For those who appreciate live music with a classic feel, Hermann’s Jazz Club will be featuring Showtune Piano Bar Cabaret later this month. This will be performed by the Diploma Year II and Certificate students from the Canadian College of Performing Arts (CCPA), and presented by the Canadian Heritage Arts Society. However, there will be more on offer than just the jazz the club name brings to mind.
“It’s sort of more show tunes than strictly jazz. There’ll be a real mix of music from Golden Age to all Broadway, classic, and contemporary,” says CCPA managing director Erin Gavaghan, who adds that students have the opportunity to provide suggestions on what pieces are performed. “It’s quite a collaborative element. And it’s quite good fun for them to be able to experiment and choose something that might not have come up in one of their shows or classes, but actually that they want to develop as part of their own personal repertoire.”
The event is a part of the curriculum for graduating students at CCPA to help them become more familiar with working and performing in a live venue, says Gavaghan.
“We work in an incredibly demanding industry and we want to equip our diploma students with a wide variety of skills to take into live performance after they graduate,” she says. “We want to give them the opportunity to perform in a few different venues, and in particular to have the experience of working in a professional venue, which Hermann’s is—a really nice, unique setting.”
Gavaghan says that while CCPA students sometimes work and play in larger venues like the McPherson Playhouse, performing at local music venues gives a more intimate feel, and this resonates with audience members.
“We take them into a venue that has a different feel to a traditional theatre and give them the experience of being able to perform and connect to an audience in that setting,” says Gavaghan. “In previous years we’ve had smaller local venues, and they keep being so popular that we can’t quite put the tickets on sale. So we decided to take the leap and go for Hermann’s this year so that we could actually reach more audience members.”
Live performance provides a more energetic feel, says Gavaghan, which allows students to have a sort of dialogue with a live audience while they’re performing, which creates a give-and-take experience.
“I’m a big proponent of live music and performance whenever possible, because I think it is a really unique thing that enables us to connect emotionally to the work in a much more profound way,” says Gavaghan. “There’s a feeling of being in the room, and the collective experience that you share when you’re in an audience, that is never quite captured the same way in a recording. That’s why you can come and see things more than once.”
The Showtune Piano Bar Cabaret will be performing on two evenings (February 12 and 19), and each performance will be unique, with different students and a different lineup. Gavaghan thinks that fans of live music will be delighted by the events, and says that sometimes a simple live show in an inviting venue is the perfect thing for a winter night.
“It’s a really charming and delightful way to spend a dark February evening,” she says. “It’s an evening in which everyone seems to always leave with a smile on their face. And I feel like an evening that leaves you uplifted is something that should be treasured, particularly in the darkest of winter.”
The Showtune Piano Bar Cabaret
7 pm Thursday, February 19
$30, Hermann’s Jazz Club
ccpacanada.com