Dear Audience,
Are you ready? Arts Orillia is thrilled to launch its second year of programming for the Orillia Jazz Festival!
The one and only Holly Cole performs at Orillia Opera House, Friday October 13th, at 7:30 p.m. Lance Anderson and Jazz Asylum return to the Opera House on Saturday October 14th at 7:30 p.m., accompanied by a stunning ensemble of Jazz dancers from Toronto Metropolitan University as part of our new music and dance IMPROV performance residency. Sunday October 15th at 3 p.m., we debut Strike Up the Band! in which the seasoned musicians of Brassworks play alongside young musicians from Orillia who have been mentored this fall by Alex Dean and Brenda Uchimaru.
Orillia’s downtown will be hopping with Jazz Crawl performances at PICNIC, Couchiching Craft Brewing Co., Lone Wolf, Lot88, Common Stove, and Lake Country Bar & Grill.
In November, please welcome emerging performance maker Rachana Joshi with Lighting Designer, Melissa Joakim performing Moon Child, a work that explores the mythological, symbolic, and personal significance of the moon through Joshi’s Bharatanatyam dance practice. This event is part of Arts Orillia’s Dance&Design creative development residency, in partnership with adelheid’s re:research and design project. Visit us on Friday November 17th at 1pm for a demonstration and discussion with the artists.
We’re delighted to welcome Anishinaabe Algonquin author, speaker and educator S.P. Joseph Lyons to grade 9, 10, and 11 classrooms this November as part of Arts Orillia’s Inventing Utopia — a workshop that explores leadership through creative writing and devised theatre making.
Creative Youth Lab also launches this season at the Orillia Youth Centre. During this afterschool program, participants will experiment with meme creation, animation, digital portraits, digital collage, and more with Arts Orillia’s Design Manager, Sean Rees.
Finally – Showcase was a hit! Special thanks to Laura Kelly, Bonnie Black and Dawn Ellis-Mobbs for such beautiful performances at our season launch and fundraiser. Thanks Rind & Truckle for the refreshments! A shout out to our auction winners, Peter Caldwell and Stephen Mader, Laura Kelly, and Ludek Podhradsky – and to Sue Newman, Lois and Fred Larsen, and Tony Reid and Nancy Harris for your generous gifts. We’re grateful to everyone who offered their time or purchased a ticket – we couldn’t have this dream without you.
Arts Orillia is a registered charity, committed to bringing the arts to life in our community. Fostering the arts requires our community’s support. Please consider donating today:
Looking forward to seeing you this season. For more information about our events, please browse our website: Artsorillia.ca