SweetWater Music Festival returns this month to celebrate music and community

Originally published on the Owen Sound Sun Times, September 9, 2026 at 2:24 pm by Greg Cowan.

World class music will be on display in Owen Sound, Leith and Thornbury from Sept. 16 to 20.

Sweetwater Music Festival is celebrating the piano with concerts and collaborations across Owen Sound, Leith and Thornbury.

The Keys of Life, Sept. 16 to 20, features piano-centred programs including two-piano showcases, intimate chamber concerts, and genre-bending collaborations, according to artistic director Edwin Huizinga.

Huizinga said they’re shipping a Steinway grand piano to the area from a Toronto store for the event.

“We’re going to have two grand pianos, one in Owen Sound and one in Thornbury,” he said.

The name Keys of Life nods to Stevie Wonder’s album Songs in the Key of Life. Huizinga toured with Wonder and said it’s one of his favourite albums.

“I think that music unlocks so much in life. Our emotions, and some of your best memories might be going to a concert with a friend, the first time you heard a great recording, going on a road trip and listening to your favourite stuff. Music is often involved whether you know it or not,” he said.

The Tamar Ilana Flamenco Trio – Derek Gray, left, Tamar Ilana and Benjamin Barrile perform during a SweetWater Music Festival community concert in Owen Sound on Friday afternoon. The festival runs until Sunday. (Rob Gowan)

Over the six-day festival, shows and events are scheduled at Georgian Shores United Church, Owen Sound’s Harmony Centre, Heartwood Hall, Grey Gallery, the Historic Leith Church, St. George Anglican Church and Thornbury’s Grace United Church.

Leith Church is where the SweetWater festival began over 20 years ago.

“These small little venues are brilliant,” Huizinga said. “Leith Church, it’s beautiful acoustically. It’s just a beautiful place to play and to be.”

Performers include James Campbell, “Canada’s premier clarinetist,” as dubbed by the Ottawa Citizen; pianist Philip Chiu; violinist Gabrielle Després; bassist Jordan Frazier; pianist Janelle Fung; violist Keith Hamm; cellist Julie Hereish; harpist Antoine Malette-Chénier; violinist Kate Norine; flutist Stephanie Morin; award-winning contemporary chamber music ensemble Payadora; percussionist Ed Reifel and singer-songwriter, composer and pianist Sarah Slean.

Huizinga said part of his job as artistic director is to bring Canadian musicians home to showcase their talent.

“One of my goals as the artistic director is to bring back incredible Canadian talent,” he said. “There is so much incredible art that happens, partly because our country supports art, really, quite well.”

Huizinga is also set to perform. The festival’s artistic director since 2019, he is also an accomplished violinist, fiddler, composer and improviser who performs regularly with the folk and baroque duo Fire & Grace and the internationally acclaimed early music 12-piece baroque ensemble ACRONYM.

The SweetWater shows include Paintings at an Exhibition, scheduled for Sept. 16 at Georgian Shores United Church, where pianists Chiu and Fung will be host to artist Paula Arciniega, who has created 15 large-scale paintings related to the score.

At the sold-out Payadora show set for Sept. 17 at Heartwood Hall, the ensemble Payadora will play “Argentinian‑inspired rhythms, lush melodies, and irresistible groove in an intimate club setting.”

A commissioned piece by Métis and French Canadian composer Ian Cusson, titled Return of the Light, will be performed at the festival. The piece is said to be inspired by the winter solstice, following a village from the year’s darkest day into emerging light.

Cusson is a Collingwood-based composer who has served as composer-in-residence with the National Arts Centre Orchestra and Canadian Opera Company.

Metis composer Ian Cusson. File Photo by Leemarc Lao.

On Sunday, Sept. 20, Carnivals & Rhapsodies is scheduled for Thornbury Grace United Church, where Chiu and Fung, along with the SweetWater Festival Orchestra, will perform Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Saint-Saëns’ The Carnival of the Animals, enriched with newly composed Indigenous-themed movements by William Rowson and Richard Mascall.

TD is sponsoring several free community events, including In Good Company, a wellbeing concert; Music for Munchkins, performances for children meant to introduce little ones to live music in a playful, interactive morning concert; and a classical jam session.

“It gets people in the door who are curious, but don’t want to throw down $40,” Huizinga said about the free community events, noting people often come back the next year to attend the concerts and live performances.

The Next Wave Showcase is a free community event that will take place at the Harmony Centre in Owen Sound on Sept. 20. Audiences can support young musicians at the start of their professional journeys as they perform a range of solo and small ensemble pieces.

The Next Wave musicians are Soyule Chung, Clement Fulton, Olivier Lafleur, Eilidh Nicol, Bridget Walsh, and Aileen Yun.

“Hopefully, when I’m limping around, one of them will become the artistic director,” Huizinga said about the Next Wave concerts inspiring the next generation of performers and artists.

The SweetWater Music Festival began in 2004 as an experiment initiated by founding artistic director and acclaimed violinist Mark Fewer along with Keith and Jean Medley, according to the festival’s website.

Fewer is Huizinga’s former teacher and mentor.

“We were just talking about how special that concert was, and he just released a record of solo Bach, which is what he played all those years ago,” Huizinga said.

Former Sweetwater artistic director Mark Fewer pictured in 2019 with a violin made by luthiers, which they gave to him as a thank-you gift at the Sweetwater Music Festival on Saturday, September 21, 2019, in Owen Sound, Ont. The luthiers are Mark Schnurr, John Newton, David Prentice, Greg Walke and Sibylle Rupert. Scott Dunn/The Owen Sound Sun Times/Postmedia Network.

Today, Sweetwater annually showcases top musical artists from across Canada and around the world in Owen Sound, Leith and surrounding areas.

Huizinga said the sense of community is what makes the festival special.

“You can’t create that. It’s the people that create it,” he said. “It’s just been such a treat.”

For more information, including a full festival schedule and ticket information, visit www.sweetwatermusicfestival.ca.