First Friday: Sarnia’s Anthony Wing adds composer to his resume

If Sarnia’s Anthony Wing were the type of fellow to wear hats, he’d have several, including a new one, to compose.

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Others accumulated during the years include political speech writer, musician, competitive oyster shucker and arts organization administrator.

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Executive director of the International Symphony Orchestra in Sarnia and Port Huron since 2019, Wing recently composed, Submerse, a short musical “response” to a painting from the permanent collection of the Judith and Norman Alix Art Gallery featured in the fifth installment of its six -part Re View series celebrating the gallery’s 10th anniversary.

A string quartet from the orchestra will be in the downtown Sarnia gallery Friday, 7 pm to 8 pm, performing the response during the opening of the Re View show about the R. Viven Howard painting, Lily Pond.

“I was so charmed by the response,” said Sonya Blazek, curator of the county-owned gallery in downtown Sarnia who asked Wing to compose the short piece.

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“I felt like it had so much depth and mystery. . . It kind of made me go through a bit of a journey,” she said. “It was perfect.”

Wing said it’s the first time he has composed something, but he has arranged music, particularly for an online performance video series the orchestra produced during the pandemic. Some of the arrangements were used by the art gallery as the soundtrack for videos connected to an art education online project it ran during the same period.

“That worked out and we kept in touch” about the possibility of other joint projects, Wing said.

“It came right down to the wire because I kept fiddling with it,” he said about delivering the response, just in time for Friday’s opening.

While the current Re View exhibition is on through April 20, a recording of Wing’s response will play as visitors enter the gallery space where the painting hangs. As well as hearing the response, visitors will be able to listen to an audio tour about the painting.

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Howard was born in 1891 in Glencoe and graduated from McMaster University around 1912. A teacher, he spent time in Alberta where he began painting.

Blazek said Howard also spent time in Monterey, Calif., before he returned to the Sarnia area in 1926 and taught school at Kettle and Stony Point First Nation and then Pelham District secondary school before retiring in London.

“We know he was friends with Norman Gurd” who was connected with the Sarnia Women’s Conservation Art Association in the early 1900s which collected works of contemporary Canadian Art, including work by members of the Group of Seven and Howard’s 1928-era painting, Lily Pond , Blazek said.

The association’s collection was donated to the community and later became part of the art gallery’s permanent collection.

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Blazek said there is some debate about whether the lily pad in the painting is from a garden in California or one at Gurd’s home, a former grand mansion that sat at the corner of London Road and Christina Street for 90 years.

Wing said after the quartet finishes playing at Friday’s opening at the art gallery, it will set up at the symphony’s ISObar next to the Imperial Theater on Christina Street to continue performing as part of this week’s First Friday events.

On the first Friday each month, several locations downtown host art shows, live music and other events to help attract visitors.

As well as the Re View opening this Friday, the Alix Gallery will be opening a show of work by artist Natalie Hunter installed in its lecture theater. Both openings begin at 6 pm and run to 9 pm

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Other First Friday events include:

Music and dancing with the band Cornerstone, 7 pm to 11 pm at Sarnia Legion Branch 62, 286 Front St. N.

Live music with Ainsworth and Young, 7 pm to 10:30 pm at Grind Kitchen and Bar, 265 Front St. N., back entrance.

Live music with the Steve D Trio, 8 pm to 11 pm at Ups N’ Downs, 226 Front St. N.

Live music by Mike Blackmore and Dan Murphy, 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm, plus art by Christina Graham, at Greens, 196 Christina St. N.

New art by Wilma Mehl, and a Do Good Candles pop-up, will be at River Bank and Co., 5 pm to 8 pm, 172 Front St. N.

A clothing swap by Reilly Stead and Rebecca Murry, with a pop-up bar, live music and a 50-50 draw will raise money for the Inn of the Good Shepherd at Coldwell Banker Southwest Realty, 169 Christina St. N.

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Theater Sarnia presents the play Halfway There by Norm Foster 7:30 pm, 168 Christina St. N.

Inspire pop-up and vendor market, will run 4 pm to 8 pm, at the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Center new downtown location, 145 Christina St. N.

A live art auction with music by Nicole Magnish and Friends runs 6 pm to 8 pm at Studio 140 on the Mezzanine at the Downtown Market, 140 Christina Street N.

Live Music with Laurence Roscoe, 5 pm to 8 pm, runs at Tang’s China House, 165 Cromwell St. Reservations recommended.

Flowers for Your Lover native plant floral arrangements by Shawn McKnight will be at Refined Fool Brewing Co.,137 Davis St.

Sarnia Library is showing Wakanda Forever at 2 pm and 5 pm, with its Make of the Month, wooden bird Windsor decoration, 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm, 124 Christina St. S.

The Lawrence House Center for the Arts, 127 Christina St., will open the exhibition, Illuminations: Art by Lambton College Students, 6 pm to 9 pm with awards at 7 pm There will also be Spoken Word at 8 pm and Doug Hacking on the piano from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

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