Listening and learning

It’s a full season of songs and speakers for Music ’N’ Mavens.

The annual series of concerts and lectures features 19 programs from Jan. 6 to March 26, including the debut of After Dark, a four-concert evening series.

Karla Berbrayer, Music ’N’ Mavens’ founding producer, says the evening concert series responds to popular demand, which has steadily climbed after a few rocky post-pandemic seasons.

“It’s just been quite remarkable. I mean, the biggest complaint we get is, ‘I can’t get tickets,’” she says.

She mentions a few highlights taking to the Rady JCC Berney Theatre’s stage, starting with season openers and klezmer act Mayors of Sambor (Tuesday at 2 p.m.).

Klezmer is already a soulful blend of influences — jazz, synagogue melodies and eastern European folk — and the Mayors of Sambor add to the eclecticism with originals sprinkled in with traditional numbers. (They’re Victor and Myron Schultz, joined by multi-instrumentalist Daniel Koulack, accordionist Myron Kurjewicz and guitarist/vocalist George Bajer-Koulack.)

“These are some of the best klezmer musicians in North America, quite frankly. It will be full-on klezmer, so it’s high energy,” says Berbrayer.

She also highlights the Wrigley Brothers (Luc and Aiden Wrigley), 21-year-old French Métis and Cree twins steeped in Manitoba’s rich Red River fiddle tradition who perform at 2 p.m. on Feb. 19.

“I just think they’re so cool. They’ve been fiddling since the age of three and have become a regular staple at Festival du Voyageur since they were very, very young,” she says of the brothers, joined by their father, Rob, at this concert.

She also points to the all-woman alt-folk Fu Fu Chi Chi Choir.

“There’s a 30-year age range in the group from young to older women, and they write their own music. They’re a lot of fun.”

Tariffs have been a hot topic all year, and Berbrayer says she wanted a lecture to focus on the question of how American nationalism may be pushing Canada toward greater European ties.

For this, she tapped Royce Koop, a professor of political science and co-ordinator of the Canadian studies program at the University of Manitoba.

Other speakers include Evelyn L. Forget, distinguished professor of economics and community health sciences at the University of Manitoba, who is noted for her groundbreaking research on guaranteed annual incomes, and the social and health implications of poverty and inequality; journalist and Indigenous adviser Sheila North, who was also the first female Grand Chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak; and several others.

With Music ’N’ Mavens entering its biggest season yet, Berbrayer says her priority has been on programming a mix of the familiar and unfamiliar for her audiences.

Among last year’s sleeper hits, she mentions the series’ concert with Tommyphyll, a local Afrobeats musician whom she suspects is unknown to most of her audience.

“He was so funny. In one of his songs, he said, ‘If you’re available, just shout out and raise your hand.’ And all these women say, ‘I’m available’… and (post-performance) he had a number of older women coming up to him and telling him they were available,” she says.

Berbreyar adds that while she knows some of the acts this year likewise won’t be as familiar to audiences, she’s confident people are going to love them.

“I definitely believe in risk-taking, but I also believe in respecting my audience,” she says.

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