As a programmer for City of Toronto’s Cultural Services, Special Events it’s been my privilege to program an eclectic variety of music for appreciative audiences over the past decade. There’s something extra special about holiday season events — seeing the joy on people’s faces and watching children sing along to their favourite carols really warms my heart on what can be frigid winter nights.
For Cavalcade of Lights, presented by Scotiabank, I’ve had the good fortune of working with many outstanding musical directors including Andrew Craig, Brainerd Blyden-Taylor and Adrian Eccleston, and for this year’s event on Saturday (November 27), Wade O. Brown (above).
A talented R&B singer, songwriter, producer and composer, Wade will be leading an all-star backing band including Shamakah Ali (Al Green, The Dazz Band, Chaka Khan) on drums, Rich Brown (autorickshaw, James “Blood” Ulmer, Bruce Cockburn) on bass and Drake’s guitarist, Adrian Eccleston.
Divine Brown hits the mark performing "Sunglasses" on CityTV.
Brown told me he wants to demonstrate “what Christmas means to me” in his opening set of music. For some people, the holidays are all about family, community or food, for little ones it’s the magic of Santa, for others it’s about religion and spirituality, and Brown is giving a voice to all of the above. One number I’m particularly looking forward to is the duet between JUNO winners Glenn Lewis and Ivana Santilli; I’m certain their rendition of John Lennon’s “So This is Christmas” will be hauntingly beautiful.
Other guest artists on the bill this year are R&B/soul vocalist — and another JUNO winner — Divine Brown, above, whose dance remix of “Sunglasses” with Nelly Furtado is burning up the Billboard charts, enchanting singer/songwriter Sarah Slean, and pop star Shawn Desman riding high on his second top-10 hit this year, “Night Like This”. Wade is busy rehearsing with his band and the artists this week in preparation for Saturday night’s big show. He promises a night to remember!
Join us to kick-off the holiday season: for more info call 311 or visit www.toronto.ca/cavalcade
Life-long music lover Natasha Emery started UpBeat Entertainment in 1992 providing music management services for Canadian reggae, world and folk music artists. After spending six summer seasons at Harbourfront Centre’s music programming department, Natasha joined Special Events at the City of Toronto in 1999 and has presented hundreds of concerts introducing audiences to outstanding Canadian talent in every genre.
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