Ah, singing children! Anyone who knows me knows there's pretty much nothing I like better than a children's choir.

Which is why this event sounds particularly delightful.

On Saturday, Feb. 4, the New Westminster-based Vivo Children's Choir is hosting a concert at the Massey Theatre at 7 p.m.

The concert will be the culmination of a workshop with two other children's choirs - the Langley Children's Choir and the Aubrey Elementary Festival Choir of Burnaby.

Singer and choral conductor Allison Girvan of Nelson will lead the workshop and then perform at the concert

The concert will feature performances by each of the three children's choirs individually, as well as two songs in a large joint choir with some 90 young singers.

Also appearing in the concert as special guests will be the New Westminster Secondary School Chamber Choir.

The concert is by donation.

HELPING OUT

They're supporting performance across the generations.

The Vaudevillians - who bill themselves as "British Columbia's No. 1 seniors' entertainment troupe" - are a group of senior performers, aged 63 to 89, who offer up some 20 performances a year of family-style vaudeville entertainment.

Each year, the group holds a fundraiser in support of a bursary for performing arts students at Douglas College.

On Nov. 12, 2011, they presented the college with a cheque for $7,000 to support the bursary fund, as well as three individual awards for students.

Andrena Greavette and Anne Fraser, performers and board members with the group, were on hand to present a cheque to Douglas College's Hazel Postma.

Kudos to the Vaudevillians for keeping alive the love of performance.

NOVEL LAUNCHED

Looking for some new reading?

Just received word about a New Westminster author who's recently released his debut novel.

Philip Robinson, a native of Dublin now living right here in the Royal City, has self-published The Suicide of Ned Sweeney, which is billed as "a novel about failed dreams, and what you do when the world doesn't give you what you've set your heart on. It's about acceptance of the unthinkable, and searching for reason when all the answers are hidden."

Then again, it's also "a Bonnie'n'Clyde-esque romp through the murky underbelly of Irish crime, accompanied by a sexy redhead and a blood-caked hurley stick."

Sound entertaining? Check out more at www.philiprobinson.net. The book is also available in e-book and paperback formats through www. amazon.com.

Do you have an item for Lively City? Send arts and entertainment ideas to Julie, jmaclellan@royalcityrecord. com.