Welcome to Shift, where Tom Allen takes you on a daily musical journey from the stalwarts of Classical music to the cutting edge of Contemporary tunes. Join us here on CBC music for a round-up of the stories of the day, some videos of music (or maybe just videos interesting to music fans) and a place to speak your voice.
Today, Katherine Duncan is sitting in for Tom Allen.
From now on you'll be able to stream SHIFT at your convenience in its entirety. Click on the AUDIO tab on this blog to listen.
There is incredible news for Canadian classical music today. 17-year-old pianist Jan Lisiecki just received his call to the big time. A major performer recently became unavailable for a performance and recording, and Lisiecki got the call to work with famed conductor Claudio Abbado. This is the kind of opportunity that can catapult a career onto the fast track. Congratulations Jan Lisiecki!
(our on-air broadcast featured the 2nd movement of this piece)
A short walk could help you in old age. New studies are showing that small amounts of extra daily exercise, as little as short walks, can prevent some cases of Alzheimer's. Doing it while listening to a piece of classical music can only help the experience.
Babies may be meaner than you think. Those cute, pudgy humans may be all smiles and giggles, but what they aren't saying is relatively adult. Studies show that even babies take pleasure in watching people that are different from them treated with cruelty. It may just be eating peas and carrots they were studying, but there were some mean faces at nap time.
Are you still working on any New Years Resolutions? It's March, and already many people will fall back on old habits. If your resolution had to do with weight, maybe it was the motivation that let you down. Apparently the best motivation isn't health, or looks, but money. Folks that were given a form of financial incentive averaged over 4 times the weight loss as those just pushing themselves.
Fundraising for your child's school never ends. Either you have to sell chocolate bars or it's time to convince your friends to buy magazine subscriptions. Jeff Tweedy, lead singer of the band Wilco, had a better idea. He auctioned his skills as a music producer, and 8 hours of his time in studio earned more than $20000 for the school of his children. That's way better than going door-to-door in a Canadian winter.
You can contact us at Shift with your ideas, questions or anything else by sending us a message on our Facebook page. Through email, you can reach show producers Alison Howard alison.howard@cbc.ca, Alex Redekop alex.redekop@cbc.ca or Pete Morey peter.morey@cbc.ca