A&E

Discovering KW: KW Symphony and Music Around the City

Note: This article is hosted here for archival purposes only. It does not necessarily represent the values of the Iron Warrior or Waterloo Engineering Society in the present day.

Greetings readers and welcome to Discovering KW. In this column, we will be traveling around Kitchener-Waterloo to discover some of the lesser known activities, locations, events, and see some cool stuff. This week, we will be exploring music around Kitchener-Waterloo; specifically, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra (KWSO).

The KWSO was founded in 1945 and currently has 52 musicians on staff with Edwin Outwater as the music director. You can see performances by the symphony from September until May. Additionally, the symphony plays in many venues in the tri-cities area including Centre in the Square (more on that later), Conrad Centre for the Performing Arts, and the newly opened Quantum Nano Centre on September 30th.

So why should you go see the KWSO? Well, they offer a ridiculously awesome and inexpensive way for students and anyone under the age of 18 to see almost every single concert for $60. What makes this awesome is that these seats are normally worth upwards of $100! So, I imagine many of you are thinking “OMAGASH WHERE CAN I GET THIS” while some of you don’t care. For those in the former group, you can get more information on the KWSO website at kwsymphony.ca – call (519) 745-4711, or go to the box office at the Conrad Centre for the Performing Arts on 26 King St. W in Kitchener. For those of you who don’t enjoy classical music, there are some other awesome music-related activities and venues around Kitchener-Waterloo.

One of the venues we talked about earlier – Centre in the Square – also hosts many other types of music events. Most recently, it has played home to the musical Wicked, Gordon Lightfoot, and it is scheduled to host Video Games Live as well as Theory of a Deadman later this year. The venue could be compared to Massey Hall, Toronto, in terms of material and acoustics and is definitely worth seeing a concert at.

For those of you looking to buy musical instruments, there is a Long & McQuade  located on King St. between Bridgeport Rd. and Erb St. in Uptown Waterloo. This isn’t any ordinary Long & McQuade – this one managed to get the ridiculously talented drummer Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree, King Crimson) to do a drum workshop last year. Furthermore, this is the closest music store between campus and Cambridge. Also, if you are thinking of renting an instrument, you can get them here at very low prices.

Well that’s all for this week’s exploration of the Kitchener-Waterloo area. Hopefully, you have learned some new facts and fun things to do off-campus. Next week we will explore a totally new and unrelated part of Kitchener-Waterloo.

Leave a Reply