L. to R. – Nobuyo Stadtlander’s Mother, Michael Stadtlander and Vladimir Putin. Photo by R.E.
Taking Ontario Provincial hiway 124 North from Toronto will eventually bring you to the roadside village of Singhampton. If food interests you, two restaurants await, the long established local family favourite, Mylar and Loretta’s Restaurant and from Friday through Sunday, the slightly incongruously named, Haisai Restaurant and Bakery, the latter owned by world renowned chef Michael Stadtlander. If you’d made reservations 2 or 3 months earlier, you can continue due north and hang a left on the 10th Concession for dinner in Stadtlander’s farm house living room at Eigensinn Farm. For Grey Highlands dining, that’s about as good a spread in economics and culinary delights as one can expect anywhere in the world, even on King Street west in Toronto.
Mylar and Loretta’s Restaurant, Singhampton, Ontario.
Haisai dining room
This past Sunday, 5 Ocrober, 2014, my wife and I attended Harvest Feast, a celebratory gathering of chefs and friends in a field on Eigensinn Farm. Michael is involved in environmental issues and led a group who stopped, at least temporarily, the mega quarry which endangered about six area rivers. He espouses the use of locally grown organic products free of hormones and these celebrations, for instance a Wild Leek Festival in early summer honoring the tubor of Shakespearean fame, are attended by large numbers of people who share similar beliefs and enjoy Michael and his wife Nobuyo’s hospitalty.
Then too, the food is a powerful draw. After his friend chef Jamie Kennedy convinced Michael to leave Lubeck, Germany for Ontario, Michael became a leader in the food industry in Canada. He has trained or influenced hundreds of chefs, critics and so-called foodies. Occasionally I’ve glimpsed his leadership style and he can be a tough pan handler. But it’s tough work ruling a kitchen and restaurant. After a student passes muster, you can be sure they’ll fit meaningfully into the service.
I’ve attended many of the Eigensinn Farm events as a musician. Usually I find a place for myself off the beaten track and discretely improvise dinner music. During one festival I played a drum beat behind a lovely waitress who marched amongst the diners holding cards aloft printed with the next courses. This year I was simply Michael’s guest. I think Michael has achieved the mantle of grand Pooh Bah. He invited his usual cohort of chef friends, but did not himself cook. For the first time I saw him strolling contentedly around the field snapping pictures and looking very relaxed. Nobuyo makes sure the guests and chefs are content.
These festivals usually begin at the oyster shack. Adam, one of the owners of Oyster Boy on Queen Street West, was shucking oysters barehanded, fast enough to keep up with newcomers. I love raw oysters and I always have difficulty getting past this opener . Oyster Boy oysters are stapels of my daughtr and Son-in-Law’s Christmas party. While I was waiting for another mouthful, I began speaking with Sheldon a Torontonian who owns a number of pet stores and clinics. He’s one of the regular Stadtlander friends. On one occasion he flew out to Vancouver Island to hang out with Michael during the filming of a DVD about homegrown Canadian products. Today, Sheldon hired a bus to bring friends from Toronto north to Eigenssinn.
A chilly day at Eigensinn Farm. Photo R.E.
Next to the oysters was a fellow who had made a hot curry soup. It was delicious and on this day, cloudy, breezy and getting colder by the minute, much appreciated. We walked through an arch made of flexible vines that reminded me of an arch I’d seen at a Jewish wedding. Immediately on the other side of that arch was Paul Harber, former student of Michael and Michael’s mentor in Switzerland. He was dishing out baked beans with speck, another delight in this weather. When Paul returned from apprenticing in Europe, he opened a restaurant at Ravine Vineyards near Niagara-On-The-Lake, a winery owned by his parents.
Right next to Paul’s table were statues crafted by Michael of Nobuyo’s mother, Michael and Vladimir Putin. Putin was being honored because he had banned huge shipments of GMO food from Europe bound for Russia. Slightly further down the hill awaited coarse sausages, and mash potatoes andsauerkraut nade with white wine. would it be possible to get through this day? To each the sauerkraut, one of my wife’s favorite things in the world, we rested our plates on a wooden shelf and opened our bottle of Ripasso wine. We were really getting into it when Michael stopped by and asked if we knew Alexander Molitz., a young chef preparing vegetarian dishes just a few feet from us. I certainly knew the name Molitz and sure enough Alexander was the sum of Alan, a string bass player I had performed with many times over the years. I had never met his son and it was a pleasant surprise and a real pleasure introducing ourselves to each other.
Chef Alexander Molitz. Photo R.E.
Michael had hired a terrific polka pop music band, accordion we electric piano, lead and rhythm guitars, and a drummer who had quite a bit more than off beats in his repertoire. They were set up in a little tent and made the crowd happy. A little further on wasPaul Böehner’s station , Paul’s from Hamburg, Germany, but he had not yet arrived. When we met Michael a little later, he laughed and said, “Paul’s an hour late”. Böehner’s, 93 Ossington Ave.
Two Polka Fans.
Chef Hiro of Hiro Sushi, 171 King Street East, Toronto, kept pointing to various concoctions saying, “Eat this, it’s good”. One of them was laced with a wasabi kick that cleaned my sinuses. For a moment or two I was stunned. Oh God, it was good. Waiting in line is my wife Eleanor and Michael Stadtlander.Next to Hiro was executive chef Daisuke Izutsu of Don Don Izakaya, 130 Dundas Street west who was serving delicate and deliscious white fish. A next to Don Don? A a steam engine. Every now and again, the owner would pull a cord on its whistle bringing forth a loud toot and a cloud of steam, an added delight to the crowd’s afternoon. The engine was built in 1872 and according to his extensive research, it was the lastt engine in North America powered 100% by steam. It was a beautiful thing.
1872 Steam Engine. Photo R.E.
My feet were getting cold. I knew from living many years on a farm north of Toronto, that here atop the escarpment, temperatures and darkness could descend with alarming speed. Cold outdoor air has always revivified me, but now as a chill krept in, I needed a warm place. Michael had offered my wife saur kraut, but we couldn’t wait. Our warm place, Mad Maple Country Inn was beckoning.
Robin Engelman 
Christa Mercey – Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil, the main tent.
I’ve always loved free stuff and now that I’m living on pensions, I really love free stuff. My eyes have gone far enough south for grits, but they’ve provided me a free pass on public transit vehicles. This pass, my car’s handicap sticker and plans for two Liquor Control Board outlets within easy walking distance of my condo, are perks that make life more comfortable and stretch my dollars.
When Christa Mercey called with an offer of two free Cirque du Soleil tickets, my faith in the benefits of old age and former students continued to percolate. Of course I said yes and a few days later my wife and I slipped into a free parking space reserved for Cirque employees. This saved us a $20 parking fee. We dropped my handicap sticker on the dash board just in case. Christa, in make up, met us at the security gate and ushered us into Cirque du Soleil’s main tent.
Cirque du Soleil is a Canadian company, founded in 1984 in Montreal. It is a version of contemporary Circus whose shows are built around stories or themes and relying upon costumes, lighting and acting more than live animal acts. My wife and I saw the first Cirque du Soleil show in Toronto and our eyes were opened to what else a circus could be. Cirque du Soleil now exceeds US$810 million, and its nouveau cirque shows have been seen by nearly 90 million spectators in over 200 cities on five continents.(Wikipedia)
Once Inside, a box of pop corn and a soft pretzel set us back 11 bucks, but so what. We were well ahead in the exchange game. The tent holds 2,700 people. Tickets for the Cirque begin at 60 bucks for a child 12 years or younger and surges to $160. Then they rise faster than an atheist at a Pentecostal baptism, to the VIP Experience which costs $265. For them shekels, you get a plastic bag containing an autographed photo and other things suitable for a plastic bag.
But we knew Christa Mercey! She got us isle seats in the VIP section 6 rows from the stage, dead centre. See photo below.
Cirque du Soleil main stage with curios just before the downbeat.
Christa is Cirque’s percussionist and Kit Chatham, a former drum soloist with the drum and bugle corps show Blast , is Cirque’s set drummer. Kit has been with Cirque for ten years and Kurios is his sixth show. Christa’ joined Cirque for the first time last November in Montreal for the creation of Kurios. All the musicians open the show by parading through the audience in costume. There is a bass player/ band leader, a guitarist, accordionist/keyboardist, a violinist, a singer, and a cellist/keyboardist. And do they ever earn their keep.
Because of my eyes, I didn’t see much of the show. However I did see a glamour of legs, upright and writhing seductively from a mound of bodies like tentacles on a sea anemone. The legs belonged to young women who uncoiled themselves and did things with their bodies, unimagined or only dreamt of by mere mortals. During intermission a net was raised across the stage about ten feet in the air. When the lights came on, a group of young men began trampolining to absurd heights, eventually hurling one team member to a platform at the top of the tent.
The show is called Kurios: Cabinet of Curiosities and the stage was covered with curios. The main acts were contortionists, gymnasts, aerialists, balancing acts and clowns, historic staples of any circus,were exceptionally good. . Though I could not see what they were doing, the clowns made the audience laugh. The music was written for the show and contains Indian, mid-eastern and gypsy influences and never mimics the up tempo, off beat style of traditional circus music.
The show is fast paced and the musicians were terrific. Just about everyone of them had their moment on stage. Christa and Kit brought the house down with complex and flashy cross-sticking solos and duets on indefinable curios. During the rest of the show, Christa played her xylophone, celeste, glockenspiel, timpani, bass drum and gong on the MalletKAT. Acoustic percussion included bongos, tom-toms, snare drum and accessories.
Just off stage, Christa’s percussion set up with TV monitor.
As usual in a circus, the drummer provided ‘hits’ to accent climactic moments during on stage acts. The accordionist and violinist each provided a virtuoso, tour de force solo equalling the acrobats who closed the show. When everyone came on stage for bows, they received a standing ovation.
Christa took us back stage. Some of the acrobats had already begun practicing in a large, tent covered space. As I looked around, I was impressed with the amount of gear and people needed to keep this show on the road. Christa told us how on closing night, the crew would have the rehearsal space and tent dismantled and packed away by the time the cast members had taken their last bow. From Christa we learned the musicians played with a click track. Personally, I dislike click tracks, but I suppose given the pace and complexity of Kurios and the fact there is no conductor, some controlling mechanism would be necessary. The click track did explain the occasional lack of coordination between the music, most obviously the drummer, and cliamatic moments in high flying acts. How could an aerialist always catch his partner precisely in time with a metronome?
Cirque du Soleil is an exciting experience. Christa’s role demands percussion virtuosity and charasmatic stage presence, both well within her wheel house. The weeks are long, the show is an endurance test, but Christa’s enjoying herself and her career continues to grow.
Cirque du Soleil packs its tent on 26 October and leaves for San Francisco.
Christa Mercey, percussionist Cirque du Soleil, out of costum, but still in make up with Eleanor after the show.
Christa Mercey graduated from the University of Toronto Faculty of Music with a Bachelor of Music degree in percussion performance and played with Toronto based TorQ Percussion Quartet and Scrap Artas Music before accepting an offer from Cirque du Soleil to play percussion and the part of Bela Donna on their Kurios: Cabinet of Curiosities Tour. The tour began in Montreal and after the Toronto run , it moves to San Francisco, Seattle and Calgary.
Posted by robinengelman on October 22, 2014 in Articles, Commentaries & Critiques, Contemporary Music
Tags: Blast, Christa Mercey, Cirque du Soleil, Kit Chatham, Scrap Arts Music