After tonight I expect my good friend Mark Haney will be a wee bit more relaxed. Just over a year ago, Mark took the reins of The Little Chamber Music Series That Could — a contemporary chamber series that defined the lives of so many of us back in the 80’s and 90’s. In its heyday LCMSTC provided Vancouver with a myriad of vital and powerful performances — when I was seventeen I witnessed my very first Pierrot Lunaire thanks to Little Chamber; a few years later I saw Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King, again for the first time (I actually screamed when he smashed the violin). These were visceral, dedicated stagings of these seminal works — not to mention career-defining moments for me. When LCMSTC’s artistic director, Wallace Leung, died suddenly and tragically in 2002, the spirit of the organization essentially left with him and for many years the company lay dormant….

Until tonight. October 26th, 2013 marks the relaunch of the Little Chamber Music Series That Could. Mark Haney has stepped up as the new Artistic Director and is taking LCMSTC into amazing new directions. First up: on October 26th we’ll be treated to a dance party at the Roundhouse, featuring Nicole Lizée, SaskPower and the Little Chamber Strings. Then on October 31st I’ll be teaming up with Haney, violinist Rebecca Whitling, and percussionist Ben Reimer for the premiere performances of Lizée’s new quartet, Ouijist. This free event will take place three times — at 7pm, 8pm, and 9pm — at Mountain View Cemetery (5455 Fraser Street, in Celebration Hall) as part of an All Souls event that honours the dead.

But just right at this moment, I’m dusting off my old Zanni mask and getting ready to shake my be-costumed booty at the Roundhouse! Composer Jocelyn Morlock and I will be wearing matching bedsheets. Very exciting…