ROCK SINGERS OF MUSKOKA JUST GOTTA SING — FRIDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHT IN GRAVENHURST, BRACEBRIDGE
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
MUSKOKA — Some gotta dance, some gotta sing.
If you’re the latter, this is your weekend to sing it, sing it loud.
Or at least sing to along to your heart’s content — non-stop because there’s no intermission.
Because the Rock Singers of Muskoka will have you belting out all the familiar tunes they are performing Friday and Saturday nights at Trinity United Church and Rene Caisse Theatre. — 7:30 p.m.
Even if you only want to hum or more mutter under your breath for 90 minutes.
After last night’s final rehearsal, the 80-some voices and back-up band are ready to entertain baby boomers with tunes they grew up singing in cars, high school, at weddings and other party and family celebrations at home and in bars and at rowdy rock concerts.
Alana Nuedling, a well-known educator, music teacher and director, is leading the “all new choir,” which rehearses Wednesdays at the Stephenson Township Hall in Utterson.
They had 103 singers sign up last fall, which have dropped to about 80 due illnesses and other commitments for the first performance. Some are former Muskoka Rock Choir singers.
For this show they had to cap the number of performers at 90 “because that’s are so many people to wrangle,” Nuedling laughed. “Still a massive amount of people.”
After a successful first season of 13 rehearsals that culminated in an inaugural Christmas performance at the Algonquin Theatre, they launched their second season in February.
This weekend they welcome audiences for two new original shows: The Rock Singers of Muskoka presents Legends of Canadian Music.
“They’re all songs familiar to the audience. All famous Canadians,” Linda Exell, one of the organizers told me last week. “The audiences will be pleasantly pleased.”
Classic Canadian rock anthems that aren’t just mouldy oldies. They’ll pop your ears off.
They include names like Bruce Cockburn, Joni Mitchell, Blue Rodeo, The Guess Who, Our Lady Peace, Bryan Adams and many more you’ll have to attend to hear and that will be sure to have you clapping your hands, stomping your feet and beaming with Canadian pride.
Nuedling, who also leads the Muskoka Philharmonic Orchestra in Huntsville, says she is taking the choir to the next musical level beyond a community choir.
That includes help from guitarist Sean Cotton whose back-up band provides the driving back beat for vocalists sit on to emote all their pent up energy and effervescent sounds. They’re also amplified by some strings and even a banjo on one number.
But it’s more than just karaoke on steroids.
“It’s rock and it’s popular,” says Nuedling. “Most of it is rock. We try and do a large percentage of rock. But you can’t help but get popular music in there. And some other things thrown in for fans once in a while. There’s some rock ballads and we have some up-tempo stuff.
“But largely it is rock and popular music from different eras. It’s crowd-pleasing stuff for sure. Music that people will know.”
That includes hits by local and Canadian fan favourite and legend Gordon Lightfoot’s “Carefree Highway,” Serena Ryder’s “Stompa,” Sean Mendez’s “Wonder,” Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” and Bryan Adams’ “Life is a Highway.”
“We also have special permission from Hawksley Workman to use one of his pieces, because none of his is in print. So we just asked him. We’ve got the lyrics and we’re doing that one. It’s called “When the Mountains Meet the Seashore.””
There’s also some fine soloists and small-group singing.
Spoiler alert. Nuedling didn’t want to reveal the whole program so as to encourage the audience to attend.
And participate.
And participate you can.
Nuedling encourages audience participation throughout.
You won’t be able to stop them.
“We want to sing and we want people in the audience to be happy and sing along. They can if they want.
“There’s a couple of pieces including the finale where we hope they will sing along.”
Nuedling says after 26 weeks of rehearsing and performing that once as a new group they’ve come together.
“I’m understanding where they’re at when it comes to being a musician and what they need. We have some very fine musicians, vocalists who are trained and they know how to read music and know all the ins and outs of music. And then we have some that just want to sing. So to find a way to bridge that gap and to have them singing together is phenomenal.”
The second half of the Rock Singers’ second season begins with another 13 weeks in the fall in preparation for their Christmas 2025 concert.
“The next one we’re doing, the title is Decades, and we’ll be starting with music from the ’40s and moving through to current songs,” said Nuedling.
Follow the Rock Singers on Facebook or email [email protected] for more info.
Tickets for the Gravenhurst show on Friday May 23 at the Gravenhurst United Church can be purchased by emailing [email protected] and are $30.
Tickets for the Bracebridge show Saturday May 24 are available at theatremuskoka.ca and are $40.
See another recent story link about the Rock Singers below:
NEW ROCK SINGERS CHOIR TO BELT OUT ‘LEGENDS OF CANADIAN MUSIC’ IN GRAVENHURST AND BRACEBRIDGE ON ‘REAL LONG WEEKEND’ https://muskokatoday.com/2025/05/new-rock-singers-choir-to-belt-out-legends-of-canadian-music-in-gravenhurst-bracebridge-real-long-weekend/
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