The National Arts Centre celebrates New Year's Eve in style -- with your choice of dinner, dancing, and two incredible shows!
December 16, 2002 -
OTTAWA -- On December 31, 2002, the National Arts Centre is
throwing a fabulous New Year's Eve party - and all lovers
of fine food and fabulous entertainment are invited! The special
evening begins with the option of an exquisite dinner, then continues
with a choice of shows: Jesse Cook and Friends in Southam Hall, or
Ian Tamblyn in the intimate Fourth Stage. Festivities reach a
dramatic crescendo with a special post-performance New Year's
Eve Party featuring vocalist
Holly Larocque and the Mark Ferguson Orchestra; all ticket-holders
are invited to join in the post-performance festivities, which
feature sparkling wine, dramatic desserts, and dancing to live big
band tunes until the early hours of 2003!
The National Arts Centre is pleased to acknowledge the generous
support of The Ottawa Citizen as Media Partner for New
Year's Eve 2002.
DINNER beginning at 18:30
The special evening begins with the option of a sumptuous
three-course dinner (including wine) created by the NAC's
Executive Chef Kurt Waldele. The menu includes salad of Chelsea
smokehouse trout
with a shallot vinaigrette and freshly grated horseradish, AAA
Alberta roast striploin on truffled mashed potatoes with Cabernet
Sauvignon sauce or Arctic sable fish on green pea puree with pink
pepper sauce, parfait Grand Marnier on flourless hazelnut cake, and
coffee or tea. Dinner is served in the NAC's spectacular
Panorama Room, and in the beautifully decorated lobbies of the
Mezzanine and Amphitheatre; the cost for dinner is $60 per person
including wine, taxes, and gratuity.
SOUTHAM HALL at 21:00 ~ JESSE COOK and FRIENDS
Passion, energy, virtuosity -- award-winning guitarist Jesse Cook
is a phenomenon. Coupled with fiery performances and his eagerness to
embrace a variety of different musical cultures, his unique brand of
rumba/flamenco rhythms has dazzled audiences around the globe. On
December 31, Jesse Cook ignites Southam Hall at the National Arts
Centre. The Paris-born Cook grew up in southern France and Spain and
now calls multi-cultural Toronto home. A virtuoso of the guitar,
Cook's fluid and eclectic style incorporates exotic sounds and
flavours into his North American reading of the traditional flamenco
style. His unique global sound (Spanish flamenco melded with Cuban
rumba melded with Arabic and African percussion with a splash of
folk, pop, jazz, zydeco, and funk) has made Jesse Cook the most
successful instrumental artist in Canada. Cook has four best-selling
albums to his credit; his latest release, Free Fall, earned
him a Juno Award for best instrumental album as well as a Top Ten
spot on Canadian pop charts for the single Fall at Your Feet.
Jesse Cook played to standing ovations and crowds dancing onstage
last New Year's Eve at the NAC, and his upcoming performance
should elicit a similar reaction. Tickets for Jesse Cook and Friends
are $105, $95 and $85, which includes admission to the
post-performance New Year's Eve party in the main lobby, live
band, dancing, sparkling wine and dessert table. With dinner, tickets
for Jesse Cook and Friends are $165, $155, and $145.
THE FOURTH STAGE at 21:00 ~ IAN TAMBLYN
Ian Tamblyn is a gifted musician, singer, songwriter, playwright,
and producer whose songs about personal relationships and the
mysteries of the heart are beautiful, joyful, and very moving. Ian
has 18 acclaimed albums to his credit, as well as countless theater
and film soundtracks. Ian's travels have taken him from
Greenland to Antarctica, and these adventures often find their way
into song and instrumental recordings. Ian Tamblyn has written nine
plays, including Dreamwalker and Legends of the Northern
Swamp. As a producer, he has worked with many diverse talents,
including Terry Tufts, Chris MacLean, Kim Erickson and Kathryn
Briggs. Ian Tamblyn received the 2002 Estelle Klein Award from the
Ontario Council of Folk Festivals to recognize his outstanding
artistic achievements and his ongoing contributions to Canada's music
community. Tickets for Ian Tamblyn are $65, which includes admission
to the post-performance New Year's Eve party in the main lobby,
live band, dancing, sparkling wine and dessert table. With dinner,
tickets for Ian Tamblyn are $125.
POST-PERFORMANCE NEW YEAR'S EVE PARTY with HOLLY LAROCQUE and
THE MARK FERGUSON ORCHESTRA
The lavish NAC New Year's Eve Party re-creates the
entertainment and excitement of a live 1940's radio broadcast
featuring prominent local vocalist Holly Larocque and the Big Band
sound of the Mark Ferguson Orchestra (thirteen musicians). The New
Year's Eve Party includes sparkling wine and desserts, as well
as a cash bar. Admission to the post-performance party is included
with any ticket to Jesse Cook and Friends or Ian Tamblyn; tickets to
the New Year's Eve Party cannot be purchased separately.
New Year's Eve celebrations take place on December 31, 2002
at the National Arts Centre. Tickets are available at the NAC Box
Office (in person) and through Ticketmaster
(with surcharges) at (613) 755-1111; Ticketmaster may also be
accessed through the NAC's web-site at www.nac-cna.ca.
Artists' Biographies
Jesse Cook
Born in Paris in 1964 to Canadian parents, Jesse Cook came to
Canada when he was three and a half years old. By the time he was
six, Cook was enrolled in Toronto's prestigious Eli Kassner Academy.
After playing and studying in high school, he attended Toronto's
Royal Conservatory and York University for one year each. On a trip
to the south of France in the early 1980s, Cook was introduced to the
music of a fledgling band called the Gipsy Kings. "That's when I got
hooked on that percussive way of playing guitar," recalls Cook. He
continued his training with two years at Boston's prestigious Berklee
College of Music. He returned to Toronto, composing and producing for
a variety of clients, one of which became the unlikely catalyst for
Cook's eventual recording career. Cook had written a snippet of
rumba-flamenco music as background for a Toronto-area TV channel, and
suddenly people were seeking it out. Soon after, he recorded his
first album, Tempest. Even if you've never heard the name
Jesse Cook, chances are very good that you've heard the Toronto
guitarist's music, as each of his releases - 1995's
Tempest, 1996's Gravity and 1998's Vertigo
- made significant dents in world charts. His latest effort,
Free Fall, earned him a Juno award for Best Instrumental Album
and has sold over 100,000 copies in Canada. Jesse Cook is quick to
point out he does not play pure flamenco music. He's more interested
in blending Spanish flamenco with Cuban rumba tradition "to make
something new out of something old." Blending elements of flamenco
with various ethnic sounds does not water down the vibrant genre, it
creates an exciting new hybrid.
Ian Tamblyn
Canadian singer-songwriter Ian Tamblyn has released 18 albums of
original music in a variety of styles. An accomplished lyricist,
vocalist and instrumentalist, he accompanies his singing with guitar,
piano, hammered dulcimer, and synthesizer. His work reflects a love
of nature, a respect for indigenous peoples and a commitment to human
rights. Tamblyn has captured the spirit of many remote and beautiful
parts of the world he has visited, from the Arctic to the Antarctic.
His work explores the interior landscape as well, with songs about
interpersonal relationships and the mysteries of the heart.
Holly Larocque
Holly Larocque ranks as one of Canada's most versatile performers.
Currently starring in the international television series Homes by
Design, Holly made a return to her musical theatre roots as
author, co-creator and star of Past Forgetting, a sparkling
recreation of a World War II troop show in commemoration of the
fiftieth anniversary of the end of the war. She has starred in her
own one-woman show Holly: From Broadway to Brussels at the
NAC, was one of the stars of the 1997 Winterlude Great Canadian
Icebreaker Gala, appeared alongside Karen Kain, Veronica Tennant and
Mary Walsh in the premiere of the prestigious Stage for AIDS, and
co-starred in concert with Broadway legend Carol Channing. Holly's
television credits include her starring role in Under the Umbrella
Tree, seen in world distribution on the Disney Channel, as well
as CBC specials Holly Larocque: It's About Time and
Christmas Holly. She is currently occupied with the creation
and writing of a new lifestyle television series.
Mark Ferguson
Mark Ferguson has been working as a pianist, trombonist, composer,
arranger and producer for over twenty years. He has performed with
many of the world's great artists, including Ella Fitzgerald, Tony
Bennett, Carol Channing, Tom Jones, Natalie Cole and the National
Arts Centre Orchestra. Mark has composed music for the CBC series
Life & Times, Cottage Country, and On the Road
Again; a film score for the Canadian Museum of Civilization
entitled Transformation; Corel's video editing software
Lumière; and many original compositions for various
recording artists. Mark Ferguson has written musical arrangements for
various groups, including the RCMP Band, the Central Band of the
Canadian Forces and his own Latin-jazz ensemble Los Gringos. Mark
toured North America and Japan as a member of the Holly Cole band,
and plays trombone and piano on Holly's latest CD Romantically
Helpless.
