| Call it a mountain retreat for creative co-mingling. This year, The Banff Centre and its Summer Arts Festival is reaching out to a younger audience, while still maintaining connections to its seven-decade tradition of excellence.
Festival director John Murrell, speaking at Cantos Music Foundation to announce the May to August lineup of more than 168 events, described the festival as an entity for the "emerging, the emerged and the emeritus."
Highlights for this summer’s program include:
·Grammy award-winning Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés, who will unleash his unique style of Latin jazz, on May 20 at the Eric Harvie Theatre.
·Natural Magic – a cabaret style performance featuring the multi-lingual talents of Patricia O’Callaghan at The Club, from July 7 to 9.
·Brassfire – a cacophonous July 8 concert at the Eric Harvie Theatre, created by Canadian Brass luminary Jens Lindemann. The show, on July 8, will feature an 11-piece brass ensemble.
·Red Sky Performance: Shimmer – from July 14 to 16, the Margaret Greenham Theatre will host an all-male cast of Aboriginal dancers from Canada and Australia’s Torres Strait Islands.
·The Magic Flute – Mozart’s 250th birthday celebration continues with another version of the classic opera, this time with the 45-piece Banff Festival Orchestra, August 9 to 13 at the Eric Harvie Theatre.
·Can You See Me Now? – U.K. based group Blast Theory plans to take over Banff from August 11 to 13 with a life-size chase game that Murrell describes as a "one-of-a-kind mixed media-experience." He adds, "It’s kind of like stepping into a state-of-the-art video game and then using your wits to step out again."
·In support of her new album, I’m a Mountain, Sarah Harmer returns to the province again for an August 15 performance at the Donald Cameron Hall Amphitheatre.
For complete information about the 2006 Banff Summer Arts Festival, go to www.banffcentre.ca. |
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