Coldsnap, the annual festival powering the Canada Winter Games live music events, has workshops to augment the nightly performances.
Many of the music stars here to whip up the audience are also taking time to more quietly gather formative musicians together and impart some of their knowledge.
Today from noon to 1 p.m. Brandon Isaak will, said a Coldsnap spokesperson "tell stories, answer questions and demonstrate his ability to interpret the blues through many different styles" at Art Space.
On Monday, also at Art Space, two members of the band The Fugitives (Brendan McLeod and Adrian Glynn) will walk songwriters through the finer points of poetry and lyrics. That's an 11 a.m. workshop followed an hour later by singer-songwriter Joey Only doing a seminar on the use of and place for protest themes in music.
Tuesday at The Legion, come here francophone band Bon Dbarras discuss and demonstrate the use of feet as rhythm instruments and dancing tools as well. This will be carried out in French and English starting at noon.
Thursday is when Coldsnap and the BC Arts Council hold a forum for the local arts and culture community on what the needs are in Northern B.C. This is a two-hour open discussion at Art Space starting at noon, led by leading B.C. theatre figure Allison Bottomley.
The final two workshops occur on Saturday. Following the performance of Jake's Gift at The Legion at 2 p.m. (this play is presented Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. then again at 7:30 p.m.) the show's actor, director and writer Julia Mackey will discuss her personal journey to Normandy for the 60th anniversary of the D-Day Invasion which formed the basis for her award-winning play.
Also on Saturday, this time at noon at Art Space, come hear Doug Koyama present a workshop he calls "the magic of musical improv" that brings the participants into his unique performance style of voice samples and loops layered over each other into one-of-a-kind live soundscapes.
Art Space is located upstairs at Books And Company (1685 3rd Ave) and The Legion is located at 1116 6th Ave., both in the city's downtown core.
