Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival
| July 26, 2012 | to | August 10, 2012 |
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Music at every turn; your favourite composers interpreted with creative new intensity; traditional and fringe alike, performed to the bravos of folk who truly love their song. These are a few of the impressions you’ll take home from Ottawa Chamberfest 2012.
Now in its 19th edition, this year’s two-week international chamber music festival brings together the boldest names in ensemble and solo performance, capped at both ends with the hottest three tickets of the summer concert season.
Join us in Ottawa July 26 to August 10 and live the music.
De la musique à tous moments, vos compositeurs préférés interprétés avec une nouvelle intensité créative, des interprétations – du traditionnel au fringe – applaudies par des mélomanes vraiment avertis … voici quelques unes des impressions qui resteront avec vous après le Chamberfest d’Ottawa 2012.
D’une durée de deux semaines, la 19e édition de ce festival international de musique de chambre rassemble les interprètes les plus audacieux de la musique d’ensemble et soliste du moment, et sera couronnée, au début et à la fin, par les trois concerts les plus attendus de la saison de concerts estivale.
Joignez vous à nous, du 26 juillet au 10 août, à Ottawa, et vivez la musique!
Event Highlights:
- Return of the Bicycle Parade & Flotilla (with the Rideau Canal Festival)
- Late Night concert series
General information: 613.234.6306
General information email: info@chamberfest.com
Locations:
Dominion-Chalmers United Church
355 Cooper Street
Ottawa, ON K2P 0G8
613.235.5143
Saint Brigid’s Centre for the Arts
302 Patrick Street
Ottawa ON K1N 5K5
The Church of St. John the Evangelist
154 Somerset Street West
Ottawa, ON K2P 0H8
Rideau Hall
1 Sussex Drive
Ottawa ON K1M 1M4
The Sacred Space
Beechwood, the National Cemetery of Canada
280 Beechwood Avenue
Ottawa ON K1M 1K5
613.741.9530
On The Web:
Website: www.chamberfest.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ottawachamberfest
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Chamberfest
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/OttawaChamberfest
Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/chamberfest2011
Map:
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Bluesfest and RBC Royal Bank Partner to Ensure the Music Plays On in the Nation’s Capital
[Source: Bluesfest press release]
Ottawa, December 2, 2011 – North America’s premier music festival, Bluesfest proudly announced its long-term partnership with RBC Royal Bank at a media event earlier today. The partnership ensures the music plays on for another five years in the Nation’s Capital and further strengthens RBC commitment to culture in Ottawa.
RBC Royal Bank has always shown a keen interest in cultural initiatives, supporting numerous organizations and events at a grassroots, national and global level. The new five-year partnership with Bluesfest further enhances their rich calendar of cultural and customer driven initiatives in Ottawa and its surrounding communities.
“RBC Royal Bank is proud to partner with North America’s premier music festival because we have two great things in common: we both continue to evolve to provide our customers with the best possible experience, and we are 100 per-cent committed to Ottawa from both a business and cultural perspective,” said Jeff Boyd, Regional President, Ontario North and East, RBC Royal Bank. “This is great news for our customers, for Ottawa and for RBC Royal Bank. We are delighted that RBC Royal Bank and our customers will now be able to benefit from this new partnership and we look forward to growing and enhancing the festival over the coming years.”
“This new partnership will ensure the festival can continue to operate as one of the biggest festivals in North America for many years to come.” said Mark Monahan, Executive Director, Bluesfest. “RBC Royal Bank’s long-term commitment to Bluesfest now allows Cisco to focus its sponsorship on technology enablement.”
Bluesfest was founded in 1994 and remains one of North America’s premier music festivals, continuing to play a prominent role in promoting the Capital Region on a global stage. The 2012 line-up will be announced on April 24th at the official launch event.
Amos bringing new sound to Bluesfest
Jessica Cunha, YourOttawaRegion.ca
Kanata’s Amos The Transparent is set to rock Bluesfest this Saturday, July 16.
Playing on the National Bank stage, the timeslot of Amos’ performance has been moved to 6:30 p.m., from the scheduled 3:30 p.m. As of July 12, Bluesfest organizers had not updated the website with the new time for the band.
The band’s manager confirmed the time change, said Amos guitarist Dan Hay.
“We’re on at 6:30 now.”
Veterans of the major Ottawa music festival the band is excited about adding extra instruments to their set, even with the time change.
Read more on the Your Ottawa Region website: Amos bringing new sound to Bluesfest
Measuring Bluesfest’s mass appeal
As Ottawa’s largest annual music festival gets under way, numbers published by Bluesfest organizers show its broad popularity among local residents.
Elizabeth Howell, The Ottawa Business Journal
During the last five years, 55 per cent of Ottawa’s population has attended Bluesfest.
This year alone, more than one-fifth of Ottawa households will make the trek to LeBreton Flats, according to projections published by Harris/Decima based on surveys of visitors.
Bluesfest brings in 250,000 vistors on average and last year attracted more than 350,000. It brings in $60 million in visitor spending every year.
This year’s edition will bring a big physical change to the venue, as the main stage will now be parallel to the width of the festival site at LeBreton Flats.
Organizers say this will make it easier for patrons to view the stage, which previously was placed in a narrow corridor at the extreme east edge of the field.
Read more on the OBJ website: Measuring Bluesfest’s mass appeal
Bluesfest tunes up its philanthropy efforts for another festival year
Sabine Gibbins, EMC Ottawa East
EMC Events – There’s no singing the blues when it comes to Bluesfest and their giving spirit.
The not-for-profit organization, which is best known for bringing world-renowned and authentic local artists to Lebreton Flats for a summer music festival, is determined to once again reach out to the community through their various local community programs.
AJ Sauve, director of communications for Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest, says giving back to the community is one of the festival’s main roles it indulges in full-time.
“Aside from planning the music festival, Bluesfest does a lot of work in the community,” says Sauve. Take Blues in the Schools for instance. The educational program was created to promote, preserve and perpetuate the art, culture and heritage of blues music, and to examine the music’s influence on other genres. Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest brings artists/educators to Ottawa and partners them with local musicians for a two-week residency in Ottawa-area schools.
The program began in two Ottawa-area schools in 1999 and has since seen tremendous growth. Each spring, visiting artists and educators take part in the Blues in the Schools program to thousands of students in Ottawa schools, providing exceptional in-class training and instruction over a two-week period to students.
Read more on the EMC Ottawa East website: Bluesfest tunes up its philanthropy efforts for another festival year
Ottawa’s 17th Annual Folk Fest as Diverse as Ever
Source: Christine Sirois
Acts ranging from Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq to hip-hop all-stars Arrested Development showcased the diversity of folk music at the 17th annual Ottawa Folk Festival, which ran from Aug. 13–15 and featured over 45 artists from around the world.
“Festivals are definitely akin to summer camp,” said Rolf Klausener, front-man of local indie darling, The Acorn. “You get to see [artists] you wouldn’t really get to see otherwise. It’s generally really relaxed, everyone’s having fun and you’re outside.”
Aug. 13 featured Toronto’s Bruce Peninsula, who combined church-like chants with prog-rock riffs. Tunes like “Crabapples” off of the album Mountain is a Mouth induced foot-stomping and arm-flailing dance moves from young and old alike.
To read more: Ottawa’s 17th Annual Folk Fest as Diverse as Ever
All Aboard the Festival Express! Ottawa Folk Festival To Provide Free Shuttle Service To Britannia Park
The Ottawa Folk Festival is making it easier for music lovers to take in the upcoming 17th edition of their much-anticipated annual event by offering free transportation to and from the festival site in Britannia Park during the August 13 – 15 weekend.
The Folk Fest Shuttle will run all weekend from Café Nostalgica on the University of Ottawa campus to the Lincoln Fields bus station, and then on to the festival grounds in Britannia Park. Festival-goers can catch the shuttle starting at 4:15pm on Friday and 9:00am on Saturday and Sunday, with the last shuttle returning from the festival site to downtown at midnight on each of the three nights. There is no charge for this service.
“We want to make it as easy as possible for people to get to the festival without having to drive,” says Festival Director Dylan Griffith. “Our motivation is partly to work towards our goal of producing a Zero Waste festival by our 20th anniversary in 2013, but also to encourage music fans who don’t have cars or rarely leave the downtown core to check out the fest. And of course we also want to provide plenty of options for folks who like to enjoy a few beers with their music!”
In addition to the Folk Fest Shuttle, the festival site in Britannia Park is served by a number of OC Transpo routes, including routes 16, 85 and 97. The festival site is also situated on the Ottawa River bike path, and the festival offers a free and secure bike lock-up area for festival patrons. While the NCC is doing some construction work on the path near Britannia Park, it is expected that this will involve only minor detours on the route to the festival.
Finally, for those who do chose to drive, the festival offers plenty of reasonably priced on-site parking.
The Folk Fest Shuttle schedule, directions to the site, information on the Ottawa River Bike Path and links to OC Transpo routes and schedules can all be found at www.ottawafolk.org, along with festival performance schedules, artist bios and other festival information.
The 17th annual Ottawa Folk Festival takes place from August 13-15 in Britannia Park and features performances by The Jim Cuddy Band, Calexico, Arrested Development, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Jenny Whitely, The Acorn, Delhi 2 Dublin and many more. For the full line-up, schedules and other information, visit www.ottawafolk.org or call 613-230-8234.
Weekend passes tickets and individual day tickets are available on-line at www.ticketbreak.com, by phone at 1-866-9-GET-TIX or in person at the Ottawa Folklore Centre, Ten Thousand Villages Westboro and all CD Warehouse locations.
After blowing out the candles, the TD OTTAWA INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL ‘Blows its own horn’ after celebrating the most artistically successful Festival ever in 30 years!
From its roots as a weekend-long Dixieland bash to its current status as one of the National Capital Region’s largest annual events, the Festival has been thrilling music fans for 30 summers. Just over 290,000 attended the Festival’s most successful year in its 30-year history in 2010, up by 28,000 from 2009! On Canada Day more than 92,000 attended free concerts, performed by some of the most innovative and cutting-edge Canadian artists at Confederation Park.
More than 850 artists performed in 250 concerts, in 10 different series and in 8 different venues located in the heart of the Nation’s Capital.
“In an industry where success often depends on things beyond organizers’ control, the festival took major risks this year to build for the future, and everything it added worked according to plan.” – Ottawa Sun
Besides the star-studded line-up on the Main Stage there were gems to be found in the successful OLG Stage, Improv Invitational, Friends and the Late Night Jam Sessions at the Crowne Plaza.
“This year, the festival introduced the OLG Tent, a new stage in Confederation Park. Its eclectic, late-night shows were very successful, easily drawing listeners from mainstage concerts that had just concluded. The tent could not hold all who wanted to hear acts such as Bonobo or Gypsophilia.” – Ottawa Citizen
“the Improv Invitational series, experienced the best overall attendance in its five-year history, with some of its best programming to boot.” – Ottawa Sun
“The festival’s nightly jam sessions, run by Ottawa bassist John Geggie, were consistently impressive, with visiting stars such as the saxophonists Joshua Redman and Joe Lovano sitting in to play. An hour or so after the big band of Roy Hargrove finished playing in Confederation Park, the trumpeter and many of his musicians staged a benevolent takeover of the festival jam.” – Ottawa Citizen
Join us next year from June 22 – July 3 as we celebrate the 31st edition of the TD Ottawa Jazz Festival.
17th edition of Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest a massive success
Once again, the Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest saw thousands of fans make their way down to LeBreton Flats Park for twelve days of outstanding music and comedy programming. As always the festival offered something for everyone. From indie punkers Alexisonfire to Tuvan throat singers YAT-KA—along with the likes of Iron Maiden, Further with Phil Lesh and Bob Weir, the B52s, Joan Jett, The Flaming Lips, Rush, Arcade Fire, Crowded House, Great Big Sea, Keith Urban, Weezer, and 250 other acts thrown in for good measure—the festival drew in excess of 350,000 fans.
Over the course of 17 years, the Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest has grown to become the landmark event of the Ottawa summer and one of the top-ten outdoor music festivals in the world, according to Billboard Magazine.
The Massive outdoor event has deep roots in the community and is staged with the help of thousands of community volunteers. In 2010 4,000 volunteers worked 26,000 shifts and contributed over 100,000 hours. Within three days of the line-up announcement all volunteer shifts were filled and registration was maxed out.
The ongoing love affair between the ‘fest and its fans continued in 2010. Audiences were blown away by newcomers to the event such as the John Butler Trio, Caravan Palace, and Dana Fuchs and by rare appearances in Ottawa by the Flaming Lips and Santana, who drew the largest crowds ever seen at the event.
“I’d like to recognize the best music fans in the world—from Ottawa and beyond,” says Mark Monahan, the festival’s executive and artistic director. “Your support means everything to us and keeps us trying to improve your festival experience, year after year.” Monahan added that it was great to have another successful event in the books, and after a week or two off, Monahan and his team are ready to roll up their sleeves and start planning for 2011.
Reggae fest to bring in more Caribbean heat
TIM WIECLAWSKI | METRO OTTAWA
Local reggae fans are in for an unforgettable weekend this August, according to the president of the third annual Ottawa Reggae Festival.
“We hope that the community comes out to support this event,” said festival president Benjamin Williams at the official media launch Wednesday. “We’re geared up and ready to go.”
Williams would not predict how many people they expect attend the festival, but he hoped the lineup would be exciting to the whole city.
Full story: Reggae fest to bring in more Caribbean heat
