‘G’ for Ghislaine
by Jane Ledwell

Ghislaine O'Hanley (photo: Alanna Jankov) When I meet Ghislaine O’Hanley, the new executive director of the downtown Charlottetown arts complex The Guild, she is fresh from releasing the pressure on the building’s air compressor. “Every week, it needs to be decompressed,” she said, “or I am told bad things will happen.”

Goodbye Mr. Fitz
by Jane Ledwell

Rowan Fitzgerald (photo: Alanna Jankov) After 30 years as a junior-high instrumental music teacher, 22 of those years at Queen Charlotte, Rowan FitzGerald is retiring. “Mr. Fitz” is a consummate band teacher, so when he decided to retire to be a stay-at-home dad, he says “people were aghast.” But, he says, “It’s no contest. It’s a no-brainer.”

All Heart
by Jane Ledwell

Catherine O'Brien (photo: Alanna Jankov) It seems the things I fear the most, I have to do,” says Catherine O’Brien, gamely. A nationally successful musical theatre performer, she is “absolutely apoplectic at auditions”—a fact that has not prevented her gaining roles in prestigious festivals across Canada, including the Charlottetown Festival, which brought her to PEI. Catherine arrived here in 2000 for roles in Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon on the Confederation Centre mainstage, and, she says, “I not only fell in love with the Island, I fell in love with an Islander.”

The Concertmaster
by Ann Thurlow

Hok Kwan There’s a moment right before the PEI Symphony starts to play. As if on cue, the audience grows quiet. The orchestra members stop their last minute practice. Then, into the silence steps concertmaster Hok Kwan. The audience applauds, as is the custom. The oboe plays a single note. Section by section, Kwan makes sure all the instruments are in tune. Then, the symphony is ready to begin. And, as Hok Kwan raises bow to violin, he  takes yet another step in what has been a long musical journey.

Open Windows
by Jane Ledwell

Susana Rutherford (photo: Alanna Jankov) I’m in the family business,” stained glass artist Susana Rutherford has been known to say drolly, when asked what she does. “I’ve often joked to people I wanted to be an accountant—but I wasn’t a rebel.”

Despite growing up in a family that included visual artists Ambika Gail Rutherford and Erica Rutherford, Susana wasn’t always encouraged to choose a life in the arts. “I’d say my parents were perhaps discouraging of a career in crafts at a certain point. ‘You’ll never make a living with that,’ they said. And you know, they were probably right,” she laughs.