Children's choir set to sing alongside recording of late Gordon Lightfoot
The City of Orillia is getting set to honour its most famous son with a special festival this coming weekend.
Rehearsals are well underway for the 2024 Lightfoot Days Festival, honouring iconic Canadian singer and Orillia-born Gordon Lightfoot. While Lightfoot may no longer be with us, some up and coming performers will get their chance to sing alongside him.
"We're going to be singing with him in a way with a recording of him when he was 12 years old," said Julia Johnston, the director of the Orillia Community Children's Choir.
- Download the CTV News app free to get local news alerts
- Don't miss breaking news - Sign up for the CTV Newsletter
The choir will be performing with that recording, which came from a contest Lightfoot participated in with a Soprano voice before it dropped as a teenager. Discovered in 2023, the recording was digitally restored using new artificial intelligence technology.
"So I took it to a friend, Rob Currie, and he used his latest techniques where they were able to separate[it]," said Dan McCoy, the music director at St. Paul's United Church, the same church where Lightfoot attended and performed growing up. "Lightfoot's mother was playing the piano in the background and they separated that out and we were left with just Lightfoot's voice."
McCoy said there were a total of three recording discovered on the digital file, dating back to 1951. After already using the other two in various ways, he wanted to do something special with the third and final performance.
Now Johnston is leading the effort to bring the talents of Lightfoot to a new generation of young singers at the same church he grew up in. She's developed an arrangement that will both allow the choir to shine while not overpowering the unique recording of Lightfoot himself.
"Sometimes it's a real shame to sing over him because it's just so pretty," she said. "So on occasion they will join in, but for the most part they just complement the voice that they hear."
While the talents of Lightfoot aren't lost on Johnston or McCoy, his legacy is less familiar to the member of the choir themselves. But it is giving them hope that they can reach for the stars.
"Knowing that he was born in the same place as me, thinking that, like, I could do the same stuff that he did and become an idol like he was," said Ali Goerk.
While he may no longer be around, Johnson said that he sure is felt in the hallways of the church he grew up in.
"I can feel him every time we bring up his music," she said. "It's certainly felt throughout and really also introducing these kids to him in that way and through his music is kind of how we keep him here."
The Lightfoot Days Festival starts on Oct. 31, with this performance taking place on Sun. Nov. 3.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than half of human trafficking incidents in Canada remain unsolved
More than half of human trafficking incidents remained unsolved in Canada by police as the number of incidents increased over the past decade, according to new data released Friday.
Human remains found in Markham, Ont. in 1980 belonged to prison escapee: police
More than 44 years after human remains were found in a rural area of Markham, Ont., police are revealing that the deceased was an inmate who had escaped prison just a month before his body was found.
WATCH 'It's mind-boggling': Drought reveals U.S. town submerged in the 1940s
Hundreds of people are flocking to see a rare site in Pennsylvania: remnants of a historic town that is usually underwater.
Manitoba RCMP identify infant human remains, asking public for help with investigation
Manitoba RCMP are looking for more information after the remains of an infant were identified.
Those typing monkeys will never produce Shakespeare's works, mathematicians say
Talented though they may be, monkeys will never type out the complete works of William Shakespeare, or even a short book, a new study suggests.
Auto theft probe leads to arrest of 59 suspects, recovery of more than 300 stolen vehicles: Toronto police
Toronto police say 59 suspects are facing a total of 300 charges in connection with an auto theft and re-vinning probe.
'I couldn't stay home': Canadian with no prior military training joins Ukrainian forces
In the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Adam Oake, a Canadian with no prior military training, sold all of his Toronto Maple Leafs memorabilia to buy a plane ticket.
Children's doctors reporting unusual increase in walking pneumonia cases in Canada
Children's hospitals across the country are seeing an unusual increase in the number of serious and more complicated cases of walking pneumonia affecting much younger patients, according to medical experts.
Life with narcolepsy: 'It's not a joke, it's a very serious illness'
Matthew Horsnell began falling asleep for no reason when he was in sixth grade.