The Friends of Leith Church invite you to participate in the maintenance and restoration of this historic 'Auld Kirk' by attending the many events and concerts planned for this year. We have purposely retained our traditional low-ticket prices in order to build an audience for The Leith Summer Festival, which continues to feature some of the finest artists performing today in Canada. From CEILIDH to CHRISTMAS we present a menu of services, performances and activities that will provide a wonderful introduction to the outstanding acoustics and beauty of our heritage church and its surroundings.

Sunday May 18 [ 2:30 pm] - Annual Memorial Service and Cemetery Decoration Day

This Annual Memorial service presents an opportunity to both honour and remember those who are interred in the Leith Cemetery. It is also an opportunity to attend to the presentation and maintenance of the grave sites.

It has become customary for the Friends of Leith Church to designate the graves of those who have served in Canada's military - from the Fenian Raids of the 1860's to the Armed Forces of the 21st century - with the placement of special flags or markers. Historical tributes to families represented in the cemetery are incorporated into the Memorial Service. This year the guest speaker is Donna McKay Mills. Our worship leader will be Frank Dabbs of Annan. Acclaimed pianist Linda Hawkins will accompany guest soloist Delanie Smith.

All are invited to attend this special commemorative service. For further information please contact Donna Phillips at 372-9375

Sunday May 25 [ 2:00 pm] - Chordelle - The "Old Masters" Concert

Chordelle is a fusion of storytelling, classical music especially opera, and authentic northern Canadian spirit. It was born in Yellowknife some ten years ago, and matured amid the mists and mellow fruitfulness of Bruce County and the Bruce Peninsula, where Voyageur Storytelling performs its annual seasons of summer dinner-concerts. The Old Masters Concert emerges from Voyageur Storytelling's continuing efforts to enrich Canadian cultural life (necessarily deficient in Old Masters due to our youth as a nation) by borrowing these august personages from countries deemed to have surpluses, and Canadianizing them. The Old Masters featured in this concert are Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Wagner, Joplin, Britten, Verdi, and Sullivan. A luminous gallery indeed.

Struggling to keep pace with them will be a procession of Voyageur Storytelling characters, supported by a chorus (in the Greek sense) of masterful Canadian poets such as P.K. Page, Milton Acorn, Philip Child, A.J.M. Smith, and Crispin Elsted. Audiences will of course meet Bear, the ultimate Old Master, voiced by (who better?) Richard Wagner. They will meet Oswald Thornybank and his whip-poor-willful tormentor; Cendrelle, a Canadian Cinderella; Torque Furbelow, bard, voyager, woodsman, unpretentious humanitarian, passionate Canadian, free spirit; the three little pigs and their wolf, aspirated by Mozart; a rattlesnake, charmed by Schubert; Eugenia, the mermaid of Yellowknife Bay, enamoured by Scott Joplin; and the best fishing story ever, to which only Beethoven could do justice, and does.

The Old Masters concert will delight folks of musical, operatic, literary, poetic, or historical tastes, who are looking for something unusual in performing art, or who simply like good listening and a good laugh. Full details can be found at Voyageur Storytelling's web-site www.voyageurstorytelling.ca.

For more information: Leslie Robbins-Conway or Paul Conway, Voyageur Storytelling, 519-795-7477 - mail@voyageurstorytelling.ca

Sunday June 15 [ 2:30 pm] - Peter Longworth and Melanie Conly - A Concert to Welcome Summer

Two of Canada's finest young concert artists and partners in life as well as on stage, pianist Peter Longworth and soprano Melanie Conly have prepared an exciting programme of piano and vocal music in tune with and in time for the Summer season. Accompanied by Peter, Melanie will sing the wonderfully romantic song-cycle Les nuits d'été by Hector Berliox and Samuel Barber's lush and richly textured work Knoxville: Summer of 1915. Mussorgsky's well-loved Pictures At An Exhibition in it's original piano-suite form, is exacting to play and exciting to hear. Peter Longworth ends the afternoon with his interpretation of this well-loved favourite. The Friends of Leith thank Peter and Melanie for contributing their time and talents to make this concert possible.A fund-raiser for the future washroom facility at Historic Leith Church. Tickets $20 - available at Annan-way Nursery, Bay's River Restaurant (Leith), Ginger Press, La Pastorale, The Roxy, (Owen Sound) and Muxlow Pharmacy (Meaford). more outlet information .

** Saturday July 5th [ 7:30 pm] - LEITH SUMMER FESTIVAL - Concert One -

Jazz singer Adi Braun with pianist David Restivo and George Koller on double bass