To Oscar With Love

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals and events! Like a good sunscreen,

Takin’ Care of Business with Buffy & Bachman

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals and events! Like a good sunscreen,

The Visual Delights of Canada Scene

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals and events! Like a good sunscreen,

The Whimsical Worlds of Emily Cooper

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals and events! Like a good sunscreen,

NAC Canada Scene Preview: Making Treaty 7

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals and events! Like a good sunscreen,

Summer Solstice Indigenous Festival Expands For 6 Days of Cultural Celebration

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals and events! Like a good sunscreen,

The National Arts Centre Brings Family Programming Alive

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals and events! Like a good sunscreen,

Free Programming Highlights at NAC’s Canada Scene

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals! Like a good sunscreen, Ottawa Life

NAC Canada Scene Highlights With Heather Moore

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals! Like a good sunscreen, Ottawa Life

Amelia Curran’s Watershed

 Photos courtesy of Six Shooter Records “Have I over stayed my welcome on the FM radio?  / Did I capture some affection?” asks St. John’s songwriter Amelia Curran on “Stranger Things Have Happened”, a cut from her eight album Watershed. The song doesn’t necessarily suggest the singer is looking to

All About Anne

 Anne of Green Gables fans were out in full force last night at the special screening of the CBC and Netflix co-produced series Anne. Taking place at the beautiful National Arts Centre in downtown Ottawa, guests were treated to a very special evening. The evening started out with guests, young

Songwriter’s Circle is Jewel of the Junos

 Photos by Renee Doiron It is no wonder the SOCAN and Yamaha sponsored Songwriters' Circle is referred to a the "Jewel of the Junos". The event, hosted by the legendary Bruce Cockburn, was held at the National Arts Centre yesterday afternoon ahead of the big show itself.  The setting was

24th anniversary of the Indspire Awards—Indspirational!

 Photos by Renée Boucher Doiron Looking to the past to change the future, the rousing refrain of the 24th anniversary of the Indspire Awards, was evident even before the uplifting showcase that was to come even began. The grinning and the glamorous started to pour into the National Arts Centre

It’s Been Over 30 Years but, for Blue Rodeo, It Hasn’t Hit Them Yet

 Full interview with Jim Cuddy can be heard by clicking above. Photos by Renée Doiron Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor stand centre stage painted by a single spotlight. Surrounding them is another darkened concert hall, before them the adoration of another audience. 33 years down the road they are still

Play It Again, Orchestra! Casablanca, Still a Classic No Matter How Much Time Goes By

 You must remember this. Rick's Café Américain filled with desperate people, smoke and the sounds of an old upright piano. Paris, and the wind through the lovers hair as they ride with the top down by the Arc de Triomphe unaware of the looming deadline on their affair. The foggy runway, tears

Synths and Strings, the Glory of the 80s Goes Symphonic

 The NAC Orchestra is turning the clock back this week to showcase the music of 80s. Those looking for composers like Strauss, Tchaikovsky and Brahms, however, should turn their time machine ahead by a century. Put away your three-piece suits and gowns and break out your florescent day-glo, tease your

The Force Awakens in the National Arts Centre Orchestra

 The theatre lights dim, the screen goes black and the famous line of light blue text fades in: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Then, in a bright flash of yellow, STAR WARS bursts onto the frame and the text scrolls out into the infinite darkness.

Light Up Your Ottawa Life Contest Begins NOW!

 Welcome to Day 1 of our 25 Day Ottawa Life Christmas Calendar.  We'll be updating with a new treat daily so be sure to check under the  OLM Tree to see what's there each day. Now we know these things usually end with a big surprise but we thought why

More than genius honoured as Philip Glass accepts Glenn Gould Prize

 All photos by Andre Gagne. What is a genius? That question itched me throughout the The 11th Glenn Gould Prize Awards concert “The Genius of Philip Glass” at the National Arts Centre on November 26. I know that the good folk who put this tribute together wanted to recognize the

Canada’s Stage to Shine Brighter Than Ever in 2017!

 This morning inside the National Arts Centre the message rang out as loud as a 1st of July firework: in 2017, the NAC will be Canada’s stage. Though the NAC has always celebrated the diversity of Canadian arts since opening its doors back in 1969, next year’s big 150th birthday

Navigating the Rough Waters with Chantal Kreviazuk

 Two mothers share a piano bench, one is a two-time Juno Award winner and member of the Order of Canada, the other is an activist, former television host and spouse of the Prime Minister. Both are beautifully butchering John Denver’s “Leaving on a Jet Plane” like there wasn’t a captive

Get a hit of ‘da Kink in my Hair

 Ever since Jillian Keiley took over as artistic Director for English Theatre at the National Arts Centre, rare has there been a show that does not entertain, whisk you away into another world, make you think, give you a fantastic top-quality theatre experience, or all of the above. The season

20th Annual NAC Gala Brings a New Energy to the NAC

 Gala images by Ernesto Distefano and Andre Gagne. Saturday October 22ND, 2016 marked the 20TH Annual Natioanl Arts Centre Gala, featuring performances by five-time Grammy-winning Canadian artist Diana Krall, in collaboration with Music Director Alexander Shelley and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. This year’s Gala raised almost $725,000 in support

The Mayfair Theatre Ready to Do the Time Warp Again!

 Feature image by Petr Maur. Remaining photos by Andre Gagne. Sam Kellerman slips on some fishnet stockings, adjusts the corset and ensures the midnight black lipstick is applied just right. The mirror doesn’t lie. He looks stunning. He looks like a sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania and, tonight, he’s got

Ria Mae Remains Grounded Through An Unreal Year and a Half

 “It has been an unreal year and a half,” says Ria Mae looking back on a climb that has seen the Halifax singer-songwriter swept up in a whirlwind that often leaves her wondering what time zone she’s in.  The momentum isn't slowing either. For somebody who used to sit alone