Rhythms of Canada Festival Returns for Two Days of Art, Music, Dance, and Celebration
TORONTO, June 23, 2025 /CNW/ - On June 30 and July 1, 2025, the Aga Khan Museum and Aga Khan Park will come alive with Rhythms of Canada, a vibrant, site-wide summer festival. This year's programming focuses on celebrating the diverse artists, organizations, and cultural voices that shape Canada's creative landscape, with co-curated performances that reflect the city's rich pluralism and honour both traditional and contemporary expressions. Featuring an exciting lineup of live music, interactive family activities, delicious food, and engaging cultural experiences, the festival has quickly become one of Toronto's most popular.
From Pakistan to Cuba, Ghana to Toronto, this year's free headlining performances will bring global rhythms to the Main Stage. The diverse lineup includes:
Natasha Noorani – A genre-bending musician and music historian from Lahore, Pakistan, co-presented with Tawoos Initiative.
Narcy – An Iraqi-Canadian artist, educator, and cultural producer based in Montréal.
Persian Alchemy – A Toronto-based ensemble rooted in the Persian maqam tradition, co-presented with Small World Music.
Jorge Betancourt and Café Cubano – One of Canada's first all-Cuban salsa bands, co-presented with Lula Music & Arts.
KAYAM – A Canadian artist blending pop, Afrobeats, and R&B, with influences from East Africa, India, and the UK.
Eagleheart Singers – A renowned Toronto-based drum group from the Moose Cree and Wikwemikong First Nations, sharing over 25 years of powerful performances rooted in song, ceremony, and community.
Solara – A band formed by eight Humber College students as the culmination of the 2024 Intercultural and Creative Music Fellowship hosted in partnership with the Museum.
Gye Nyame Band - A Ghanaian-Canadian highlife group combining traditional Ghanaian rhythms with contemporary Canadian influences, co-presented with Batuki Music Society.
In addition to the headlining performances, the TD Pop-Up Performances Stage will showcase local talents, featuring the Toronto Klezmer Society, Achanté, Luis Anselmi, and a unique Tapestry Jam.
On July 1, the Museum will host special Canada Day events, including:
A live performance by The Band of The Royal Regiment of Canada at 12:30 pm.
A Citizenship Ceremony hosted by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada to welcome new Canadians.
" Rhythms of Canada has become a cherished annual tradition at the Aga Khan Museum. It is one that truly embodies our pluralistic mandate," says Dr. Sascha Priewe, Director of Collections and Public Programs. "Year after year, this vibrant festival brings together people of all ages and backgrounds to dance, sing, and celebrate. It's a powerful reminder of the ability of the arts to bring communities together and bridge cultures, which lies at the very heart of what we do as a museum."
Filled with immersive and engaging experiences for visitors of all ages, Rhythms of Canada will also include:
Creative Workshops – Offered daily, where visitors can try water marbling, jewellery making, or clay tile design. (Paid registration is required.)
Interactive Performances – Where visitors can learn new moves and rhythms in Bollywood dance, flamenco, African drumming, and more.
Local Community Partners – Hands-on activations hosted by community partners, including the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto Zoo, Ontario Science Centre, and the Bata Shoe Museum, where families can interact with their favourite heritage organizations.
Free Museum Admission – Complimentary access to the Museum Collections Gallery, with reduced $10 admission to the current major exhibition, As the Sun Appears from Beyond: Twenty Years of the Al Burda Award.
Delicious Food – A world of flavour from local food trucks and the Museum's on-site restaurant, Diwan.
Family Activities – Fun for all ages, including arts and crafts, face painting, and outdoor games.
To learn more about Rhythms of Canada programming, visit agakhanmuseum.org/roc.
About the Aga Khan Museum
The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, Canada, has been established and developed by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), which is an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN). Through permanent and temporary exhibitions, educational activities and performing arts, the Museum's mission is to spark wonder, curiosity, and understanding of Muslim cultures and their connection with other cultures through the arts. Designed by architect Fumihiko Maki, the Museum shares a 6.8-hectare site with Toronto's Ismaili Centre, which was designed by architect Charles Correa. The surrounding landscaped park was designed by landscape architect Vladimir Djurovic.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Toronto Star
2 hours ago
- Toronto Star
One of Toronto's top indie film venues was facing eviction. Here's who saved it
Toronto's many cinemas can be entered in all kinds of ways — by walking through the street-facing facades of the Revue and the Fox, by riding the long escalators up to the Scotiabank Theatre, or by parking next to the Queensway Cineplex in Etobicoke. But for CineCycle one must walk down an unmarked laneway off Spadina Avenue, just south of Richmond Street, and through weathered green doors hand-painted with the sign 'CINE CYCLE WORK TO RULE.' Eric Veillette is a Toronto-based journalist who documents the history of Toronto film exhibition on Instagram (@thedowntowntheatre).
CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
Rod Stewart shares his thoughts on '51st state' threat with Toronto crowd
Rod Stewart isn't a fan of U.S. President Donald Trump or his threats against Canada, and recently used a concert to amplify his sentiment on the matter. Video clips of Tuesday night's performance on Toronto's Budweiser Stage shows the 80-year-old rock legend sharing his thoughts on Trump's threats to make Canada the 51st state. Stewart's enthusiasm and support for Canada were dished out in the form of a tribute during his finale, where he brought out his dancers and musicians and projected a video above the stage, which he said he found on the internet. The clip in question was an altered version of Gloria Gaynor's 1978 hit 'I Will Survive,' with the lyrics changed to reflect Canada's strength in the face of Trumps threats of annexation, superimposed over images of Canadian landscapes and icons, like TTC streetcars and the Canadian flag. Some of the lyrics include the lines: 'We spent so many nights thinking how you did us wrong, we've banded all together, your tariff made us strong,' as well as, 'You know you're not so great, there's not a snowball's chance in hell we'll be your 51st state,' and 'We have all we really need, we will live without your greed, we will survive.' Stewart and his dancers shimmied on stage as the video played. After the clip was finished, Stewart addressed the audience with gusto. '51st state my f---ing ass,' he told the crowd as he pumped his fist. 'Go on Canada!' Tuesday's concert was part of Stewart's One Last Stop Tour, which featured opening act Cheap Trick. In June, the rock legend had to cancel several U.S. dates as a result of illness.
Winnipeg Free Press
3 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Orchestral expressions
Back in 2004, the front page of the Free Press Arts & Life section (then called Entertainment) ran a glowing tribute by Morley Walker to one of the most august careers in Manitoba's arts sector. Rita Menzies was retiring. Some expected she'd make more time for favourite pursuits — cooking, travel, family, opera, art— especially after such an eventful finale to a long career. The year before, Menzies — who'd been with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra for 24 years as its first general manager — had been tapped to take the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra's reins in an interim capacity. Jeannette Menzies photo Rita Menzies on a trip to Reykjavik, Iceland. On the face of it, the move may have seemed improbable. The WSO was 10 times the size of the MCO and had a $3-million deficit. But Menzies' reputation — her crack command of budgets and structures, coupled with a soft, deft touch for people and politics — preceded her. 'There were a lot of highfalutin people who came in and absolutely burned out within a month,' recalls violinist and WSO concertmaster Karl Stobbe. 'I really have to give (Rita) credit for saving the WSO in a time when people were not sure it could be saved.' Amazingly, the WSO finished its 2003-4 season with a considerable surplus. Walker playfully cast aspersions on her resolve to retire after this success: 'Oh, did she not tell you? She has accepted an honorarium to run the Agassiz Summer Chamber Music Festival in June … But in July, she plans to take it easy. Honest.' What's that saying about best-laid plans? Before long, the retiree was the annual fest's director, a role she held for a full 11 years. She also returned as the WSO's interim executive director in 2006 and served as Agassiz's board president until her death in June at 83, after a short battle with cancer. 'How fitting that Rita worked in the frontline of Winnipeg's arts community until a few weeks before her passing — she was always keen to contribute and to help others,' says Agassiz artistic director Paul Marleyn. 'She developed (Agassiz) and she worked every day — her famous and proudly Mennonite work ethic. Rita had extraordinary values, values about which she never preached.' Jennifer Menzies Photo At Ponemah Beach, Menzies and granddaughter Olivia work on art projects. Menzies took up drawing and watercolour painting in retirement. Rita Menzies' career charts the rise of a certain type of pillar in Manitoba's arts and cultural life. The late 1960s and early 1970s were a coming-of-age for Canadian culture, with the government using the Centennial to invest heavily in the sector. However, the path to the MCO's emergence was often far from smooth. For seven lively years, the MCO (founded in 1972) was administered as a volunteer-driven passion project, operating out of insurance manager Bill Stewart's office. 'Maybe I was paying more time to the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra than I was to my business,' says Stewart with a chuckle. 'It became apparent … that we would have to get some kind of administrative help.' MCO's early history is hard to separate from Westminster United Church — a stronghold of a broadly liberal Protestantism, known for its deep love of classical music. Its congregation criss-crossed with MCO's audience and with its beautiful acoustics and central location, the church eventually became the organization's primary venue. It had a celebrated organist in Don Menzies, who held the post from 1966 until 2022. Just down the road, his wife Rita — born in Kitchener, Ont., in 1942 — taught math and English at Kelvin High School. She was also an accomplished organist and her musical passion was about to make its way to the centre of things. Jeannette Menzies photo Menzies (right) with her husband Don in France. Though technically retired, Menzies ran the Agassiz Summer Chamber Music Festival for eleven years. By the late 1970s the MCO was operating out of another makeshift office. The hum of a typewriter — clattering out accounting reports, marketing plans and musician contracts — filled the basement. 'I have vivid memories of a filing cabinet and card table propped up in the laundry room,' recalls Jeannette Menzies, a Canadian diplomat, former ambassador to Iceland and Rita's daughter. 'We loved having her around when we were young and hearing the sounds of classical music at home.' But for Menzies, juggling a young family — which included daughters Tanis and Jennifer as well as Jeannette – was only half of it. As well having suddenly traded in English lit for budget sheets, Menzies had to learn and quickly master the art of balancing those budgets. 'She told me once that the first thing she did every morning was read the entire business section of the Winnipeg Free Press,' says Stobbe, who got to know Menzies in the 1990s while playing with the MCO. JOE BRYKSA/FREE PRESS In 2003, Menzies (right) moved from the MCO to the struggling WSO as Interim Director, seen here in 2004 with violinist Claudine St Arnauld. Potential funders, donors and board members — Menzies was, by all accounts, always on the hunt for allies and resources to better the organizations she led. With its footing now secure, the MCO could find a proper office and finally start delegating. By the 1990s, the orchestra had hired Elise Anderson as its office manager, Jon Snidal as its designer and systems manager and violinist Boyd MacKenzie as its concert manager. 'Find(ing) good people. That was a real strength of hers,' says Vicki Young, Menzies' successor at the MCO. 'To bring on people like Elise and Jon and Boyd — I think is pretty incredible.' All of them are still associated with the MCO in some way, while today a new generation of staff and musicians carries the torch, including Sean McManus, executive director since 2023. The original team supported the orchestra through a showing at the Winter Olympics in Calgary, tours across the world and countless commissions of new Canadian music. Supplied Menzies was an accomplished organist, which can be traced back to her early practice sessions at the family piano. The MCO was also earning a rep as a solid stop for famous touring soloists, with Joshua Bell, Marc-André Hamelin and Liona Boyd all sharing the stage with the orchestra in those years. When Young assumed the MCO's reins in 2003, she had a rarity in her hands: a classical ensemble with loyal employees and musicians, a consistent streak of balanced budgets and a deeply engaged, supportive audience base. '(Rita) was always thinking ahead and setting a really good foundation for what was to come,' says Young. Over the next 20 years, the MCO saw a continued streak of balanced budgets, more growth and further professionalization of its board, touring and movement towards more multicultural priorities. It benefited not just from Menzies' foundation but something more ineffable. Menzies was valedictorian at her Grade 12 graduation. Veteran staff will tell you about a cultural throughline at the MCO — a democratic ethos with a strong, trusted leader acting as first among equals — that they trace back to Menzies. 'She was described as kind of having a calming effect on an organization,' says her daughter Jeannette. 'I saw her as a trailblazer. But I think my mom would probably be mortified (to hear that) because she really would give equal credit to Jon, Elise and others.' Though Menzies' so-called retirement was packed with Agassiz commitments and volunteer work, her tireless sense of industry found rhythm in the pastimes she loved most. She was known as an extraordinary cook and a lifelong learner, picking up watercolour painting in retirement. As a consummate hostess and longtime member of the Westminster Concert Organ Series Committee (founded by her husband in 1989 and running until the pandemic), she prepared many dinners for guest organists and the receptions following concerts. The couple sometimes oriented their many trips across the world around performance opportunities for Don and made regular pilgrimages to the Ottawa area to see their granddaughters, Grace and Olivia Kennedy. 'Behind everything was Rita's love of life, her family, music, the arts, of people and of the Winnipeg community,' says Marleyn. Menzies with her daughters Tanis, Jeannette and Jennifer. 'She avoided the stage and public attention, yet somehow quietly lead her workplaces with elegance, industry, effectiveness … Rita gave us all such a magnificent example of what the qualities of honesty, kindness, hard work and love can achieve.' Conrad SweatmanReporter Conrad Sweatman is an arts reporter and feature writer. Before joining the Free Press full-time in 2024, he worked in the U.K. and Canadian cultural sectors, freelanced for outlets including The Walrus, VICE and Prairie Fire. Read more about Conrad. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
