Media Release

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For immediate release
May 7, 2008
High resolution images available

2008 Banff Summer Arts Festival celebrates 75 years of Inspiring Creativity

Summer at The Banff Centre features more than 150 performances and exhibitions

As The Banff Centre celebrates its 75th anniversary, the 2008 Banff Summer Arts Festival kicks the festivities into high gear, with four months of performances and exhibitions, new creative work in music, theatre, dance, literary and visual arts, and new media. This summer marks a return of theatre to the Banff Centre stage, and a revitalized dance program that will bring the most promising young dance talents in North America to the mountains.

The Centre’s annual celebration of fine and performing arts, the Festival runs from May through August, showcasing more than 150 events in a multitude of artistic disciplines. This year, the Festival will look back at The Banff Centre’s 75 years as one of Canada’s premier arts organizations, while looking forward to the next generation of groundbreaking artists.

The Festival kicks off in May with a raucous, onstage celebration of the 35th anniversary of the Banff Playwrights Colony, hosted by the Centre’s artist emeritus, playwright John Murrell. Then the schedule smoothly shifts to jazz, with three weeks of Saturday Night Jazz concerts featuring guest musicians including Yosvany Terry and the Afro-Cuban Roots, New York-based trumpet sensation Dave Douglas, and the rule-breaking trio The Bad Plus. In early June, more than 400 members of the International Trumpet Guild will descend on Banff, bringing a stellar line-up of concerts by the world’s best trumpet musicians.

The Centre’s stages and outlying venues will ring to the sounds of classical music throughout the summer, with special performances by headliners including the Gryphon Trio (June 13), Jon Kimura Parker (July 5), Anton Kuerti (July 25), Jens Lindemann (July 31), and maestro Lior Shambadal (August 10 and 17).

The weekend of July 3 to 5 marks the annual Gala Weekend — an opportunity for audiences to experience a variety of performances and exhibitions, and bringing a truly festive atmosphere to the Centre’s stages. This weekend will mark the premiere of Red Sky Performance’s anticipated new show, Higher, Faster, Stronger: The Mongolia Project. A music and dance collaboration between indigenous peoples in Canada, China, and Mongolia, the show mixes traditional and modern music with contemporary choreography. The weekend will also feature the 75th Anniversary Gala concert, with pianist Jon Kimura Parker and opera stars Richard Margison and Tracy Dahl.

Late July and early August bring the best of performing arts to the Festival, beginning with two mainstage operas – Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Both productions will be presented with new staging by Kelly Robinson, director of Theatre Arts at The Banff Centre, and accompaniment by the Banff Festival Orchestra, conducted by David Agler.

On August 5 through 9, ballet dancers chosen by the artistic directors of eight top ballet companies will present a week of gala performances as part of the new Banff Summer Dance Program. On the schedule: Balanchine’s Divertimento #15, Peggy Baker’s Julio Luomo, an excerpt from La Sylphide, and new work by the recipient of the 2008 Clifford E. Lee Award in Choreography. Later in August, drama returns to Banff after a ten-year hiatus, with the collaboration between the Centre and Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre. Theatre artists will present a new adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, staging it in Banff before it goes to Edmonton as part of the Citadel’s 2008–09 season.

Wrapping up the Festival on September 5 will be a special presentation of Alberta Ballet’s remarkable collaboration with Joni Mitchell, The Fiddle and the Drum, which will be workshopped in Banff to add new compositions and choreography.

Other highlights for the 2008 Festival include a premiere of new work by Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, a presentation of Théâtre Sans Fil’s surreal puppet fantasy Weaveworld, and outdoor concerts by popular Canadian Celtic folk-rock band Spirit of the West and African vocalist and musician Habib Koité. The Walter Phillips Gallery celebrates the Centre’s legacy in contemporary art with a series of exhibitions, talks, and tours around the theme Bureau de change.

Writers including Sharon Butala, Bill McKibben, Wayne Johnston, and Catherine Bush will present readings and talks throughout the summer, and thinkers including science writer and broadcaster Jay Ingram and CBC Ideas host Paul Kennedy will host spirited discussions on a variety of topics. Audiences interested in adventure and experimental film will find a selection of events hosted by the Centre’s Mountain Culture department — including screenings from the 2007 Banff Mountain Film Festival — and by the Banff New Media Institute, which will present screenings from the annual Women in the Director’s Chair program.

As part of the 2008 Banff Summer Arts Festival, the Banff Centre continues its successful Arts Lover program for audiences. Arts Lover Passes are $99 each, and allow the passholder free entry into most Arts Festival events. Purchase passes or individual event tickets by calling the Box Office at 1-800-413-8368 or (403) 762-6301, box_office@banffcentre.ca.

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High-resolution, downloadable photos of 2008 Banff Summer Arts Festival events

Complete schedule of 2008 Banff Summer Arts Festival events

Background on RBC Youth Excellence Scholarships