Phoenix Youth Programs

Stuart McLean is a best-selling author, award-winning journalist and humorist, and host of

CBC Radio program The Vinyl Cafe.

Stuart began his broadcasting career making radio documentaries for CBC Radio's Sunday Morning. In 1979 he won an ACTRA award for Best Radio Documentary for his contribution to the program's coverage of the Jonestown massacre.

Following Sunday Morning, Stuart spent seven years as a regular columnist and guest host on CBC's Morningside. His book, The Morningside World of Stuart McLean, was a Canadian bestseller and a finalist in the 1990 City of Toronto Book Awards.

Stuart has also written, Welcome Home: Travels in Small Town Canada, and edited the collection, When We Were Young. Welcome Home was chosen by the Canadian Authors' Association as the best non-fiction book of 1993.

Stuart is a professor emeritus at Ryerson University in Toronto and former director of the broadcast division of the School of Journalism. In 1993 Trent University named him the first Rooke Fellow for Teaching, Writing and Research. He has also been honored by: Nipissing University (EdD(H)); University of Windsor (Lld) and Trent University (DLH). Stuart served as Honorary Colonel of the 8th Air Maintenance Squadron at 8 Wing, Trenton from 2005 to 2008.

Since 1998 Stuart has taken The Vinyl Cafe to theatres across Canada, playing in both large and small towns from St. John's, Newfoundland to Whitehorse in the Yukon. Close to one million people listen to The Vinyl Cafe every weekend on CBC Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio and on a growing number of Public Radio stations in the United States. The program is also broadcast on an occasional basis on the BBC.

Erin Costelo blends rich layered piano driven compositions with lyrics as often searing as they are sweet on her first full length album Fire and Fuss. Recorded at CBC’s radio H, this album has taken it’s place in a long line of remarkable debut albums from Halifax’s singer-songwriter community. Nominated for a Music Nova Scotia Award and an ECMA, Costelo has captured the strength and fragility of her distinctively low, smokey voice in moody, unique arrangements that blend barrelhouse blues, boogie woogie and 60′s soul with her truthful melody driven ballads to create a sound that is all her own.

Although born in Nova Scotia, Erin spent a lot of time moving from place to place. At the same time she was beginning to read, she started taking piano lessons. Eventually, Erin became diverse in piano playing everything from Bach and Mozart to the Beatles and Elton John. Upon graduation, she decided to turn down a scholarship to study classical music and attend St. Francis Xavier to study jazz piano.Erin burst onto the rich Halifax music scene in 2007 with that self-released EP.

Since that introduction, Erin has performed across the maritimes and has become a highly sought after composer, pianist, and vocalist amongst her peers.She has shared the stage with a long list of the Canada’s new stars including The Skydiggers, The Great Lake Swimmers, David Myles, Rose Cousins, Amelia Curran, Al Tuck, Catherine MacLellan, Thom Swift, Bob Wiseman and Duane Andrews.

Erin currently resides in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her first full length CD Fire & Fuss was released in May 2009 to critical acclaim.“…the melody-driven mood-maker is in a league of her own. Her baritone vocals move through shades of loneliness, deep-sea dives through oceanic sounds of isolation and inspiration, only to bubble to the surface of piano-pop passivity.”- The Coast

J. (John) Chalmers Doane. Educator, administrator, ukulele player, string bassist, b Truro, NS, 3 Nov 1938; B MUS ED (Boston) 1967, honorary DFA (St. Mary's) 2003. He graduated in 1961 from Nova Scotia Teachers' College and later studied string methods with George Bornoff at Boston U. Bornoff's educational ideas have greatly influenced him. During Doane's tenure as supervisor of music for the Halifax School Board (1967-84), he changed school music programs dramatically, using the ukulele as an inexpensive and practical teaching instrument for children and adults.

His unconventional approach, vindicated by the success of Halifax school bands and orchestras in concerts and competitions across Canada, has produced a model of public music education worthy of study by educational jurisdictions elsewhere. From 1984 to 1993 Doane was a professor of music education at Nova Scotia Teachers College. Until his retirement, he was much in demand as a consultant and leader of workshops across Canada and in the USA.

In 2005 Doane was invested as a member of the Order of Canada. He was honored by The Learning Partnership as a champion of public education in 2008, and in 2010 received the Order of Nova Scotia.

Frank MacKay and the R&B Allstars 

In a recent CBC Maritime Radio poll, listeners were asked to vote for their favorite "local" band when they were growing up. The most popular choice, and by a substantial margin, was "Frank MacKay and The Lincolns". Put together in Truro, N.S. in the sixties, "The Lincolns" found their niche playing the music of noted black artists of the day. With powerhouse vocalist "Frank MacKay" leading the charge, "The Lincolns" would cut a swath through it's repertoire of "soul" classics the decade was famous for. Songs like "Hold On I'm Comin" by Sam and Dave, "I Feel Good" by James Brown, and the Percy Sledge masterpiece "When A Man Loves A Woman".

With the demise of "The Lincolns" and wanting to find a more creative outlet musically, Frank joined "Soma", a hand picked band made up of some of the best players Atlantic Canada had to offer. Electrifying stage performances and three top ten records earned "Soma" wide ranging recognition. Throughout the '70's they shared the stage with groups like Chicago, Rod Stewart, Santana, and Sly and The Family Stone, to name just a few. In reviewing "Soma", Peter Goddard of the Toronto Star described Frank's voice as being so powerful "it could cut through a platinum slab".

The 1980's saw Frank make the stretch into the theatrical side of the performance world. "Rock and Roll", based on his formative years with "The Lincolns", and written expressly for him by former "Lincoln" John MacLachlan Gray, had its world premiere in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre. This great stage musical was eventually made into the movie, "The King of Friday Night", with Frank recreating the role of Donnie Parker, earning himself an ACTRA nomination in the process. Frank is also remembered for his critically acclaimed portrayal of the heroic Jean Valjean in "Les Miserables", and for his touching "Gus - The Theatre Cat" in "CATS".

Frank MacKay, "The Rhythm and Blues Dude", continues to astound audiences with his phenomenally talented "R & B All Stars", a saxophone driven, flat-out old fashioned Rhythm & Blues machine, featuring what Frank himself calls "The best music this side of Yesterday".