By Joanne Rodgers,
Bruce Peninsula Press
Lion’s Head enjoys a lively music scene with great concerts year round. A popular summer concert is the five-day Lion’s Head Summer Music. In its fourth year, the highly anticipated concert series continued to thrill music lovers.
On July 28 to August 1, 2025, the Lion’s Head Summer Music returned for their open-air evening performances on the Harbourside Stage in Lion’s Head.
World class open air concerts
Co-organizers Dominik Franken and Christine Robinson aimed “to bring classical music in a cool and loose style and free for everyone”. While music composed by the classical masters such as Bach, Beethoven and Mozart were performed, there were contemporary and popular show tunes, along with original compositions from local musicians. The concerts truly offer something for every taste and maybe introduce some new genres. This year, there were returning performances from the Georgian Bay Woodwind Quintet, the Southampton Concert Band and Rosin Dust. To the loyal fans that return year after year, these performers always top the list of favorites.
This year, as with the past years, the organizers achieved a world class concert series with a budget of $5,000. The concert is supported by Municipality of Northern Bruce, Scott’s Home Hardware and Barbara Dirckx Real Estate and donations from the audience.
The beautiful garden of Lion’s Head residents Judith Friend and Gerry Gregory serves as the setting for a catered meal for musicians prior to their performances.
Evening performances receive standing ovations
Every performance received a standing ovation. Patrons expressed their appreciation of the event, describing it as “amazing”, “a treat not to be missed” and “worthwhile coming”.
On July 28, the Georgian Bay Woodwind Quintet wowed the audience with their repertoire of Classical music and more modern show and movie tunes. With varied classical pieces from Klughardt’s Wind Quintet, Ibert’s Trois pieces breves to modern tunes such as Bohemian Rhapsody and the theme from Pink Panther. The quintet are all music educators and are happy to bring music to all ages, especially to the younger audience.
The Southampton Concert Band were able to fit their 45 members on the newly built Harbourside stage. They performed a naval-themed program on July 29, which included music from Disney’s Little Mermaid and Pirates of the Caribbean, from the movie “The Perfect Storm”, a Newfoundland folk song, music from the Jersey Boys and Roger Whittaker’s “The Last Farewell”. Dominik made special mention that “The Last Farewell’ was the last song performed by Ken Hodge, the founder of Harbourside Music. The song was performed by local musicians at Harbourside’s dedication ceremony for Ken Hodge the previous Friday evening.
On July 30, the newly formed Peninsula String Quintet held their inaugural concert on the Harbourside Stage. They performed classical music from composers Mozart, Pleyel and Rachmaninoff.
From classic to jazz was the billing for Day 4, on July 31. Local storytellers Leslie Robbins-Conway and Paul Conway entertained the audience with some original compositions. Music of Bach, Beethoven, John Cage, Nat King Cole and King Crimson were performed by Domink Franken, Dan Corcoran, Christine Robinson, Doug Isman and Nick Ferrence.
Day 5, for closing night on August 1, Rosin Dust was joined by guest musicians Sarah Pratt-Parsamian on violin, Sonja Ostertag on viola and Dominik Franken on viola. The group performed the Paul’s Suite by Gustav Holst, music by Aaron Copeland, Robert Cohen, Ferde Grofe and Jacque Offenbach and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No 6 with soloists Sonja Ostertag and Dominik Franken.
