The Fort Langley Jazz and Arts Festival is looking for its next Rising Star. Each year the festival, which takes place in July, searches for an up-and-coming jazz musician to be featured. The Rising Star award winner will be given an opportunity to perform in their own featured performance at the 2021 festival. They will also receive a scholarship of $1,000.
Alvin Brendan Trio who performed at the 2020 Fort Langley Virtual Jazz & Arts Festival.
Festival organizers established the annual award in 2019 “to recognize an outstanding jazz student who demonstrates a high level of performance ability and is pursuing a professional career in jazz music.”
“I am very grateful to be given the chance to perform my art and see my name next to many of my local idols that shaped who I am as a musician,” says 2019 award recipient Alvin Brendan, a recent graduate of the music program at Capilano University.
Award submissions are open to all secondary and post-secondary music students from the Metro Vancouver area until March 31, 2021 on the festival website.
“One of our key mandates is to support youth and emerging artists,” says Dave Quinn, artistic director for the festival. “The award is a wonderful opportunity for an up and coming jazz student to perform with and be mentored by established artists, while also receiving financial support for their education.”
For 2021, organizers are planning a hybrid festival featuring in-person intimate events and pre-recorded and live-streamed concerts.
Established in 2018, the Fort Langley Jazz & Arts Festival is a not-for-profit organization whose mandate is to enrich cultural life in the Fraser Valley by bringing emerging and established jazz acts and visual artists to Fort Langley for all to enjoy. The annual festival, held over the last weekend of July, draws thousands of residents and visitors to the streets of the community.
Music on Main is hosting the World Premiere Livestream of Graveyards and Gardens, co-created and co-produced by Caroline Shaw and Vanessa Goodman. This livestream is a part of the PuSh Rally.
Graveyards and Gardens Livestream. Photo by David Cooper
Graveyards and Gardens Livestream
Where: Online When: January 28-29, 2021 at 4:30pm and 7:30pm Tickets: $15, on sale now.
Caroline Shaw, 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music winner, was Music on Main’s Composer in Residence from 2015-2016, where she shared insight, ideas, and beautiful music with audiences, forming a deep relationship with Vancouver. Vanessa Goodman is the Artistic Director of Action at a Distance Dance Society where she uses her choreography as an opportunity to explore the human condition.
In 2016, Caroline (voice) and Vanessa (dance) performed a captivating improvisation presented by Music on Main & Dances for a Small Stage. Now in 2021, these two exceptional artists come together again and with a new work, Graveyards and Gardens.
The performance takes place among 400 feet of orange sound cables and an arrangement of plants—nature and technology being another synthesis the artists explore. Things begin with a long passage featuring an array of sounds—some come from tape decks, some from a record player, some from old Edison wax recordings. What these two artists make will live on, and this live-streamed genesis is, among other things, a powerful display of the creative process.
Caroline and Vanessa are presenting Graveyards and Gardens specifically for online audiences. The four livestream performances will give audiences a chance to witness a visual and sonic album emerge before their eyes and ears; the artists create new ways of interacting with sounds, and bodies, to shape an analog experience that washes over the senses.
Read more about what to expect when you virtually attend the World Premiere Livestream of Graveyards and Gardens.
About Music on Main
Now in its 15th Season under founder and Artistic Director David Pay, Music on Main has presented more than 500 concerts and events, featuring over 1,000 musicians, and 100 world premieres, with daring programming for the musically adventurous. Watch and listen to concerts, festivals, and top-notch videos.
Celebrating the Lunar New Year and ringing in the Year of the Ox, the Coastal Lunar Lanterns display in Downtown Vancouver will feature the works of artist Susan Point and her family of artists starting February 11th.
Eight lanterns with designs from two Indigenous families originating from two ends of the Pacific Ocean will be part of the Coastal Lunar Lanterns – “Family Ties” in 2021.
Musqueam artist Thomas Cannell had been involved in both 2019 and 2020 editions of the Coastal Lunar Lanterns; his mother, the renowned Susan Point, will now lead her family of artists including Thomas, Kelly Cannell (daughter) and Summer Cannell (granddaughter) to be presented in an unprecedented artistic and cultural dialogue with the Pavavaljung family of artists from the Paiwan tribe in Taiwan.
For “We Are A Family”, the project’s artistic vision of family is everything is presented with festival partner, LunarFest Vancouver, LGBTQ2S+ artist Kent-Chan Kusalik. It will be featured for the first time alongside Filipino-Canadian artists Mayo Landicho and Bert Monterona, and returning Squamish artist Cory Douglas, as all of them will join the Lantern City family.
Special AR technology brings these art pieces to life, along with an immersive light show to brighten the long winter nights.
“These lanterns on display are side by side, just like we are as a family. Family, that’s a strong word,” Susan Point told The Lantern City. “Family for us means the ones who will be beside us no matter what happens. We support each other and inspire each other at home and while working together or apart.”
More details about Coastal Lunar Lanterns (formerly with LunarFest, now The Lantern City) will be available online in the coming weeks along with more LunarFest Vancouver programming.
With an update coming this afternoon regarding BC’s current COVID restrictions, it’s understandable that the event list is very light this week. It’s usually a calmer time of year anyway, right after the holidays and before we ramp up for Family Day or Valentine’s Day. There are still a few things to do in Vancouver this weekend, especially if you still have your Christmas tree hanging around:
Join YWCA Metro Vancouver for five hours of music, dance, and fun at the virtual Y Dance-A-Thon to raise funds and spread the word about YWCA programs and services.
Photo by Jeff Vinnick/YWCA
Y Dance-A-Thon
When: Wednesday February 3, 2021
Where: Virtual – Access link provided
Registration:Free. All ages and abilities welcome to participate.
The online event will be hosted by Johanna Ward and led by DJs, including Virgin Radio’s DJ Flipout and YWCA Health + Fitness instructors.
It is requested that participants pledge or fundraise a minimum of $100, but you can also register the as a non-fundraiser. Registrants may also fundraise without taking part in the dance-a-thon or pop in and out of the dance party as they like.
Schedule
3:00pm – Opening Freestyle FUN! with DJ Barron S
3:35pm – DanceFit! with Marissa Lee
4:05pm – Bollywood Bonanza with Rohan D’silva
4:35pm – Family Dance Party with DJ Agile
5:10pm – Learn to Zumba with Jennica Fulton
5:40pm – The Remix Dance Party with DJ Flipout
6:15pm – Hip Hop Hoorah with Natasha Gorrie
6:45pm – Bumpin’ Buti Yoga with Sydney Mayer
7:15pm – DanceFit! Diva Hits with Johanna Ward
7:45pm – Cool Down Calm with Jill Metheral
Funds raised from Y Dance-A-Thon will go towards YWCA essential services and resources to women and their children like housing, violence prevention programs, mentorship, single mothers’ support services etc.
Every year, YWCA supports over 48,000 clients and program participants. Your gift ensures that families across Metro Vancouver can connect with the essential supports they need to be safe, healthy and experience the quality of life they desire.
