An Evening of Song with Ken Lavigne and the British Columbia Boys Choir, Saturday, May 14 at 7:30 p.m., at North Vancouver’s Centennial Theatre. Tickets: $28/$25/$23/$21, visit centennialtheatre.com.
It took a few years before Vancouver Island singer Ken Lavigne gained enough confidence to share a personal song he’d penned, “Keep Holding On,” with the public.
The piece tells the story of a family moving forward from tragedy, inspired by his own family’s experience in the wake of an accident that left his brother-in-law a paraplegic, suggesting that there is a community of people around all of us all that can lend support.
Eventually, Lavigne mustered the courage to start performing the song and it made its way onto his 2013 album, serving as the title track.
Little did he know just how much “Keep Holding On” would resonate with listeners.
“Over the course of performing it and reaching out to audiences with this particular piece of music, I’ve had so many letters from people saying not that it just touched them, but it made them think upon and reflect upon their own lives. In a way, there’s no higher compliment when people take what it is that you’ve written and it inspires them to either write their own music or it makes them feel something and they walk away changed from having that experience. That’s kind of a goal really,” he says.
These days the founding member of The Canadian Tenors (and a member during the group’s inaugural seasons), is much more focused on creating and promoting his own original pieces.
“I come from that tradition of classical singers where basically every song you perform is a cover song of some sort, but I’ve been moving into experimenting with my own sound and wanting to write my own material. I’ve always been writing my own material, but usually been a little shy about releasing it,” he says.
A Victoria native, the Chemainus-based performer is currently gearing up to enter the studio in August to work on his next full-length album. While he of course plans to record a couple of old favourites, new material will definitely be a major focus.
“My sound is hard to pin down because I’m a product of a bunch of different genres. I love the classical side, that’s what I trained vocally to do, but I grew up as a musical theatre nerd and I formed my own rock band when I was 14. … So I draw from a bunch of different materials that I think really showcases and highlights the versatility and the beauty of the tenor voice,” he says.
Lavigne plans to do some recording on the island where he has built strong relationships over the years, as well as experiment with some different selections and potentially travel to work in new studios in Vancouver, Toronto and Nashville.
“I’d like to draw from different sources and have those different experiences because you make relationships in the studio that really last a long time and I’d like to sort of branch out,” he says.
He hopes to have the record ready for release by the fall.
Lavigne is also hard at work organizing an upcoming Christmas season tour, and is looking ahead to 2017 when Canada will mark the 150th anniversary of
Confederation. In honour of the milestone, he’s planning to undertake an initiative he’s referring to as “The Great Canadian Songbook.”
“This is a project that would be focused entirely on covers and some of the music that helped shape and forge and define Canada as a nation. We’ll be moving through different genres, collaborating with many different artists and this will be a recording/performance tour,” he says.
Potential covers include songs by Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot and Leonard Cohen.
In terms of his current performance schedule, Lavigne has just wrapped a tour throughout the western United States, and he’s set to take the stage at North
Vancouver’s Centennial Theatre Saturday, May 14 for an Evening of Song joined by the British Columbia Boys Choir, conducted by Edette Gagné. Lavigne’s backing band members will include Casey Ryder, bass, Llowyn Ball, violin, and Andrew Slade, piano.
Lavigne has been connected with the B.C. Boys Choir in recent years, having toured with them briefly a couple of Christmases ago.
“We had a successful tour and they helped during the launch of my latest Christmas album,” he says, referring to 2014’s Comfort and Joy. “I was never a B.C. Boys Choir alumnus though I’ve seen the great work that they’ve been doing over the past 50 years. It’s amazing. I would have relished the opportunity … to be a part of that organization,” he says.
Next weekend’s performance will be focused on romantic songs as well as pieces inspired by Mother’s Day.
“It’s going to be exciting music and it’ll be a lovely time. We’re drawing from a bunch of different repertoire, a bunch of different genres to shape the show, and I think there’s going to be definitely something there for everyone,” says Lavigne.
