10 Fun Facts About this Year's Community Celebration Talent

We can’t wait to see you all at this weekend’s FREE Community Celebration concert. The annual Culture Days event “sold out” in less than 24 hours this year, and from the looks of the talent, this concert will NOT disappoint.

If you reserved tickets and will not be attending, or maybe you don’t need as many tickets as you first thought, please call the WSO Box Office at 204-949-3999 so that we can give those seats to the hundreds of people who are currently on our waiting list.

Here are a few interesting facts about our guest artists:

1. Saturday night’s host, Paul Ong, has raised close to $150,000 for local charities (including the WSO’s Sistema Winnipeg program) with his annual Concerts for a Cause.
2. Pianist Raymond Ding is just 16 years old. This year, he was awarded three of the Winnipeg Music Festival’s highest achievements, including the Lieutenant Governor Trophy for the highest recognition of the entire 2023 Festival.
3. Founded in 2019, the Manitoba Chinese Choir already has an international following. In 2021, they performed at the Spring Festival Gala in New Zealand and at the all-Canadian Chinese New Year Concert.
4. Half of the award-winning husband and wife duo Burnstick, Jason Burnstick, is a Plains-Cree guitarist, vocalist and film music composer.
5. Currently, Sistema Winnipeg serves up to 150 children from grades 1 to 12 at two main school communities, Elwick Community School and King Edward Community School. There is satellite instruction provided weekly at Isaac Newton School and St. John’s High School. This program is completely dependent on support from donors.
6. Newly arrived from Ukraine, the WSO’s Taras Pivniak is a double bassist and a composer who has shared the stage with world-renowned soloists like Luciano Pavarotti, Montserrat Caballé, and Andrea Bocelli.
7. With a Cree and Ojibway background, Ray “Coco” Stevenson is better known in the Indigenous community by his spirit name, Walking Wolf. He started Walking Wolf Dancers & Singers to educate and share his culture with others.
8. At Saturday’s concert, Musica Singers will perform Conrado Del Rosario’s arrangement of Gaano Ko Ikaw Kamahal (How Much I Love You). It’s being sung with special permission from the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra.
9. BunmiPraise is the stage name the Winnipeg gospel singer, songwriter, and bandleader Olubunmi Oduntan uses.
10. This is the second year the WithUs community orchestra will join the WSO on the stage of the Centennial Concert Hall. The musicians who registered are a real cross-section of people. We’ll have amateur musicians, students, music educators, and professional musicians!

Community Celebration is part of Culture Days

Sponsored by

With funding from the Government of Manitoba Arts, Culture and Sport in the Community Fund