Name: Wes Garland Age: 43 Instrument: piano/organ/keyboards Wes Garland is an ordinary guy by day, musician by night. Though he says he wishes he could just be a musician, Garland works as a software developer in downtown Kingston on a daily basis. On off-work hours, he jumps around from musical project to musical project, such as the Grateful Dead tribute band he's currently working with right now, but also plays regularly for the Limestone Jazz Collective and his main bar b

Name: Jay Smith (Smitty) Age: (Prefers to keep people guessing) Instrument: Mainly guitar and vocals (can play several others) When Jay Smith was in high school, the music teacher ran out of instruments for him to learn. He said he played his first show at the age of 14, got invited to play in bars when he was in college (such as The Brass Pub, which he's played at every Sunday for 20 years) and now he's a dad by day, musician by night. Smith, known more widely as Smitty, is

Name: Teagan McLaren Age: 26 Instrument: singing, acoustic guitar Teagan McLaren is a pop-country singer/songwriter born and raised in Kingston. She just recently graduated from St. Lawrence College with an advanced diploma in human resources and also has a bachelor of music from Queen’s University. Now that she’s done with school and has a full-time job, McLaren hopes she’ll have more time to book music gigs, and that she’ll be able to save up enough money to return to Nashv

Name: Amanda Sadler Age: 27 Instrument: Piano, guitar, banjo and sing Amanda Sadler is a country singer/songwriter and philanthropist originally from Barrie Ont., who moved to Kingston to take sociology and English literature at Queen's University. She quickly fell in love with the city and has been living in town for five years (when she's not traveling around for music). Apart from her passion for music, Sadler is an avid foodie and says she loves trying out new restaurants

Name: Dan O. Age: 38 Instrument: Bass guitar/singer Dan says he is just a normal joe and a family man living in Trenton, playing gigs in Kingston with his punk rock band The Dead Sparrows. His gang has known each other since being bandmates in high school, but reunited about five years ago when they all ended up in the same area again, and so, The Dead Sparrows was born. The band just recently released their fourth EP, No Core, on vinyl. Do you have an occupation apart from m

Rick Penner has been volunteering his time to put on a musical gift series at the John M. Parrott Art Gallery for over five years. Gallery curator Susan Holland recalled the program being Penner's idea. "I think he came to me and suggested that he would like to do a couple of concerts and use the beautiful grand piano that we have, and it was so well-received that we kept it going," Holland said. "It’s a lovely thing to do: to come in and listen to some music, and spend an ho

Rick Penner performs his first musical gift series events this year, starting off with Canadian Love Songs. #musician #piano #expression #Belleville #Music

“Their success is my success,” said accomplished Canadian musician and teacher Douglas Rice after hosting the first annual Quinte Cocktail show on Sunday. The event took place at St. Matthew’s Church and featured about 28 of Rice’s 35 vocal students singing baroque, opera and theatrical music. Rice has loved music since he was five years old, and said he knew he wanted to make a career out of it in his teenage years. He studied in Canada, the U.S. and Europe, and according to