Arts & Culture

How a multicultural mariachi band is celebrating Canada’s diversity in song and spirit 

The Musica Singers are getting ready to start summer in style this weekend with their latest solo concert, Awitan. The concert promises a balance of traditional Filipino folk and classical music alongside newer pieces from the country’s evolving musical tradition.  

Lalo Schifrin, the iconic Argentine-American composer celebrated for film and television masterpieces, has died at age 93 on June 26, 2025, from complications of pneumonia, confirmed by his son Ryan.

Born Boris Claudio Schifrin on June 21, 1932, in Buenos Aires, he combined classical training at the Paris Conservatory with jazz roots, later moving to the U.S. where he worked with Dizzy Gillespie before embarking on a film-scoring career in Hollywood. His accolades include four Grammy wins, six Oscar nominations, and an honorary Academy Award (2018) 

One of the most foundational programs at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity is opera, which has been around for the vast majority of the centre’s nine-decade history. Now, that legacy continues with new productions that seek to innovate, explore and imagine a distinctly Canadian iteration of the genre. 

The latest opera program at the Banff Centre is called Interplay, a cross-pollination between opera and chamber music that aims to tell stories on a smaller scale with just as much impact as its mainstage counterparts. 

MCO’s 2025–26 season celebrates strings, storytelling, and bold new voices 

A longtime member of Winnipeg’s music community has been tapped to be the next musical leadership at one of Canada’s most prestigious arts institutions.  

The Centre Culturel Franco-Manitobain will be hosting a celebration of innovative movement and music this week as the Young Lungs Dance Exchange celebrates twenty years of artistic exploration. In celebration of those twenty years, twenty artists from a wide variety of disciplines and experiences with the exchange will be presenting a wide range of works over the course of four days. 

One of the world’s most prestigious showcases for young classical talent is set to return this summer — and Canada will be represented on the international stage.

A crisis is unfolding in Saskatchewan’s classrooms as the Regina Public Schools (RPS) board has approved sweeping cuts to its elementary band program — a move critics say threatens educational quality, equity, and access to the arts. 

Canada sanctions Putin’s star conductor Valery Gergiev in latest crackdown on Russia’s inner circle

The Canadian government has imposed sanctions on famed Russian conductor Valery Gergiev — one of Vladimir Putin’s most prominent cultural allies — as part of a new round of measures targeting Russia’s inner circle and war machine.