Summer Events on Sale Now

BANFF, AB, March 7, 2018 – Celebrating 85 years this summer, Banff Centre is expanding its music series with performances that everyone will enjoy. This summer the mountains will come alive as Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity presents an exciting season featuring Serena Ryder; The Sheepdogs; A Tribe Called Red; L-E-V Dance Company; the ground-breaking opera, Orphée⁺; and the always innovative Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creativity.

As part of the 85^th anniversary season, Banff Centre is proud to present 125 eclectic events this summer and with 94 events being free of charge; our anniversary gift to the public. Tickets go on sale March 7 at noon at banffcentre.ca/events.  

“The Banff Centre Summer Events series is always a major highlight of the year,” says Allison Brock, Director of Presenting Arts, Banff Centre. “To be able to present the very best in dance, music, and opera in such glorious surroundings and to such wonderful and receptive audiences is an experience unparalleled. The Summer Events series also serves as a testament to the caliber of artists and the quality of work created at Banff Centre and I find myself filled with gratitude to be a part of it year after year.”

Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity opened during the summer of 1933, as a summer theatre programme that has now grown into one of the world’s largest arts and leadership training institutes in the world.
 

Summer Highlights 

Serena Ryder 
Serena Ryder will kick off the summer season at Banff Centre with a concert in the Eric Harvie Theatre on June 14. Ryder is a one of Canada’s most exciting young contemporary artists and winner of multiple Juno Awards including: Songwriter of the Year and Artist of the Year.

Shaw Amphitheater Outdoor Concert Series 
Experience the best of Canada’s music in open air in the heart of Banff National Park at Banff Centre’s Shaw Amphitheatre. Featuring: Xavier Rudd (June 16); A Canadian Roots Celebration featuring Deep Dark Woods, Barney Bentall, Good For Grapes and Elk Run & Riot (June 30); Blue Rodeo (July 6); Jens Lindemann (July 22); electronic dub-step musicians, A Tribe Called Red (July 29); the guitar driven-blues rock of The Sheepdogs (August 4); indie darlings, Dear Rouge (August 11); and Jesse Cook (August 18).

Opera in Banff
Under the artistic direction of Joel Ivany, Banff Centre is proud to present an eclectic opera season featuring the groundbreaking Orphée⁺ (July 12 and 14). The reimagined production explores the gripping and timeless love story of Orpheus and Eurydice through a modern lens. While staying true to the original score and honouring the traditions of Baroque opera, the production includes a global and virtual chorus and pushes the boundaries of operatic presentation through digital sound augmentation, captivating choreography, video projections, and aerial artistry. Participants of the Banff Centre Opera in the 21st Century program will also present Leonard Bernstein’s classic operetta, Candide (July 15) on the stage of the outdoors Shaw Amphitheatre in celebration of Bernstein’s 100th birthday. The popular series #OperaPub (June 15, 22, 29) returns to the Banff Legion for a 5^th year in a row. Come hear some of Canada’s next great opera singers from the comfort of your bar stool. 

Summer Music Series
Banff Centre’s Summer Music programs build on a legacy of emerging musicians working and performing alongside leading masters of the craft. This summer three Summer Music programs will premiere 12 commissioned works, including world premieres by composers George Lewis, Vivian Fung, Sabrina Schroeder, Peter Evans, Zosha Di Castri, Tyshawn Sorey, and Cris Derksen. The Shaw Amphitheatre will also light up with a special presentation of Oliver Messiaen's Des Canyon aux Étoiles (June 23).

Jazz & Creative Music Series 
Banff Centre could not have two more exciting co-directors at its helm for its landmark international jazz and creative music workshop. Tyshawn Sorey as Co-Artistic Director and Vijay Iyer as Artistic Director will lead the participants in the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creativity as they bring the jazz with nearly nightly shows at The Club and Saturday Night performances.  Featuring shows almost every night between August 7-25.

The Hamlet Complex 
Under the guidance of Emily Molnar, Artistic Director of Dance at Banff Centre, participants in the Creative Gesture Dance Residency will work with internationally acclaimed choreographer Alan Lucien Øyen to present The Hamlet Complex (July 26-28). A reworking of Shakespeare’s classic and canonical work Hamlet, Alan will explore the depth and range of our most essential and basic emotions through contemporary words and movements.

LEV Dance company – OCD Love
L-E-V Dance Company, the name of which includes the Hebrew word for heart (lev), brings matters to the heart to the forefront in their newest production, OCD Love (June 22). The work also deals with OCD, obsessive-compulsive disorder, which repeatedly poses challenges for love and for life. This is a powerful piece created by L-E-V dance company creators, Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar set to pulsating techno beats created by DJ Ori Lichtik.

For more information, visit banffcentre.ca