Brian Macdonald and Annette av Paul will host a garden party and concert for the SSO at their home at 81 William Street on Monday, August 26, from 2 until 4 p.m.

The program will include soprano Catherine Gardner and SSO musicians Deborah Wunder [Mawdsley] (violin, concertmaster), Liesel Deppe (flute), Andrea Barstad (violin), Randi Patterson (horn) and David Spence (horn). Two of Andrea's students will play as well.

Tickets ($25) are available at Downie Street Bakehouse, 388 Downie Street, or by phoning the SSO office (519-271-0990). Refreshments are included. Total ticket sales will be limited to 50.

Internationally renowned as a choreographer and director of ballet, opera and musical theatre, Mr. Macdonald was recently honoured by the Stratford Festival with a bronze star to be embedded in a Stratford sidewalk. He spent 16 seasons at the Festival, directing 19 productions including Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore, Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado.

Ms. av Paul was a leading ballerina of the Royal Swedish Ballet School, then principal dancer of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. She was founding artistic director of Ballet British Columbia and she has worked as a guest teacher and coach throughout Canada.

Their garden contains a water feature from one of Mr. Macdonald's productions.

Kirby Julian, an SSO musician (violin and viola) since the orchestra's founding in 2005, has been appointed to the SSO board of directors as the musicians' representative. He replaces Andrew MacDonald (principal horn) on the board.

As musicians' representative, Kirby will check in with them regularly and "not only listen to their questions and concerns but deliver them back to the board for discussion." He lives in Kitchener with his wife, Barb, who is also an SSO musician (bass).

Kirby and Barb retired from teaching in 2012. Kirby had taught music and science at Grand River Collegiate in Kitchener for 31 years. The Julians have three children and three grandchildren. Kirby is a member of the Waterloo Chamber Players and the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Orchestra.

Stratford music icon Loreena McKennitt will again sponsor the Knox Presbyterian Church venue for the coming SSO season. She has also sponsored the purchase of a stage for Knox, eliminating the need to transport the pieces making up the stage which the SSO had deployed through the past season.

The SSO raised $260 through the sale of books and trinkets at an open house recently at Anne Hathaway Residence, thanks to the efforts of volunteers Maggie Luxford, Ruth Howard, Marjolein Hicks, Jan Greenwood and Fern Sharp.