The Rotary Club Of Festival City

President:  Dianne Yundt

Minutes of the meeting of June 18, 2013

Club email:  festivalcityrotary@gmail.com

Club website: www.festivalcityrotary.ca

Guests: Clark Mitchell is from the Stratford Rotary Club. Leticia Figueiredo is our exchange student. Susan Worthington is the General Manager of Stratford Summer Music. John Miller Artistic Producer of SSM. Special guest David Harvie.

Door Prize: John McNeil donated the prize won by Randy Matthews.

Dinner of the Month Draw: Deb Cook won a dinner for four at Pazzo Taverna.

Announcements:

1.     Board Meeting: The last board meeting to be chaired by President Dianne will be on June 20 at 6 PM. She will be providing the “Last Supper”. Final committee reports will be due then.

2.     RI Annual Givings: District Governor Tom Robitaille is looking for more donations to the Annual Givings program. If you wish to contribute visit ClubRunner and click on Rotary International under Rotary Links. Click on the tab for “Contribute”.

3.     The budget and the new Board: The budget for 2013-2014 and the composition of the new board of directors will be discussed at the next meeting.

4.     Rotary Dues: Make cheques payable to The Rotary Club of Festival City and give them to the treasurer Etienne Leushuis.

5.     Coin Boxes: Return coin boxes to treasurer Etienne. 

6.     Magnetic Rotary Pins: please pay treasurer Etienne $5 for pins ordered.

Guest Speaker: Brandi Gillett introduced John Miller the Artistic Producer of Stratford Summer Music. This summer marks the 13th year for the music festival. It continues for six weeks from July 15 to August 25. John stated that thanks to community support and support from our club the SSM continues to be a success growing slowly from year to year. It remains financially in the black. John has been very successful in obtaining the support of major corporations such as BMO, Sunlife and Yamaha.

For the 2013 season, choral music is a theme with 3 choirs visiting Stratford. The Vienna Boys Choir will be here for 3 concerts July 26, 27, 28 at St Andrews Church, and then a special concert with tenor Michael Schade (July 30).

The second choir is the Creole Cuban Choir (Aug 22, 23, 24). The first two performances are at St. Andrews church and the concert on the 24th is with Jane Bunnett at the Church Restaurant.

The Toronto Mass choir will perform at St Andrews on August 4. Their specialty is Gospel and Caribbean music.

Other performers include pianist Jan Lisiecki, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, and organist Rachel Laurin for organ week.

Barge music returns with a mix of music from the Canadian Men’s Chorus, the Sultans of swing, a cello ensemble and groups performing music of the swing era, the Caribbean, Gypsy and folk roots.

An unusual orchestra participating in this year’s SSM festival is Paraguay’s Landfill Orchestra. Children from a slum have learned to play instruments created from recycled materials scavenged from a landfill site. The orchestra performs on August 21 at St Andrews Church.

The pocket guide and larger program will be available soon.

Visit www.stratfordsummermusic.ca to buy tickets and check out the full repertoire of musical events.

Stratford Summer Music will open July 15 with the ever popular best fireworks show in Stratford.

John was thanked by Ron Rogers.