THE NADEAU ENSEMBLE: A PRAIRIE CHRISTMAS
December 15, 2024
ABOUT THE SHOW
Led by critically-acclaimed harp player, singer and songwriter, Janelle Nadeau, A Prairie Christmas includes holiday favourites like Silent Night, Carol of the Bells and Joy to the World along with storytelling making this show an annual favourite for generations of families across Canada.
This family-friendly show uplifts musicians across a variety of backgrounds and features breathtaking performance of a variety of instrumentation including: harp, cello, hurdy-gurdy, harmonium, nyckelharpa, singing storytelling and more.
We hope you enjoy the joyfulness of the winter season and the storytelling that the Nadeau Ensemble is famous for. Tonight will be an unforgettable holiday musical experience!
JOIN US FOR AN EVERGREEN HOLIDAY TRADITION
MEET JANELLE NADEAU
Janelle Nadeau has earned fans across the country with her magnetic solo performances, which draw from a diverse repertoire of classical, Celtic, original, and contemporary tunes. Warm and funny, Janelle is just as engaging a presence between songs as she is performing them.
Lending her innovative approach to the harp to a variety of orchestras, ensembles and organizations, Janelle keeps a rigorous performance schedule. In addition to her current role as acting principal harpist with the Vancouver Opera Orchestra, she regularly performs with Vancouver’s Turning Point Ensemble.
She has taken the stage with everyone from Diana Krall and Kanye West to the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. She has toured with the Manitoba Arts Network, Home Routes, Celebrity Cruises, and the National Youth Symphony of Canada, and has performed at the World Harp Congress as well as the American Harp Society Conference. And you will still find her on Vancouver’s smaller stages — she continues to play regular weekly gigs all over the city. Her musicianship has been recognized on the competitive circuit as well.
In 2016, she began a new holiday tradition and founded the Nadeau Ensemble: A Prairie Christmas. Janelle then released her holiday album “Star of Night” which received international praise, including an article from The Huffington Post. Many critics referred to the album as a new holiday classic.
Born and raised in small-town Manitoba, Janelle is a prairie girl at heart, and the influence of her roots can be felt all over her 2014 debut album, These Roads. And Janelle knows her way around heavy farm machinery; she still returns home in the summer to work on her family’s grain farm in Fannystelle, Manitoba.
MEET THE ENSEMBLE
Ashton Lim is a Canadian cellist with extensive experience as an orchestral player, chamber musician, soloist, and teacher. He has performed regularly with the Canadian Opera Company (COC), National Ballet of Canada, Santa Fe Opera, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Opera Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and Victoria Symphony. Previous positions include the Sarasota Opera Orchestra and New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida, under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas.
Performances have taken Ashton to venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (USA), Lishui Grand Theatre (China), and Prince Mahidol Hall (Thailand); closer to home, he has performed in the Royal Conservatory’s Koerner Hall and COC’s Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre in Toronto, and the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver.
A passionate advocate for arts education and community engagement, Ashton was actively involved in New World Symphony’s community, education, and audience outreach programs in Miami. He coached students at the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico and mentored students at the Academia Filarmónica de Medellín in Colombia, where he taught private lessons, masterclasses, and coached chamber ensembles. Currently, Ashton is on faculty at the Vancouver Academy of Music, the Vancouver Suzuki Centre, and also oversees the Solo and Small Ensemble Festival as an administrator for the Vancouver Kiwanis Music Festivals.
Born and raised in Vancouver, Ashton studied with Audrey Nodwell at the Vancouver Academy of Music and completed his ARCT in Cello Performance. He holds degrees from Mount Royal Conservatory, University of Calgary, Northwestern University, and the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music. His principal teachers were John Kadz, Hans Jørgen Jensen, Andrés Diaz, and Desmond Hoebig. Ashton has been generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.
MEET THE ENSEMBLE
Vancouver-based violinist Serena Eades’ unique style reflects a lifetime of studying western classical music and various folk idioms – primarily Celtic and Brazilian music. She is known as a member of Delhi 2 Dublin and has performed with Dream Theatre, Alejandro Sanz, Tanya Tagaq, Tony Trishka, Alison Brown, Matt Glaser, Gooral, and more. She has toured throughout North America, Malaysia, India and the UK, playing stages from Burning Man to Glastonbury, San Francisco’s famed Fillmore to Vancouver’s iconic Commodore Ballroom.
Her distinct sound is rich, full bodied, textured, and animated. With a B.Mus. from the Berklee College of Music and many years in the music industry as a performer, recording artist and educator.
EXPLORE OUR UPCOMING MUSIC SERIES EVENTS!
MEET THE ENSEMBLE
Joaquín Ayala is a multi-instrumentalist who discovered his passion for early keyboard instruments after studying Classical piano. Born in Catalonia, he studied through the Royal Conservatory of Music and went on to become a pipe organ and harpsichord specialist, with a focus on Baroque music.
After graduation he attended Early Music concerts throughout Europe, where he discovered the nyckleharpa and the hurdy gurdy, two related keyboard instruments, and was so smitten he immediately started studying both of them. The symphonie is an ancient ancestor of the hurdy-gurdy which sounds like a bagpipe, and is played by turning a crank on the side of the instrument. The bass and tenor nyckleharpas are traditional Swedish fiddles and bowed much like a violin, though played with a series of interlocking keys. Joaquin and his eclectic collection of instruments have been featured on radio, television, and various films, and he has toured extensively throughout Canada.
Joaquin plays the nyckelharpa, harmonium, symphonie and many other instruments in The Nadeau Ensemble: A Prairie Christmas.
LOOKING FOR MORE HOLIDAY FUN?
Joy to the World
We Three Kings
Song of the Birds
The Gift
Child of the poor
Fum Fum Fum
Sleigh Ride *
In the Bleak Midwinter
Peace on Earth
Carol of the Bells
-INTERMISSION-
Kol Dodi
O Hannukah
O Come O Come Emmanuel *
Halsway Carol
Passacagalia
Auld Lang Syne
Baroque Flamenco
Silent Night
*arranged by Jill Townsend
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