Concert featuring singer/songwriter david sereda
and his songs inspired by Canadian artist and icon, Tom Thomson.  

…can a painter join the landscape: so lost and found, and at last belong?from Open Eye by david sereda

Tom Thomson was unpretentious, unpredictable, impatient, tenacious, a fisherman, a music-lover, a loner, a loyal friend. Clues to the mystery of his life and talent – the true mystery of Tom – are explored through song and story in Songs in the key of Tom.

Some songs paint his boyhood in Leith, near Owen Sound, others find him in Algonquin. Some sing of the mystery in the act of painting. To set Tom and the songs in a context, we use anecdotes and historical facts from his improbable life, and music of his time and ours. The original music by david sereda is drawn from Brush, a music theatre arts residency, and TOM, the original musical by sereda and Joan Chandler. The programme runs about one hour and forty minutes with intermission. If the venue is suitable, the performance could take place entirely acoustically. Or it can be a luscious production.

“Songs in the Key of Tom is a moving but fun concert both for people who know nothing about Canadian artist Tom Thomson, and for experts on his paintings.”Liz Wylie, curator, The University of Toronto Art Centre

“…how amazing and profound and brilliant this concert is – I was deeply moved and inspired. ... It touches something very deep in our collective psyche, just as Thomson did and does.”Robin Pacific, artist

"david sereda sings like an angel and writes like a sinner."Author Michael Ondaatje

To set the songs in a context for the audience, I tell stories about Tom, his family, his times. He was musical and came from a musical and artistic family. He grew up in a time where country people made their own music at home and for each other. His short life spanned this homesteading, first generation Canadian experience to the beginning of the Jazz age, the First World War and the opening up of Algonquin Park to tourists, painters and the Canadian imagination. He led a fascinating life, with no lack of loose ends and strange coincidences. With Tom, the truth is so interesting you don’t have to make things up. Through our performance we celebrate the true mystery of the ever-engaging Tom Thomson – his life and his art.david sereda