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THE CHAN CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS AT
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2017 The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at 20 Text by Jennifer Van Evra CHAN CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
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ANNIVERSARY
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ƛ̓a tə n̓a Chan Centre for the Performing Arts ʔam̓ət ʔi ʔə tə n̓a šxʷməθkʷəy̓əmaʔɬ təməxʷ The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts is situated within the heart of Musqueam traditional territory
If
the passage of time is life’s great teacher, it’s fair to say that the past 20 years at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC have
taught us a considerable amount about the power of the performing arts to educate, uplift, and inspire. Over two decades, so much has unfolded in and around our centre. Here we share with you 20 stories about our journey — just a glimpse into all that has shaped who we are as an organization today. We hope you’ll join in for the next chapter.
Joyce Hinton & Cameron McGill Co-Managing Directors
The Hour Has Come, Chan Centre inaugural concert, March 14, 1997
A Remarkable Gift As the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts neared completion in the spring of 1997, the University of British Columbia decided to hold an early opening ceremony to honour the building’s namesake. Chan Shun, then 80 years old, had lived a remarkable life. As a boy in Shantou, China, he learned to sew, and in his teens he would bike from town to town selling clothing and repairing appliances. In his late 20s he left China and found his way to Hong Kong, where he went from working in a garment factory to heading a global business consortium specializing in clothing and real estate. But his principles always came first. A deeply religious man, Chan Shun believed strongly in sharing his success — a value that he also instilled in his sons and his daughters, as well as his grandchildren. In 1989, his sons Tom and Caleb, in turn, donated the funds that would make the Chan Centre a reality — at the time it was the largest gift to a cultural institution in Canadian history — and dedicated it to their father. Tom worked closely on the project, from the earliest planning stages to final completion. He and Caleb also established an endowment to fund the presentation of events, ensuring the venue would continue to thrive. “My father always felt we are just custodians, and that it is our duty and our responsibility to do whatever we can to help others,” says Caleb. Amazingly, the Chan family had arrived in Canada less than a year before, and with the help of real estate entrepreneur and family friend David Lam, then the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, decided on the Chan Centre project.
“This was one of the first major cultural centres we got involved in. We’ve built hospitals, churches, and schools around the world, but we also feel there’s a lot more than medicine and education,” he says. “To many, many people the arts and culture side is just as important.” Tom and Caleb fondly remember working side by side with their father on the family business when they were young, admiring his character and integrity as he shepherded both the corporate enterprises and philanthropy. Along the way, Chan Shun never lost sight of where he came from, and the challenges he had to overcome, which in turn drove his commitment to give back. “He was, and will always be, the number one gentleman in my heart. His life example is my family’s guiding light,” said Tom from the stage of the 2017 UBC School of Music concert celebrating the Chan Centre’s 20th anniversary. “Many things have changed over the 20 years, yet some things will never change. One of them is, as responsible citizens and stewards, we have the duty to pass on great things and better opportunities to the next generation.” Twenty years earlier, on March 14, 1997, Chan Shun sat in the concert hall on opening night, taking in the breathtaking music and official speeches, including one by Tom in which he echoed his father’s humble teaching: “It is the worthiness of the cause, not the benefit to the donor.” The centre was a remarkably generous gift coming to life, and one that would provide joy, reflection, and learning to millions who would pass through its doors for generations to come. At the end of the evening, Shun, whose health was in decline, smiled and gazed at the audience, then said to his sons: “This is a dream come true.”
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Visionary Architecture Most concert halls are designed around audiences — but one of architect Bing Thom’s primary aims was to create the best possible experience for artists. Thom’s affinity with musicians was deep and enduring. At the age of 10 he immigrated from Hong Kong to Vancouver, where he played in the Kitsilano Boys’ Band and bandleader Arthur Delamont became like a father to him. Although Thom didn’t choose music as a career, he continued to play clarinet and found great joy in live music. “He knew that when the artist walks out on the stage, you have to be inspired to play your best work,” says Bing Thom Architects Principal Michael Heeney, who was instrumental in the Chan Centre’s development. “So that impact was very, very big in how he conceived and developed the building.” Music echoes through what Thom called “the visual acoustics” of the building. The Chan Shun Concert Hall itself is shaped like the inside of a cello, and the wood seats and accents add to the room’s warmth and exceptional sound. Radiating stainless-steel cables resemble the strings and frets of an instrument, providing another subtle musical reference. For a venue of its size, the hall is also remarkably intimate. Because the balconies are stacked rather than reaching backward, the room can hold nearly 1,400 people—and yet the artist is never more than 100 feet from any audience member. “Beauty and functionality are never in conflict. What works and what is beautiful are one and the same thing,” said Thom in a 2002 interview. “Beauty is not something to be applied to something else. Beauty evolves from a deep understanding of need.” The Chan Shun Concert Hall is one of three venues at the Chan Centre. Modelled after the famed Globe Theatre in London, the experimental “black box” Telus
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Studio Theatre was designed to maximize creative options. Twelve three-tier seating towers can be moved to create any number of configurations, while a complex catwalk system provides a wide range of rigging possibilities. Down the hall, the Royal Bank Cinema is a comfortable 160-seat cinema primarily used for academic lectures and film screenings. From the exterior, the building exudes graceful, timeless style. Because of its size — 76,000 square feet over eight storeys — Thom was concerned that it could seem imposing and out of step with adjacent structures, many of which were half the height, so he made several key design decisions. Rather than clearing the site and opening views to Howe Sound, Thom preserved the soaring trees, which made the building seem smaller in scale. Without defined edges, its oval shape makes its size less apparent, too, while the exterior’s diamond-shaped zinc cladding, which changes appearance with the weather, gives the visual sense that the building is receding toward the top. The design also reflects the architect’s deeply rooted reverence for nature, and the interplay between the building and the natural world is a recurring theme. The lighting in the rotunda ceiling is meant to emulate stars in the night sky, while the leafy pattern on the carpet — designed by Thom’s wife Bonnie — echoes the forest floor. But by far the most striking link to the natural world is the floor-to-ceiling glass wall of the lobby. The glass is tilted at a 10-degree angle so that instead of seeing their own reflections, concertgoers look out to the Dorothy Somerset Grove — a grouping of firs and cedars, many over 100 years old. Thom worked with Boston lighting designer Bill Lam to strike the perfect balance of indoor and outdoor lighting so the trees would be clearly visible at night. “I remember seeing these two guys sitting in a room
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with the lights off,” remembers Heeney with a laugh. “They had this model of the glass, and they were playing around with flashlights, trying to figure out what angle the glass could be to minimize the reflections. It was quite fun.” In addition to its bold architectural features, the building boasts myriad smaller but equally thoughtful touches, including the exquisite painting Silent Woods, which was commissioned from acclaimed B.C. artist Gordon Smith, that hangs near the entrance. (It’s actually made up of several smaller paintings, allowing it to follow the curve of the wall.) Centred around a futuristic-looking circular steel and glass sink pedestal, the ultra-modern women’s washroom is so striking that when the Chan Centre first opened, women were bringing their boyfriends and husbands in for a quick look. In the end, the building needed to satisfy a remarkable range of needs, and to act seamlessly as a concert hall, a ceremonial space, a rental facility, a rehearsal hall, and more. Twenty years later, Thom’s graceful design is regarded as a triumph. “The design of a performing arts centre encapsulates everything I love and believe about architecture,” said Thom, whose passion was creating people-focused designs that elevated entire communities. “Like music, a building must always respond to human emotional needs, especially our yearning for the next surprise or the next delight.” Bing Thom died in Hong Kong on October 4, 2016 at the age of 75. The sad news triggered an outpouring of heartfelt tributes from the architecture community, as well as those who had been touched by the convivial architect and his outstanding work. “He inspired other architects to realize that you are doing more than just putting together bricks and mortar,” says Heeney. “You have the ability to change society — and in fact, you have a duty to do that.”
“Like music, a building must always
respond to human emotional needs, especially our yearning for the next surprise or the next delight.� - Bing Thom
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When Santa J. Ono became the 15th President and Vice Chancellor of the University of British Columbia in 2016, his official installation ceremony was held at the Chan Centre. But Ono did more than take the usual Oath of Office: he also provided some of the event’s music, playing cello in a trio on the Chan Shun Concert Hall stage. “I know first-hand, not just as an audience member but as a musician, what it sounds like to project from that stage, and it’s really easy to fill it with a single instrument,” says Ono, who also performed as part of UBC’s 2017 spring graduation ceremonies. “The acoustics are so fantastic.” The building was specifically designed to look discreet and unassuming, but it has become what Ono calls “the heart of the university” — a focal point for music, theatre, film, and ceremonies. It’s an essential asset for students and faculty; but importantly, it’s also one that attracts the wider community.
Heart of the University “Thousands of individuals from Vancouver and the Lower Mainland know UBC because they stepped foot in the Chan Centre,” says Ono. He especially appreciates the understated elegance of the building and its seamless integration with the nature that surrounds it. “It’s really a welcome mat for the university.” Dean of Arts Gage Averill agrees. He says that, in addition to being a busy hub for the Faculty of Arts, the Chan Centre has exposed generations of arts students to performers, authors, and speakers, both local and international, who continually move and inspire. “We have this unique relationship where this hall is a part of an academic mission on campus, and yet it also brings in artists so that our students, faculty, staff, and our communities can experience the quality of the arts,” he says. “That’s something that’s dear to my heart, and it’s important to keep that balance as a part of the life of this institution.” The centre has become so tightly woven into the cultural fabric of the university and the larger region, it’s easy to forget how rare such facilities are in academic settings. In fact, the majority of the world’s most esteemed institutions don’t have anything that can compare, so it has added to UBC’s prestige. “It’s a pillar of what we do as an institution, and I’m so grateful that Tom and Caleb Chan and their family, Bing Thom, and former UBC president David Strangway had the vision, the persistence, and the dedication to build such an amazing facility,” says Ono. “It was an exceptional group of people who had bold ideas about the part a performing arts centre could play. And they made it happen.”
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Since the Kronos Quartet first formed in 1973, the group has been one of contemporary classical music’s most acclaimed ensembles. Along the way they have toured the globe and played hundreds of venues — and founding member and artistic director David Harrington says the Chan Centre is among the very best. “It’s in the very top echelon of acoustic spaces. There’s not even a question about it in my mind,” says the renowned violinist. “And when I think about what it feels like on stage, a few of the spaces that come to mind are the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Carnegie Hall, and the Chan Centre.” The centre is so beloved by artists that many return again and again, among them Mexican-American vocalist Lila Downs, banjo icon Béla Fleck, fado singer Mariza, Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq, and tabla master Zakir Hussain. Harrington says that for artists, the centre is warmly inviting, from memorable pre-show dinners to post-performance receptions, and with its impeccable acoustics and intimate layout, the hall itself is extraordinary. The first time he performed there in 1998, he remembers thinking it was “one of the most amazingly beautiful acoustic concert halls Kronos has ever played.” “A hall is like an instrument — so you’re playing an instrument inside another instrument,” explains Harrington. “It feels like it’s inviting the sound, pulling the sound from your instrument when you’re playing, and you feel supported and encouraged by what you’re hearing.” Lila Downs agrees. The renowned vocalist loves Chan Centre audiences, but she especially appreciates the atmosphere the hall’s design and acoustics create. “It makes all the difference. It brings down your guard, and as a vocalist, you feel like you can really express all the dynamics of your instrument. You can use the softer side of your voice and the more intimate approach to the songs. And the audience is focused on the music,” says Downs. “The musicians really enjoy it because they can hear all the subtleties in their technique, and the emotion is quite different. There are very few halls that are perfect acoustically, but the Chan Centre is certainly one of them.” Venues of the same calibre as the Chan Centre are rare, says Harrington, but he strongly believes they are essential. “Honouring music is a good thing for human beings to do. It’s one of the most wonderful inventions that people have,” he says. “It certainly beats so many things that we see happening in the world — and it sets an example when people band together and make something great like the Chan Centre happen. It sets the bar higher.”
Artist’s Delight T H E C H A N C E N T R E F O R T H E P E R F O R M I N G A R T S AT 2 0 :
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“To be exposed to that higher level of education, and know there’s another world out there, it gives them a dream.” - Karl Graham
Organizing a field trip for an entire elementary school and packing more than 600 kids onto school buses is no small feat — but for participants in the Chan Centre’s Roots and Shoots World Music Education Program, it’s well worth the effort.
A Musical Introduction
First launched in 2006, Roots and Shoots is an outreach program for under-resourced Vancouver-area elementary schools that offers world music concerts in the Chan Shun Concert Hall, as well as six hours of musician-led workshops in each school. Participating artists have included favourites from Vancouver and beyond, among them Masabo, Kokoma African Heritage Ensemble, Dancers of Damelahamid, Cheondoong, Uzume Taiko, Orchid Ensemble, Gamelan Gita Asmara, and Aché Brasil. For the wide-eyed kids, many of whom have never stepped foot on the UBC campus or in a professional theatre, the experience can be profound.
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“They live in the southeast corner of the city, and their parents are working, so they don’t get to see much of the city,” says Moberly Elementary Vice-Principal Karl Graham. “Some of them have never even been to the ocean. So the kids are excited just to be in that space, with the plush seats and the beautiful wood, and then they get to see a great concert.” For educators, the program provides a unique opportunity to introduce kids to diverse cultures and musical styles. It also gives them an inspiring introduction to the UBC campus and its future possibilities.
“To be exposed to that higher level of education, and know there’s another world out there, it gives them a dream,” says Graham, who was among the school leaders Masabo pulled up on stage to dance, much to the young students’ delight. “And to know that we’re being thought of, and that we’re able to participate — it’s just wonderful.”
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Fine Tuning When Bing Thom set out to design the Chan Centre, he knew that no matter how visually stunning the building was, if the acoustics weren’t perfect, it wouldn’t be a success. So instead of first designing the concert hall and then working with specialists on the sound, Thom had acousticians from the world-renowned consulting firm Artec (now Arup) create the optimal sounding space — and then worked the architecture around it. The result is one of North America’s most acoustically refined halls, and one that has served as a model for many others around the world.
The Chan Shun Concert Hall is shaped like the inside of an instrument, with the audience sitting in what is essentially the reverberation chamber, and the walls were bush-hammered to create dents that scatter sound back into the room. Motorized banners are raised or lowered to mask the walls, depending on the type of performance and the size of audience, and can shift the length of time the sound reverberates from 2.75 seconds all the way up to 4.5 seconds.
“If you have a rock band that’s generating a lot of sound energy that you don’t want reflected back, you would have them all down so the sound gets absorbed,” says architect Michael Heeney of the banners. “If you have something delicate like a harpist, you may have them all the way up because you want the sound to be more resonant in the room.”
As well, every room was acoustically isolated using thick neoprene and double walls, so sound from a performance in one venue doesn’t drift into another. The seating layout and even the seating materials were also chosen based on their sonic properties. But the centerpiece of the acoustical design is the 25-ton steel, cork, and wood canopy suspended from the ceiling that, like the banners, can be raised or lowered depending on the type of music being performed. In other words, the hall can be tuned like a musical instrument. Thom ensured that the canopy was visually striking, too — a modern chandelier that audience members can gaze up at as they listen to beautiful music. “Every square foot of the concert hall, every square foot of the ceiling, and every square foot of the walls and the floors, all the dimensions — everything — that is where the acoustics are created,” said Artec’s Russ Johnson, who passed away in 2007 at the age of 84. “This was a true collaboration where Bing took my basic design and turned it into a magical piece of architecture.”
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Well-Orchestrated The moment Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Music Director Bramwell Tovey first stepped into the Chan Shun Concert Hall, he knew it was an exceptional place. “As a musician, you walk into spaces and you can tell immediately if they’re going to be friendly to performance,” says Tovey, who has conducted in concert halls around the globe. “There’s a resonance in the atmosphere, and at the Chan Centre it is immediately apparent.” It’s no surprise: the 1,400-seat concert hall was designed specifically for orchestral music, and has become a second home to many of Vancouver’s prominent classical and early music organizations, among them the VSO, which has presented works from Bruckner’s Symphony No. 5, featuring 150 musicians, to intimate chamber pieces for string quartets. “What’s so great is you can have an unaccompanied violin or solo pianist, or you can pack the stage with performers,” says Tovey. Having the ability to acoustically adjust the canopy and acoustic banners, he adds, is key. “It’s got this terrific versatility.” Early Music Vancouver, under the direction of José Verstappen and now Matthew White, has presented favourite local ensembles such as the Pacific Baroque Orchestra and the Vancouver Cantata
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Singers, as well as esteemed international groups that include the Tallis Scholars and the Choir of King’s College Cambridge.
Vancouver Recital Society founder and Artistic Director Leila Getz says the opening of the Chan Centre marked a new chapter for her organization. “Because of the size and quality of the hall, it gave us the opportunity to present some big classical music names,” says Getz, who arranged the Canadian debuts of Dawn Upshaw, Renée Fleming, and Juan Diego Flórez, to name a few. “It was the spark that set us off on another course.” For a decade the Chan Centre also played host to the beloved CBC Radio Orchestra, which dazzled audiences and produced a string of Juno Award-winning classical recordings. In addition to attracting top musicians and touring orchestras from around the world, the venue has helped to solidify Vancouver’s reputation as an international destination for classical music. “Vancouver really is a classical music city,” says Tovey. “And I think the difference the Chan has made has been incalculable.”
“It was the spark that set us off on another course.”
- Leila Getz
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“We live in this incredibly diverse city,
and we have a very diverse campus, so we really wanted the programming to reflect that.” - Joyce Hinton
The World Plays Here It was an evening Joyce Hinton won’t soon forget. For years the Chan Centre co-managing director had wanted to present Anda Union, a folk music group from Inner Mongolia, and finally in 2017 the stars — and tour schedules — aligned. The group performed its stunning evening concert in the Chan Shun Concert Hall; earlier in the day, they held a traditional dance and throat-singing workshop that drew dozens of enthusiastic participants. Not only were Vancouverites deeply impressed with Anda Union’s Canadian debut: the performers were so touched by the warm reception they received that, at the end of the night, they offered gifts of scarves, jewellery and wine to Hinton and her staff, and serenaded them backstage with a traditional song of gratitude. “It sent shivers. I just felt so moved and touched by it, because I really felt their gratitude and their pleasure at having performed at the Chan Centre,” says Hinton, who adds that the group also wowed kids at a Roots and Shoots concert the following day. “Their manager told me afterwards that they had been considering getting green cards for the U.S., but now they all want to come to Canada.” Every year, Hinton travels the globe, seeking top artists for the Chan Centre Presents concert series. Some are huge stars; others are on the
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cutting edge. At the same time, concert promoters and community organizations from all over the Lower Mainland — among them the PuSh Festival, Coastal Jazz and Blues Society, and the Vancouver Writers Fest — have presented events at what has become one of the most sought-after venues in the city. Over the years there have been hundreds of extraordinary moments. There was the time Canadian dance troupe PPS Danse honoured Lhasa de Sela in a stunning tribute that moved the audience to tears. Or the time Elvis Costello sat on the stage with CBC’s Stephen Quinn and shared personal stories about his musical career and early life growing up in London. Herbie Hancock played with Wayne Shorter, and the house was packed to the rafters with jazz fans — among them Canadian music icon Joni Mitchell. (At the time, Managing Director Michael Noon told Mitchell he would love for her to perform at the Chan Centre, and she reportedly replied, “Well, I paint now.”) During a city strike, opera star Dame Kiri Te Kanawa made a last-minute switch from the Orpheum to the Chan Centre and performed two Vancouver Recital Society concerts, treating fans to an unforgettable evening. Each year over 400 men gather on the Chan Shun Concert Hall stage for the Chor Leoni VanMan Choral Summit, where the room’s acoustics are put to the ultimate test.
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Then there are the smaller in-between moments, many of them tied to education — like the time a handful of bass students huddled in a dressing room taking in advice from Edgar Meyer, or a music student showed cellist Yo-Yo Ma the most acoustically perfect spot on the stage, or a school-aged trumpet player stood in awe as he met his idol Wynton Marsalis. Artists regularly visit classrooms and offer talks and demonstrations, while UBC professors provide concertgoers with musical and cultural context at pre-show talks. Composition students also get in on the action by creating and performing Chan Centre-commissioned fanfares in the lobby. A truly international venue, the Chan Centre has played host to myriad musical genres from across Asia, Africa, Europe, Central and South America, Australia, and even the Arctic. “I really try to bring in top-notch artists that will appeal to our audience, will sound great in our hall, will break down barriers, and will illuminate something about their culture and about their passion,” says Hinton, who has been with the centre from the start, and remembers visiting the site in a hard hat and steel-toe boots. “We live in this incredibly diverse city, and we have a very diverse campus, so we really wanted the programming to reflect that and bring even more people to experience the arts here at the Chan Centre.”
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Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock, March 15, 2015
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“It’s hard to imagine a bad time at the Chan Centre... It’s the best venue in the city.” - Rod Mickleburgh
A Seasonal Affair When a friend invited health-care professional Rhona Charron to see famed Spanish flamenco dancer Soledad Barrio with Noche Flamenca in 2012, she had no idea the evening would spark a tradition that has continued to this day. It was the first time Charron had visited the Chan Centre, and she was so impressed that she, like her friend, became a subscriber to the Chan Centre Presents series. Ever since, they have made each evening a special occasion, often meeting for dinner before heading to the show. While Chan Centre subscribers range in age and musical tastes, they all have a common trait: a sense of musical adventurousness. Charron enjoys the many subscriber perks, but what she appreciates most is catching exceptional performances that she might not
otherwise choose, among them the Punch Brothers, Trombone Shorty, the Buena Vista Social Club, and Cécile McLorin Salvant. “I’ve never been disappointed,” says Charron. She also attends the pre-show talks, which feature experts providing in-depth introductions to the artists as well as the cultural and historical context of their music. “We walk in thinking, ‘Are we going to like this one?’ And we come out loving it.” Like Charron, Vancouver journalist and music lover Rod Mickleburgh and his wife Lucie McNeill are regulars at the Chan Centre and they have attended dozens of memorable shows. “I’ve seen a lot of jazz concerts, but Branford Marsalis was one of the best concerts I have ever seen. I left the hall just buzzing,” remembers Mickleburgh. Seeing opera star
Renée Fleming was also extraordinary. “It was just unbelievable. You could hardly imagine it — and yet there she was. It was unforgettable.”
Mickleburgh believes the centre is remarkable not only for its beautiful design, its acoustics, its sightlines, and its intimate atmosphere, but also for the stellar programming and the vibrant audiences it draws. “It’s hard to imagine a bad time at the Chan Centre,” he says. “It’s the best venue in the city.”
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For UBC graduates, it couldn’t be a prouder moment: walking across the Chan Shun Concert Hall stage to accept their hard-earned degrees from the Chancellor. Every year, roughly 8,000 students take that walk — so many, in fact, that for spring graduation alone, 26 ceremonies are performed over seven days, with another three days in the fall. The Chan Centre has also played host to high-profile ceremonies, including the installation of UBC presidents and the awarding of honorary degrees to renowned international figures — among them Nobel Peace Prize winners the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Shirin Ebadi, and Muhammad Yunus — as well as beloved Canadians including actor Michael J. Fox and children’s entertainer Raffi Cavoukian. In a moving ceremony in 2012, 76 former students who had been removed from their UBC studies during the World War II internment of Japanese Canadians were also given honorary degrees — 75 years later. The surviving students, most in their 90s, as well as their families and representatives of those who had passed, attended to accept the degrees.
A Place for Occasion “That was an amazingly powerful ceremony,” remembers UBC Director of Ceremonies Eilis Courtney. “There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.” Each year there are plenty of touching moments, too, when graduates cross the stage, their parents and loved ones beaming as they mark a major life milestone in a beautiful venue. Since the first ceremony in 1997, more than 100,000 UBC students have shared such moments, as have thousands more from area high schools and post-secondary institutions that rent the hall to host ceremonies. “It’s a lovely way to acknowledge the students. The Chan is so personal and so intimate, and there are no bad seats,” says Courtney. “We want to leave our graduates with a lasting and really positive impression of UBC, and I think there’s no better way to do it.”
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“The wonderful acoustics allow us to hear our dreams, and to refine them.”
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A New Stage
As the official opening of the Chan Centre approached, the excitement within the UBC School of Music and the wider community was palpable.
Jesse Read, who served as the Director of the School of Music from 1996 to 2007, had seen the development from its earliest days. He was on the committee that selected Bing Thom Architects and consulted with the design team about the school’s needs and wants; he visited the site when it was literally a hole in the ground; and he saw the massive steel canopy sitting on the stage before it was plated with gold leaf and raised. “It was astonishing,” he says. Read will never forget that opening night. The music was selected to demonstrate the concert hall’s remarkable acoustical breadth: Robert Silverman and Jane Coop performed Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos in E-flat major; James Fankhauser conducted Canadian composer Srul Irving Glick’s aptly named The Hour Has Come; and a large choir and orchestra performed Beethoven’s magnificent Symphony No.9. “It was such an exuberant, exciting sense right from the beginning,” says Read, who also gave Thom a conducting lesson so he could conduct the concert hall’s very first piece — O Canada. “It was unlike any other space in the city, and it had a world-class presence.”
UBC Faculty of Arts Associate Dean Don Paterson and UBC Project Manager John Anderson played instrumental roles in envisioning and realizing the project, which marked an enormous step forward for the university. “It represented the dreams of everyone beforehand, including Harry Adaskin, who started the School of Music in 1959,” says Read. “It had all the pride you get in a pivotal moment, when you’ve built toward something
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- Richard Kurth
and then you see it finished, and you’re moving to the next stage. It was a stepping stone, and something that simply pushed us into another world.”
That push continues to this day. The school now boasts a 110-member symphony orchestra, symphonic wind and concert wind ensembles, an opera ensemble, and five choirs — including the 200-member Choral Union — as well as several smaller chamber groups that regularly perform high-calibre concerts at the Chan Centre.
“This beautiful place embodies our sense of community in every way: students come together in shared aspiration; faculty and students work together in shared accomplishment; and performers and audience members gather together in shared excitement and delight,” wrote current UBC School of Music Director Richard Kurth in the concert program marking the centre’s 20th anniversary. “The wonderful acoustics allow us to hear our dreams, and to refine them.”
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Innovative design leads to innovative thinking — and nowhere is that more true than at the Chan Centre’s Telus Studio Theatre, which was designed as an experimental space. With 12 tri-level towers that can be arranged in a host of configurations thanks to Boeing technology that allows them to “float” using compressed air, and a complex catwalk system that allows for endless rigging options, the room offers faculty and students from the UBC Department of Theatre and Film a host of creative possibilities. That flexibility has led to groundbreaking original productions, as well as inventive interpretations of Chekhov, Shakespeare, Euripides, and other classics. In a production of Medea, the title character noisily stormed around the catwalk, and when the House of Atreus fell, so did a 22-foot-high wall made of wood slats. In Romeo and Juliet, Tybalt launched his fight against the Montagues with a leap from one of the towers, and Friar Laurence spun fire. For faculty, the 150- to 250-seat theatre has proved an essential research arena where professors can explore how performance space affects the theatrical experience. For set and costume designers, it’s a laboratory that forces them to think outside conventional boxes. The unique configuration also pushes actors, who are surrounded by the towers, to think beyond a typical proscenium stage — and has them looking up, literally. “It’s truly dimensional, because you have people behind you as well as in front of you, and you inevitably have people above you — so there’s a different kind of consciousness that gets inspired in young actors,” says Stephen Heatley, head of the UBC’s Department of Theatre and Film, who jokingly describes the space as a cross-section between Deep Space Nine and a Georgian theatre.
“And once you’ve worked in a different space
like that, and you’re able to manipulate it, it’s going to reframe your thinking.” - Stephen Heatley
Dramatic Innovation
“And once you’ve worked in a different space like that, and you’re able to manipulate it, it’s going to reframe your thinking.”
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Pitch Perfect For UBC School of Music graduate Tyler Duncan, there’s a magical moment that happens right before every performance in the Chan Shun Concert Hall.
performed at the Chan Centre dozens of times since. He also met his wife at UBC, and they both performed in the choir on opening night.
Performers gather in a backstage area that’s nestled beneath the choir bleachers, and they can peer out at the audience members as they take their seats. If people are seated at the rear of the stage in the choral loft, the musicians can even see their feet.
Since the venue opened, the UBC School of Music has performed more than 40 operas on the Chan Centre stage, drawing opera lovers into countless worlds, among them a Mozart garden (Die Gärtnerin aus Liebe), a fiery Offenbach underworld (Orphée aux enfers), and a Swiss psychiatric clinic (The Dream Healer). The opera program has grown from seven singers to more than 100, in large part because of the allure of the centre.
“You already get a feel for the hall, and it’s wonderful because you’re just surrounded by this beautiful space,” says Duncan. “And when you walk out on stage it feels like home.” Now an accomplished opera singer, Duncan has performed with the Metropolitan Opera, the American Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Munich Bach Choir, and symphonies across Canada. He says the feeling of singing in the Chan Shun Concert Hall helped solidify his decision to pursue a career in music, and helped prepare him for the professional world.
“I love seeing students
rise to that stage... they just blossom in that wonderful space.”
“It lets students know what they’re capable of, and gives them the tools to perform in a world-class concert hall. Coming out of university, they already have that experience,” says Duncan, who graduated in 1998 and has
“It took the school by the bootstraps and pulled us up to a whole new level,” says Nancy Hermiston, chair of the UBC School of Music’s Voice and Opera Divisions. “They always say one plays up to the theatre, and it’s true.” For vocalists, what sets the Chan Shun Concert Hall apart is that, because of the exceptional acoustics, singers can hear themselves on stage and can be heard by all the audience members, no matter where they’re seated. “I love seeing students rise to that stage, and rise to the occasion,” says Hermiston. “They just blossom in that wonderful space.”
- Nancy Hermiston
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A Happy Crowd When the three women stood up and started dancing in their seats, veteran usher Jules Sesia knew she had to act. On stage was Angélique Kidjo, the Grammy-winning Beninese singer, songwriter, and activist famed for her powerhouse, rhythm-heavy shows — but the dancing women were blocking other concertgoers. As Sesia approached, the women clearly expected to be told to sit down. Instead, she suggested they move to the side of the stage where they would have more room to dance. “They were thrilled,” says Sesia. “But the story got way better after that.” The dancers rushed to the front, and moments later, Kidjo pulled them up on stage and got each one to perform a dance solo. At the end of the night, the friends were bursting with joy as they stepped into the lobby. “They were clapping their hands and laughing and giggling like kids. It was fantastic,” remembers Sesia. “And one of the women looked at me and said, ‘Did you see me on stage? That was for you.’” Front-of-house staff at the Chan Centre get a unique perspective on everything that takes place there — not only on the concerts, theatre productions, talks, and graduations, but also on the lives of people who come to enjoy them. Sesia has helped panic-stricken parents who lost tickets to their child’s grad ceremony, comforted a visitor in pain from a cancer treatment, and shared in the excitement and anticipation of music lovers who have come from far and wide to see their favourite artists.
“We hold programs and we open the door for people, but there’s a deeper level where we can actually show someone attention, kindness, compassion,” says Sesia, who has worked at the centre since the beginning. “I always tell new staff, ‘If we do our job well, we can turn an ordinary night into something wonderful.’ It’s a place where everyone can feel special.” Sesia was fascinated as Nobel Peace Prize-winner Muhammad Yunus described his groundbreaking system of microfinance that would help loosen the grip of third-world poverty; she was moved to tears when Buddhists led a candlelit prayer; and she was captivated by sounds from big bands to Beethoven’s Ninth. She watched author David Sedaris give a signed book to a young woman who didn’t have enough money to buy one herself, and saw singer Rita MacNeil invite a diehard fan to tea. She even found Atom Egoyan’s sunglasses, much to his appreciation. Along the way, she has welcomed countless new visitors, and gotten to know the regulars who return again and again, glowing as they go out. “I say goodbye to everybody, and especially the ones who know me say, ‘That was awesome. Wasn’t that the best?’” says Sesia. “And I say, ‘You bet, that was absolutely the best.’”
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Silver Screen The Chan Centre is best known as a concert hall and theatre — but it has also been a sci-fi gladiator fighting ring, a superhero nightclub, a trendy luxury apartment, a cafeteria, and a high-tech company office. Thanks to its modern look and flexible spaces, the building is a favourite among film and TV location scouts, and has played host to nearly 100 productions, from Hollywood blockbusters to student films. Halle Berry walked the halls in her catsuit when the Telus Studio Theatre became a futuristic bar in Catwoman. In Josie and the Pussycats, the lobby was transformed into a stunning high-end apartment. In Fifty Shades of Grey, when lead character Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) graduates from college, she walks across the concert hall stage. For the George Clooney film Tomorrowland, the adjacent stretch of Main Mall became the 1964 New York World’s Fair, while the building was filled to the brim with racks of costumes and extras awaiting their big moment. When heartthrob Ryan Phillippe and Tim Robbins did an outdoor scene for Antitrust, a nearby staircase was packed with students trying to catch a glimpse from above; and there was plenty of buzz when the popular Step Up dance film series chose the Telus Studio Theatre for its big finale. Even the stylish washrooms have been used for multiple shoots, and one week, the Great Performers Lounge went from a posh office to a warehouse to a men’s locker room. “It’s amazing what professional set decorators can do. It’s so convincing when you see it,” says Rentals and Programming Manager Wendy Atkinson, who regularly fields calls about the space. “There’s no other venue quite like it in town. That’s why it’s used so often.”
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From the Ground Up To say the least, it was a tall order: to launch and run the newest and most anticipated performing arts centre in North America. Founding Managing Director Michael Noon, however, was up to the task. Over the course of his professional career, he had worked as an architect, been Executive Director of Cultural Affairs for the Ontario government, and, for 10 years, ran Toronto’s St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts. For him, getting a new centre off the ground presented an enticing challenge.
When he arrived in Vancouver in 1995, the Chan Centre had yet to be built, but there was already plenty to be done. As an architect and professional theatre planner, Noon worked closely with Bing Thom during all phases of construction. He also hired dozens of ushers, box-office agents, marketing staff, and a technical crew — a weighty challenge given that he was starting from scratch. (Several of his earliest hires remain on staff to this day, including Joyce Hinton and Cameron McGill, now co-managing directors.) From the most significant choices about programming and equipment to the tiniest details of signage and parking, everything needed to be decided. Noon and his staff pulled it off, winning accolades for artistic lineups that ranged from tenor Ben Heppner to local folk-rock favourites Spirit of the West, and from the Peking Acrobats to the Moscow Chamber Orchestra. The annual Spring Festival drew thousands of Vancouverites to the venue, many for the first time. “I felt it was really necessary to bring in major artists in order to get the place well-known. We had to create an audience, because it isn’t the case that if you build it they will come,” says Noon. “They will come if there’s something to see and hear.” Of course, there were the inevitable glitches, including the time when a bus driver transporting Italian chamber orchestra I Solisti Veneti got lost shortly before the show was to begin, and when acclaimed author Salman Rushdie was turned away at the U.S. border, forcing a last-minute cancellation.
“You’re only as good as the people who work with you, and it was like family,” he says graciously. “That’s a big reason why it was so successful.” When Noon retired in 2002, UBC Pharmaceutical Sciences professor and head of Community Affairs Sid Katz took over the helm, initially as an interim measure until a permanent director was found. Katz, a music lover who had long before been a folk singer in Montreal, ended up staying on for eight years. “To me it was my life coming full circle. I absolutely revelled in it. I loved it,” says Katz, who retired from UBC in 2010. “If you ask me what I’ve most enjoyed being involved with over the years, it’s the Chan Centre.” Katz judiciously built on the foundation that Noon had created, further strengthening the bonds with local music organizations and promoters, attracting new audiences, and growing the financial endowment, created by the Chan family, that allowed the centre to bring in big-name artists who normally wouldn’t play such an intimate venue. Many globally known scholars appeared at the centre to share their perspectives, including Al Gore, David Suzuki, Michael Smith, and Stephen Lewis. Katz also welcomed musicians from around the world, among them Portuguese fado star Mariza and legendary Mexican artist Astrid Hadad. “What brings me joy is when diverse communities come out,” says Katz. “We would book Mariza and the entire Portuguese community would show up. When we brought in Astrid Hadad, the Mexican community would come to see her. I think it’s been a major victory for the Chan Centre and for the university, where people from all over the world come to study and enhance the culture of this country.” But he emphasizes that unforgettable performances aren’t the only thing the Chan Centre provides. “It’s the way people know about the university. Yes, they know about the incredible hospital and the incredible business school and things like that. But what the Chan Centre does is act almost like a lighthouse to bring people from the community into the university,” he says. “And it’s made an important imprint on the lives of people here.”
Still, Noon, who attended every performance during his tenure, set the stage for what would become an internationally renowned centre — but he insists that his team made all the difference.
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Behind the Scenes In a single week, the Chan Centre might play host to multiple graduation ceremonies, a talk between a celebrated anthropologist and a Buddhist leader, a TV shoot, a performance of First Nations spoken word, a film screening, and a high-profile concert. But what visitors don’t see is just how much equipment, skill, and ingenuity it takes to turn those creative visions into realities — and behind the scenes there is a crew of technicians making it all happen.
“They stopped, looked at each other, went back to where they started, put the harpsicord box back on the base, then picked the whole thing up and carried it where it had to be,” remembers Riter with a chuckle. “Once the audience clicked into what was happening, they had a good laugh.” In addition to overseeing the centre’s technical department, Co-Managing Director Cameron McGill is responsible for box-office staff, ushers, bartenders, the maintenance crew, and other operational staff.
There are walls to move, cables to run, microphones to test, visuals to display, webcasts to host, speakers to suspend, spotlights to operate, and innumerable production-specific problems to solve. There are 2,500 square yards’ worth of acoustic curtains to adjust, and a 25-ton acoustic canopy to raise and lower, from as low as 9 feet 4 inches up to 59 feet. The concert hall boasts 1,314 light bulbs, 514 of them in the canopy alone, so changes are a given. Not only does the staff have to master those tasks; they must also keep up with the times and address concerns that couldn’t have even been imagined when the Chan Centre was first designed. “With all of the technology now, a concert isn’t just microphones and instruments,” says Assistant Technical Director and Head Lighting Technician Andrew Riter, who has worked at the centre for 16 years. “It’s three computers, a laptop, a video projector, a YouTube feed and a live Facebook feed, and most of that is going through the audio department.” Riter remembers only a couple of mishaps. One came during a talk by the Dalai Lama when a stagehand accidentally knocked over a music stand and found himself instantly surrounded by security guards. The other involved two crew members who were moving a harpsichord across the stage mid-show — only to discover they only had the top half of the instrument in hand.
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He judiciously manages the maintenance of the building, and arranges for repairs and upgrades as necessary, whether it’s updating lighting and audio consoles, freshening the paint, or replacing hundreds of metres of carpeting that has served the centre since the start. (“Any carpet that had a pile 20 years ago and gets thousands of people going over it on a daily basis,” he says, “won’t have a pile anymore.”) McGill, who graduated from UBC, as did his father and mother, also takes great pride in protecting the building’s original architecture. “The Chan Centre is a beautiful building, and all of us — the university, the province, the city, the students, the faculty, our clients, the arts community — we’re all so lucky to have it here because it’s such a fabulous resource,” he says. “And we want to protect that resource.”
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Inspiration and Creation
“That’s what the arts are about:
pushing boundaries, trying new things, taking risks.” - Wendy Atkinson
One is an author, actor, and playwright who as a child escaped Chile during the Pinochet coup and later returned to join the underground resistance movement. The other is a Welsh/Metis-Anishnawbe dance artist and choreographer who trained at York University and founded Toronto’s MataDanze Collective before relocating to Vancouver. But while their histories may have been worlds apart, when the Chan Centre brought Carmen Aguirre and Olivia C. Davies together to create a piece for Beyond Words — an interdisciplinary performance series — they soon found common ground. “They both experienced significant loss at a young age, and they had other personal connections, which they used to create the work,” says Wendy Atkinson, who curates the series. In the end, the artists built the work around the true story of a woman whose mother was kidnapped during the 1970s Argentinean military dictatorship, and combined it with Davies’ experience. The effect was breathtaking. “This wasn’t something you could plan,” says Atkinson. “It was a very personal, very emotional work.” The collaboration is just one of several groundbreaking pieces the Chan Centre has commissioned. Vancouver writers Aislinn Hunter and Nancy Lee were paired with choreographers Anusha Fernando and Paras Terezakis to fuse writing and movement, while environmental activist Severn Cullis-Suzuki and Inuit vocalist Tanya Tagaq came together in a powerhouse performance that delved into the global sustainability crisis.
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For the Radius series, musica intima and the Turning Point Ensemble collaborated with music collective Nu:BC to premiere innovative new works by Montreal composer Michael Oesterle and San Francisco’s Aaron Gervais — both of them Chan Centre commissions. In 2005, Tanya Tagaq and the Kronos Quartet performed Nunavut, a co-commission with the Chan Centre, the PuSh Festival, CBC, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Canada Council that’s still being talked about to this day. The Chan Centre has also hosted several world premieres, including Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Job oratorio, which featured the CBC Radio Orchestra, and Stephen Chatman’s Earth Songs, which was commissioned to commemorate UBC’s 2008 centennial and featured opera legend Ben Heppner. The 2013 world premiere of Philip Glass’ String Quartet No. 6 by the Kronos Quartet — which included an introductory talk by Glass himself — was extraordinary. Of course, many performing arts venues only present works; they don’t participate in their creation. But at the Chan Centre, helping to cultivate leading-edge art and share timely, topical pieces continues to be a key focus — and one that is aided by the Chan Centre endowment. It’s a leap of faith for all involved — the Chan Centre, the artists, and the audience — but one that has proven to be deeply rewarding. “It’s so gratifying to be able to give artists an opportunity to do something they wouldn’t necessarily do with people they might not necessarily work with,” says Atkinson. “But that’s what the arts are about: pushing boundaries, trying new things, taking risks. And we all do it together.”
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When the Chan Centre was in its earliest planning stages, people initially assumed the site would be cleared to make way for the new building and open up sweeping views to Howe Sound. Architect Bing Thom, however, had a different vision: to design the building around the trees. The picturesque site featured more than 50 towering coniferous trees that were planted as an experiment by UBC forestry professors in the early 20th century, as well as more than 200 mature rhododendrons and azaleas, many of them over 60 years old. Thom worked with legendary landscape architect Cornelia Oberlander to achieve two key ends. First, because many of the trees were more than 100 feet tall, nestling the Chan Centre within them would make the eight-storey building more discreet and less imposing. Second, it would also give visitors views to the trees and the lush plantings, whether they were there in the daytime or at night, in winter or summer. “You can always design a concert hall or a performing arts centre in an urban setting. Seldom do you have a forest setting. Why not play up the forest?” remembered Thom in a 2002 interview. “Why not light the forest at night so that when you come out of the concert hall, you actually feel you’re in a forest? I realized that this would be quite a unique experience.” The azaleas and rhododendrons were moved offsite to the university nursery for safe storage, while the trees were carefully protected during excavation. Miraculously, not a single mature tree was cut down during the building process.
A Lush Landscape Now that forest, which was named the Dorothy Somerset Grove after the inspiring founder of the UBC Department of Theatre, is one of the building’s most beloved and talked-about features, and the view from the lobby continues to make jaws drop. The centre also neighbours the spectacular UBC Rose Garden, and is moments away from the winding trails of Pacific Spirit Regional Park and the rocky shores of Tower Beach. “So many architects just concentrate on the buildings, but I concentrate on the landscape,” said Thom in an interview shortly after the building was completed. “I think if you do well on the landscape, the buildings will take care of themselves.”
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“Playing in all those different sonic zones on that stage, I just thought, ‘Wow, there’s nothing I can’t bring here.’”
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New Horizons
- Zakir Hussain
Of the thousands of artists who have performed at the Chan Centre over the past 20 years, few have appeared alongside as diverse an array of musical configurations as tabla master Zakir Hussain. Born in Mumbai and based in San Francisco, Hussain is revered around the world for his virtuosity and his mesmerizing live performances. Just as exceptional is his adaptability: at the Chan Centre alone, the veteran musician has appeared with Celtic all-stars including Scottish fiddle player Charlie McKerron; banjo icon Béla Fleck and bassist Edgar Meyer; groundbreaking Indian musicians Rakesh Chaurasia, Sabir Khan and his brother Fazal Qureshi as part of the Masters of Percussion project; and jazz luminary Dave Holland with legendary Bollywood composer and vocalist Shankar Mahadevan for Crosscurrents. “When I was playing with Béla Fleck and Edgar Meyer it was almost like a chamber concert. Then when I played with the Masters of Percussion it was thundering. With Crosscurrents there were soft moments, loud moments and pulsating moments,” says Hussain, whose shows consistently win rapturous reviews. “Playing in all those different sonic zones on that stage, I just thought, ‘Wow, there’s nothing I can’t bring here.’” Venues like the Chan Centre are crucial to artists, he says, because they allow for experimentation in a way that far larger or less flexible venues cannot.
“It stokes the fire in terms of finding other avenues to express yourself,” says Hussain. “So it’s a big service that organizations like the Chan Centre provides for artists — to have this avenue available to experiment and grow as musicians.”
The venue also helps music students to grow, he adds, because it allows them to get a feel for a professional stage, and introduces them to touring artists from around the globe. Hussain himself has wowed dozens of UBC students with class visits and workshops, offering invaluable advice and encouraging students to keep learning and expanding their own musical horizons.
Like most musicians who play the Chan Centre, Hussain is impressed by the concert hall’s exceptional acoustics — but he says the venue’s intimacy makes the experience all the more extraordinary.
“For me that intimacy is very important. I like that I can lock eyes with the audience. I can look into their faces and we can connect, and suddenly it feels like you are one with them, like you’re in a living room with your friends and you’re having a conversation. It just makes the music that much more powerful, that much more enveloping, that much more three-dimensional,” he says. “That kind of transformation is one of the most satisfying a musician can experience.”
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THIS COMMEMORATIVE BOOKLET WAS CREATED THANKS TO THE GENEROUS SUPPORT OF THE CHAN FAMILY.
Writing by Jennifer Van Evra I Graphic Design by Lydia Avsec Photography by Ema Peter (2, 12, 22, 26, 34), Don Erhardt (1, 4, 18), Daryl Kahn Cline (6), Hover Collective (28). Sketch by Bing Thom (9) © 2017 Chan Centre for the Performing Arts
Chan Centre for the Performing Arts University of British Columbia 6265 Crescent Rd, Vancouver BC Canada V6T 1Z1 604 822 9197 | chan.centre@ubc.ca | chancentre.com
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THE CHAN CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS AT