News
News… (updated May 7/08)
Crossroads Television System (CTS) is proud to announce an exclusive
airing of Steve Bell in Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra
(ESO), presented in High Definition (HD) in Ontario on Saturday June 14th from 9:00-10:00pm, and in Standard Definition in Calgary and Edmonton from 8:00pm-9:00pm.
Produced in Edmonton, Alberta with some funding from CTS, the
concert is sure to be a television event you won’t want to miss. “CTS
viewers will enjoy the brilliant musical arrangements that blend the
sound of the ESO and the musical style of Steve Bell that we all know
and love,†said CTS Programming Manager, Rob Sheppard.
“Bell’s fifteen year, fourteen album career has produced multiple
JUNO awards and a host of other industry accolades,†says Bell’s
website. His 2007 album, “The Symphony Sessions†launched the concert
premiere of his songs in a symphonic setting – something Bell never
dreamed he would pursue.
“Viewers are in for a glorious experience! Steve’s heart, the music,
and the pictures all reflect in perfect harmony the beauty of the
Lord,†said CTS Regional Production Manager, Drew Martin. “It’s a
delight to the senses on every level.â€
Tune in on Saturday June 14th to see Steve Bell in Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, only on CTS.
April 16/08 - Steve Bell has Recieved the Distinguished Christian Leadership Award
About the award….
Providence College and Seminary awards the "Distinguished Christian Leadership Award" to individuals who have made significant contributions for Jesus Christ and His Church. Recipients of the award may represent a church-related ministry, the fine arts, business, education, or a variety of other vocations.
Recipients will be considered who meet the following qualifications:
1. Committed Christian who demonstrates a positive testimony in the church and community.
2. Supportive of the College’s and Seminary’s mission and standards of faith and conduct.
3. Supportive of Christian higher education in general and Providence College and Seminary in particular.
The life work and recordings of Steve Bell are well known internationally through his own independent record label Signpost Music. His fifteen year, fourteen album career has produced eight awards. These include a Juno in 1997 for Romantics and Mystics, and a second Juno in 2000 for Simple Songs. He has performed all over the world, most recently completing trips to Ethiopia and Turkey. He has sold over 250,000 units worldwide and gathered thousands of loyal fans. Larry LeBlanc (Billboard Magazine) calls Steve “a Canadian musical treasure.â€
Steve manifests his passion for the kingdom of God in his song writing (mostly based on scripture) and his travels for humanitarian awareness. His travels include Africa, Bangladesh, and India; his website and radio interviews on CBC are ways in which he helps his listeners understand how to be involved in helping the poorest of the poor.
March 26/08 - Full Report From Bangladesh
A few more words about the cyclone that hit Bangladesh this past November: I don’t recall hearing much about it in the news which surprises me given the magnitude and devastation of the storm. Perhaps that was when Brittany was having her troubles or something equally as newsworthy.
The storm itself was named Sidr which means "red eye." After the storm the trees showed significant signs of heat damage - almost as if they’d been burned. We could still see the evidence of this. No one could explain to us the phenomena but there was something in the storm that generated an unusual heat enough to dry out, curl and even burn the leaves. Very odd. Whatever it was that caused this, it has given the storm a mythologically malevolent personality.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE…
March 12/08 - A Quick Report From Bangladesh
Bangladesh is amazing. However I’m not exactly thrilled about my body being covered in bed-bug and spider bites. Not all the accomodations have been 5 star 
There are 140 million people living in an area the size of Iowa. It’s crazy! So far we’ve had two 8-10 hour days of of driving. The roads are relentlessly populated with people walking, riding, pushing, pulling. My body is very sore from being tossed about the vehicle as our driver lurches at alarming speed from shoulder to shoulder of the road dodging the endless stream of rickshaws, busses, overloaded trucks and people.
Out of 140 million people, half can only read and write their name. 45 percent of the work force are day labourers who work for about a dollar a day. In the rural areas, folks live in tin houses built on bamboo frames and wring out an existence from share-croping and land leasing arangements. Apparently almost all of the land is owned by roughly 10 percent of the population - there is no land ownership among the poor.
But there is alot of energy here. The people themselves are overwhelmingly friendly and hospitable. We get stared at alot, but any small gesture of warm friendliness is immediately returned ten-fold. The people seem quite happy and there is a fond at-easeness among them that is lovely.
Yesterday we visited a small village on the southern coast that was wiped out by a cyclone back in November. The storm brought a 25 foot wall of water that swamped the village at about 9:30 at night - after the sun had gone down. The village itself was decimated and the storm claimed 3000 lives - 17 from this village. We listened to several women speak of having their babies torn from their arms as the waters raged and their bodies were battered and cut open by the sharp edged corregated steel (from the homes) floating in the water. One woman told the most heartbreaking story of watching her husband clinging to a tree with one arm and his child with another as a large beam crushed his arm which released the child and they watched thier child float away into the horrible night.
Obviously, emotions are still pretty raw here. We cried with them and felt priveleged to hear their story. It’s hard to know how to respond. Homes can be replaced, the children cannot. However, homes are not as easily replaced here as back in Canada. There’s no insurance and limited government support. Canadian Foodgrains Bank is starting a food-for-work program here to help rebuild the roads. Other agencies are helping but it is not enough.
An average home here would cost two-thousand dollars to rebuild. A parent earning a dollar a day can’t imagine how that loss will ever be recovered. It’s hard to not think about the fact that the cost of our flights here would make a big difference to the lives of a few families in this place. I feel very conflicted about being here. I pray it will turn into some good otherwise.
Tomorrow we will visit several school feeding programs and a water management (irrigation and diversion) project. Then we return to Dhaka (central Bangladesh) to catch a flight to India on Sunday morning. Unfortunately we have to miss a several hundred thousand person Easter sunrise service in the capital.
Nanci is doing great - no allergy problems yet, which is wonderful. We’re both still a bit jet lagged but expect that to be over by the time it’s time to turn around and go home. Sigh…
- Steve
Jan 1, 8am. Happy New Year!! Nanci and I both woke up this morning at 6am. That seems wrong doesn’t it? We didn’t exactly party hard last night - getting old methinks. We mulled some wine and sat around with our son Micah and his girlfriend Sam doing a puzzle. Woo-hoo!! Actually, I’ve never been much of a New Year’s Eve reveler. There’s too much pressure for something significant to happen; kinda like Valentines day. So we simply enjoyed each other’s company, our neighbor popped by for an hour, and we managed to stay up till midnight, but I think all of us were sound asleep before 12:30.
Christmas was great. Nanci, the boys and I drove out to London Ontario to visit our daughter Sarah and her husband Steve. Sarah is currently expecting our first grand-child which has added back, for me anyway, a bit of wonder to a season that has been rudely robbed by consumer frenzy and inane distraction.
And it was great just to be in the car for several days with the boys and Nanci. These days are soon over for us - extended time with our kids. They are already pretty rare. I’m really looking forward to this next season for Nanci and me; rediscovering each other, redefining what "Steve and Nanci" actually means, grand parenting etc… but we’ve really been blessed with great kids and so there’s a deep, grateful sadness in this season as well.
News:
New CD
This next few months will see fewer concerts than I’m used to doing. Partly because we need to take some time to rethink/reorganize our business, partly because we’re exhausted, and partly because in the early fall, when I was full of energy, I thought it would be a good idea to start a new recording project in the new year. What was I thinking? I always do this. I plan January in early fall when I’m all adrenalized up in full concert/tour mode. And then when January comes, I’m spent, but committed. So if I could choose, now, I would sit back for a month and try to regain what was spent in the fall. But that wisdom alluded me then and so now I’m preparing to leave for three weeks for Vancouver to begin working on my next CD.
Having said that, I’m quite excited about this next project. My friend Gord Johnson has been writing some marvelous, contemplative (Taize-ish) worship songs that have been sustaining me (and our congregation) for the last several years. I’ve been encouraging him to record these himself but for personal reasons he is reticent to do so. So I’m hoping to use Gord’s songs to give shape to a worship album that will help draw us as individuals, but more importantly, collectively into contemplative space - a space of deep listening and waiting; a space woefully unfamiliar to our culture.
These past several years have been rather disorienting for me. The deep polarization of religious and secular culture that has accompanied the Bush years, along with a fairly traumatic experience of Palestinian life in West Bank (a trip I took a few years back) has left me perplexed and distraught about how to speak of faith and hope (of Gospel) in a way that invites and affirms unity and love without denying the reality of brokenness, real suffering, real anxiety and real disappointment. I’ve also, like so many others, been caught up in concern for the issues of extreme poverty worldwide that simply, given our resources, need not be. My response has been the typical male response: Augur in! Penetrate the darkness! Fix it!! I’ve read madly, researched widely, debated, wrestled, cried, despaired, imagined, vocalized etc. In the end, I think the only thing I’ve accomplished is fatigue.
When I was in Israel/Palestine, in the last few days of my time there, I checked into a monastery in an attempt to decompress before returning home. There was a woman there who had been living (practically as a hermit) for decades…praying. The rest of the faith community living at the monastery rarely saw her emerge from her small hermitage separate from the main living quarters. But while I was there I performed an impromptu concert for the nuns and staff of the place. And this woman, Patricia came out.
I sang for maybe 45 minutes and told my stories like I usually do. I stuck to what I knew and I didn’t attempt to address the raw turmoil in my soul as a result of the experiences I had there. But after the concert Patricia took a seat beside me, gently took my hand and said, "You don’t know why God brought you here. You don’t know what is given to you to do as a result of your experience. Go home and wait. Not for a day or two, not for a week or month, but perhaps a year, or years. Wait prayerfully, expectantly, and patiently. You’ll know when the waiting is over."
Needless to say, waiting was the last thing I did. I suppose I’ve prayed… in a way. But not in the way she meant. Mostly because I don’t know how. And also, I suppose, it’s hard to believe that prayerful waiting, given the current suffering, is even a moral thing to do. But, perhaps Patricia is right. Perhaps there is no wisdom born outside of waiting which in the end, requires trust. And there, perhaps, is the rub. We… no… I, don’t trust. And maybe that’s the worst of sins - from which issues so much error and pain.
All this (I really didn’t intend to get into all this when I started) is to say that the songs I hope to record this next month are all written deliberately and stylistically to help us attend patiently, reverently, and expectantly to God. And maybe, such attending will produce wisdom. Maybe not, but I’m weary enough of my own methods to give this a try, and the hang will be its own reward for sure.
So toss me a crumb of prayer when you can. This project is unique. Usually, a CD is an artistic re-collection of events and experiences shared in a way that is hopefully life-giving to others. This one is the actual experience for me. It is my first real attempt to respond obediently to God’s word offered several years ago through an obscure, lovely soul living silently on a mountain overlooking the city of Jerusalem.
"The challenge lies in the discovery of a church renewed in contemplation, across the cultural frontier of our world. "
- Rowan Williams / Where God Happens
Official Launch of the End Hunger Fast Campaign - Nov. 28
I, several staff of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank and Church pastors from across Canada will be fasting all day tomorrow as we officially launch the End Hunger Fast campaign. (see article in Village Voice)
Ever since Nanci and my trip to Ethiopia last January, I’ve become increasingly convinced that one of the many factors that contribute to the ongoing poverty of millions around the globe is excessive consumption by those of us who live in the west. Although the North America is home to only 20% of the world’s population, it consumes some 80% of the world’s resources. Just in case you’re like me and are inclined to blame this inequity on the rich, it turns out that if everyone in the world were to live a lifestyle comparable to the average middle-class Canadian (that’s me) we would need the land and water resources of five more earths!
So I’m now in the slow process of trying to learn to live with less. Nanci and I sold the extra car and I’m getting used to riding the bus. We took the money we used to spend on the car and used it to add extra insulation to our home in order to consume less energy. I’m more vigilant about turning out lights and using only fluorescent light bulbs. I’m learning to be more conscious about the amount of water I use and I’ve committed myself to a weekly day of fasting.
Of course, this is all rather negligible in the grand scheme of things, but we can hardly ask our government to do more to help the needy or protect the environment (two closely linked issues) if we’re not willing to do these things ourselves. Our government’s job is to represent it’s people, and I suspect it is doing just that, unless we are willing to change.
It’s a start - please consider joining us. Check out the End Hunger Fast website at wwwwww.endhungerfast.com.
Christmas Concert with the Winnipeg Symphony to be recorded and aired on CBC December 24th and 25th!
Click Here to Hear it on CBC Radio 2
http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/singleConcert.html?20071221sbell
I’m now home from the fall Symphony tour and have a couple of weeks to recoup and get ready for eight Christmas concerts with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, December 11-18.
I made the mistake of giving Mike Janzen the liberty to put together a couple of Christmas medleys for the concert. He suggested I do a medley of Christmas carols from around the word which sounded like a good idea at the time. However, the full impact of the fact that these delightful songs would have to be sung in their original languages didn’t really hit me until it was too late to reconsider the wisdom of this idea. So now I’m desperately trying to learn French, German and Spanish songs, and those of you who know me know how ridiculous this is as I can barely remember songs I’ve written myself and have been singing for 15 years. I fear a public humiliation is looming, but I’m working hard at it none-the-less.
A piece of good news for those who would like to experience the concert but are unable to take it in, CBC Radio is recording the concert and airing it on the 24th and 25th of December. We’ll keep you informed as to the exact times the concert can be heard.
Also, Mighty Motion Pictures arranged to film my concert with the Edmonton Symphony (Nov 18th at the Winspear Theatre) and will release it as an hour-long television special early in the new year. At this point it looks as if BRAVO and CTS will air the special. I haven’t seen anything yet but Director Larry Theissen and Producer Colin Murdock are both very happy with the footage and assure me it’s going to be great. Again, we’ll keep you posted.
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The Symphony Sessions CD is finally out and I’ve already performed concerts with various Symphonies across the country. Over the last six weeks I’ve performed with the Calgary Philharmonic, Hamilton Philharmonic, Thunder Bay Symphony and most recently in Edmonton with the ESO. |
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There will always be things you wished you did different but both Dave Z and I are pretty thrilled with the results of this new CD. Neither of us have recorded such an ambitious project before but somehow I think we pulled it off. The whole thing seems to have been blessed from the start and we were helped by some very talented people.
Mike Janzen did all the orchestration and the Winnipeg Symphony’s concert master said to me that these were some of the finest arrangements the symphony has played in thirty years. The highlight for most of us is Deep Calls to Deep, but each song has its own beauty - Mike did a magnificent job.
The songs include: Burning Ember/ Pleasing to You / Dark Night of the Soul / Waiting for Aidan / Even So / Lord of the Starfields / Here by the Water / Eventide / Moon over Birkenau / The Wellspring / Holy Lord - and a couple of others I can’t think of at the moment.
Anyway - it’s a grand recording. I hope y’all like it. And for those who couldn’t attend any of the concerts, a television special of the Edmonton concert will air sometime in the new year. We’ll let you know when.
Me, Mike Janzen, Gilles Fournier and Daniel Roy with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. Rei Hotoda, assistant conductor for the Winnipeg Symphony came with us and conducted each show.
What is food justice? What impact is climate change having on hunger? Is there a role for Christians to play on these issues?
I’m just a learner regarding the above questions, but if you’re interested in following my path, check out the End Hunger Fast campaign I am involved with - a campaign that hopes to motivate Canadians to give more (End Hunger) and use less (Fast). You can view a 10 minute documentary we put together from footage from my recent trip to Ethiopia by going to the Village Theatre on this site. You’ll also find there a music video of a song I wrote with Glen Soderholm in response to the same experience.
Finally, I thought I’d show you the most recent photo of my family: Micah, Sarah, Jesse, Nanci and me.
