to go as we aim for our spring opening!
We are slowly moving forward. Our improvements are a bunch of little things that aren’t usually exciting to write about. It’s the things that need doing but are a little boring to do. Everyone understands; it’s the maintenance of a house. We put up plexiglass on the windows to protect the stain glass. We fixed a bunch of leaks, caulking around the stovepipe and putting in a bit of a new roof at the back. We’ve tested the furnace. We fixed some drywall.
Drywall in the office/greenroom
We found the old linoleum in the front entrance:
Isn’t that a fun, crazy pattern? We ended up removing it. What era do you think it’s from?
Close-up
I suppose the most exciting thing is that we purchased a bathroom! Yes, it’s still outside BUT it is heated 🙂 It’s a step up from the outhouse that is out back. We bought it locally from a business in Harriston, Neilman Enterprises. If you need to buy a mobile washroom, this is better than a port-a-potty and they’re pretty affordable.
As I said before, the washroom is heated! Everything has to be manually pumped (sink and toilet) to get water but it’s running water, too! Check them out and support local.
New bathroom
Interior of the new bathroom
So those are a few of the little but necessary things we’re been doing as the cold weather starts to creep up on us. We’ll be working hard through the winter months to get ready. Spring will be here soon and so will our official opening.
Thanks to everyone who came out to our Open House. It was a very busy day, meeting neighbours and friends and curious passersby. We probably had around 200 people or so pass through our door (with a couple of repeats enjoying our fans and shade and snacks).
It was great to chat with people. It was also fun to hear from people who remembered what the church used to look like and hear the stories. We want to preserve some of the history of the church. It is a beautiful building and we want to acknowledge its heritage even as we remake it into something new.
Some of the crowd enjoying our Open HouseBill Walker, MPP and Larry Miller, MP stopped by for a visit with the boys.
Thanks to all the people brave enough to get up on the stage and entertain us with a tune. We really enjoyed the music. (and the few quiet times when the boys were able to get up and jam with people) We had lots of positive comments about the Hall and are thankful for all the support from the community and beyond. As we go forward, it will take everyone’s support to get our endeavour up on its feet.
The Open House Team in our Desboro Music Hall shirts
For those of you who haven’t been able to make it out, here are a few before and after pictures to show you what we’ve done. (although you should still plan on coming by for a visit)
The Front: Before and AfterThe Back: Before and After
In the back, it might be harder to tell what we’ve done. We did paint the walls (they were actually a blue colour even if you can’t tell from the before picture), put in lights to replace the bare bulbs and added overhead fans. (They have already showed their worth during our Open House, which was a really hot and humid day. The fans kept the air moving, keeping us slightly cooler.) We also added a bar. But the most important thing we brought back was electricity, making it 200 amp service!
Front Stage: Before and After
(As an aside, the before picture is from the day the boys took possession of the property)
At the front, we removed the red carpet and painted our stage black. We put in new stain glass windows. The church had taken out the stain glass windows and put them in the Grey Roots Museum so when we got there, the windows were covered in plywood. It was quite amazing that we were able to find stain glass that fit the size of windows and the curve that we had!
We kept the “holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty” because it was hand-painted and too beautiful to just paint over.
These are just a few of the changes we have done while trying to keep the heritage of the building. We still have lots to do so stay tuned for more changes and for our first event!
We know lots of you are curious, seeing all the activity at the building and we are here to satisfy that curiosity. There has been much happening lately and we’re making progress so we want to show it off a little. There is still lots to be done to get the building ready for a concert but people can still take a little peek. We thought the Desboro Fall Fair Day would be the perfect time since you’ll already be there for Fair Day, right??
So we have decided to open the doors to the building for an Open House on Sat Sept 5 from 12 noon – 4pm!
We invite you to come on inside, check out what we’ve done and see what our plans are. You can ask Joe or Phil any questions you might have. We’ll have an open mic (so you can try out the acoustics) and a few snacks to share. We even might have a few giveaways throughout the day. So mark it on your calendar, a week from today: Sept 5 from 12-4pm
We look forward to meeting everyone and sharing our vision.
