Day 1 of 3: Nanaimo Big Band Festival
A Yesteryear of Big Band Swing KICKS off the Nanaimo Big Band Festival 2024
Join the Vancouver Island Repertory Jazz Orchestra for a musical journey through the Golden Age of Swing – when big band jazz was king, the bandleaders wildly popular personalities, the music infectious and swing dancing was life!
Narrated by actor Joelle Rabu, “A History of Big Band Swing” will take you back in time to re-live the music of the greats Big Bands – Duke Ellington, Count Basie, the venerable Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, and Benny Goodman. The Nanaimo Ballroom Dance Society will take to the stage and perform the beautiful dance moves of the era.
VIRJO will perform classic hit songs like “In the Mood”, “One O’ Clock Jump”, “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You”, “It don’t mean a thing if it Ain’t got that Swing” and of course “Sing, Sing, Sing” – all with that pure, original big band sound!
Night One of Nanaimo Big Band Festival 2024 promises to be an incredible night of re-living the amazing music from the 30’s!
Buy a 3 Day Festival Pass or a 2 Day Pass (Friday & Saturday) to SAVE! Call 250-754-8550 for package options.
ABOUT: The Vancouver Island Repertory Jazz Orchestra was created in 2021, with the support of the UJAM Society (Universal Jazz Advocates and Mentors), to fill an artistic void in the Greater Victoria region. Their mission is to promote appreciation of the unique art form of large ensemble jazz through authentic and historically accurate live professional performance. The band is comprised of some of Vancouver Island’s finest professional jazz performers and celebrates the quintessential ‘big band’ sound with a full 17-piece band.
Truly an all-star ensemble, The Vancouver Island Repertory Jazz Orchestra performs as in the house band for the Nanaimo Big Band Festival, held annually in downtown Nanaimo British Columbia. The rhythm section is tight, the horns are crisp and clean and the whole band swings with unmistakeable style, breathing new life into the best vintage music.
With the pandemic restricting many musicians everywhere in 2021, some were using the forced time off to dream, create and plan. VIRJO Band leader, trumpeter Stevan Paranosic, envisioned a new group of musicians that could perform together to not only showcase the amazing talent of the local Island jazz musicians but also pay homage to the incredible big band ensemble compositions and arrangements of past and present. This ‘repertory’ jazz orchestra would play the original sheet music – just as audiences heard it back in the golden big band eras of 1920, 30, 40’s and onward.
Narrator – Joëlle Rabu
Canadian singer-actor Joëlle Rabu has been performing worldwide ever since she first stepped on stage in Vancouver in 1983 with the hit musical Piaf Her Songs Her Loves. For decades, Joëlle and her quartet of musicians toured throughout 5 continents. Joëlle is no stranger to the theatre world, having played myriad stage roles (Cabaret, Irma la Douce, Goodnight Disgrace, Anything Goes, Marion Bridge, Harry Chapin: Lies and Legends, Murder on the Nile to name a few) for professional Canadian theatre companies. She is the recipient of 2 Jessies Richardson theatre awards for her role as Edith Piaf; a BC Touring Artist of the Year award; a Juno nomination for her album Passport; the Nanaimo Arts & Culture Ambassador award; the distinguished Artiste Francophone de l’Ouest honour, and most recently the Governor General’s 70th Anniversary Queen’s Jubilee Arts and Music Excellence Award.
Day 2-May 18th : Ori Dagan’s Rat Pack Songbook
