THE GRAND SALON
CANADA'S PALM COURT ORCHESTRA

Following a prestigious debut in March 2006 at the Angus Glen Country Club, the Grand Salon was heard in Huntsville, Oakville and Caledon. They will be heard in April 2007 in Barrie, Orillia, Milton, Milbrook, Belleville, and Sarnia. Programs for St. Valentine's Day, Victorian Christmas and others will be presented.

"…This orchestra, Grand Salon is designed to hark back to the time before muzak. A time when you could not take a Trans Atlantic Cruise without hearing an orchestra aboard ship, you could not go to a good restaurant that didn't have live music, and you certainly could not go to the cinema or a theatre without such an ensemble present.

In some cases it is called the Palm Court Orchestra, Salon Orchestra or a Theatre Orchestra. Those terms all seem to be, to some extent, interchangeable.

Grand Salon was formed to recreate an age when the greatest tunes of the day were played live. It is the age of elegance and refinement that this music works to reproduce very well. Part of the re creation was to find the actual music for this sort of ensemble which involved researching the Paramount Theatre Library in California .When the talkies finally came to the cinema, theatre orchestras were out of business .More and more North America began to consume its music electronically. The scores and parts at the Paramount library make up a huge collection to which I have had access. We're quickly building a varied series of programmes based on one of the richest periods in music history, a time that valued elegance,manners and class…"

Kerry Straton, Music Director

The orchestra features the music of Cole Porter, Sigmund Romberg, George Gershwin among others of that era. Concert audiences literally dance in the aisles when the venue permits.

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Ann Summers International
43 Bright St.
Toronto M5A 3H5
tel: (416) 362-1422
fax: (416) 359-0043
e-mail: sumintl@sympatico.ca