Canadian pianist Marc-André Hamelin performs ‘radiantly optimistic' Beethoven at the NAC
The award-winning pianist will be in Ottawa two nights, performing Beethoven's Emperor Concerto with the NAC orchestra. CBC's Sandra Abma attended a rehearsal.
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CBC
6 hours ago
- CBC
How the Edmonton Oilers fandom became a kind of religion
Social Sharing For the second year in a row, the Edmonton Oilers are facing off against the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Finals — and the culture of the Oilers fanbase has reached a new kind of fever pitch. Today on Commotion, CBC Edmonton reporter Min Dhariwal and professor Judith Ellen Brunton discuss how the intensity of Oilers fandom in Edmonton transcends mere hometown boosterism to resemble something more like a religion. We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player. WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube: Elamin: Min, I'll start by maybe offering my condolences over game three. I hope things get a little bit better. But we're not here to talk about what is happening on the ice…. Give me a sense of the vibe, of what happens when the Oilers are in the finals. Min: Yeah, well, after a game like game three, the vibe kind of gets knocked down a couple of notches. But I mean, this run has been as good if not better than last year's, and the city is just alive, right? It doesn't matter if you go into a store, you jump into a cab, the driver might be wearing an Oilers jersey, or might have a flag on the car. You go downtown, you see flags and Oilers paraphernalia in the windows, up in the towers. On game days, the downtown just becomes a zoo … and people are wearing their jerseys all day long. So it has certainly made spring and summertime in Edmonton the last couple of years very different from how it used to be for many, many years. Elamin: Judith, the premise of this conversation is, it's not just that a city gets excited when their team is in the finals. It's that there is something different about this fandom. You're a professor of religious studies. Your particular area is Alberta and the way that religious ideology intertwines with the province's culture of oil, oil production, prosperity and also hockey. You recently wrote about this for The Conversation, about how the history kind of amplifies the intensity of this fandom. Can you unpack that idea of where this fandom maybe meets religion? Judith: For sure. I mean, you said it: when there's something weird going on, that's a good moment for a scholar of religion to appear, so here I am. I think that whenever we talk about shared values or zeal, or identity or commitment, that's a good moment to think about religion, because one way to describe religion is just kind of a technology of shared values, or a way people organize their values together. And scholars of religion and sport, which include my co-author for that piece, Cody Musselman, have studied a lot about how team sports act really religionally…. They have lots of rituals. They have prayers and superstitions. Folks wear special clothing, they have certain ideas of how to preserve purity. So a lot of that is already going on with sports. And then of course we can add oil to this, because Oilers evoke another aspect of Canadian society that I think for some people has almost religious importance, which is resource extraction. And in Canadian culture, oil has always been kind of entangled with religion — both religion as we would recognize it institutionally, but also kind of this idea that it's a blessing from God, or it's tied up in ideas of what a good life is and how to live it. So for lots of people in resource extraction communities like Alberta, the possibility of success and the good life that that promises really gets valued over and above other possible risks, including environmental. And the Edmonton Oilers showcase this worldview for sure, in which there's this idea of triumph and luck and rugged work pays off. This is a belief that functions on the ice and in the oil field. So luck is really central to both oil worldviews and hockey worldviews. Historically, this is essential for perseverance within fossil fuel extraction. Striking it rich in the oil fields is really entangled with the idea of divine providence. And sports, similarly, is thrilling, right? You can put all this work in, you can have all the great plans, you have all the right players, but it really takes luck to strike it rich. So oil culture is definitely, in the case of the Oilers, pairing this idea of divine favour with an insistence on rough-and-tumble endurance, which is definitely what's happening on the ice.
Cision Canada
9 hours ago
- Cision Canada
Media advisory - Governor General to present Governor General's Performing Arts Awards Français
OTTAWA, ON, June 11, 2025 /CNW/ - Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon, Governor General of Canada, will present the 2025 Governor General's Performing Arts Awards (GGPAA) to seven laureates during a ceremony at Rideau Hall, on Friday, June 13, 2025. She will then honour the laureates the following evening when she delivers remarks at the 2025 Governor General's Performing Arts Awards Show at the National Arts Centre (NAC), in Ottawa. Here are the 2025 laureates of Canada's highest distinction in the performing arts: Bob Ezrin, O.C. – Music and entertainment producer, music education advocate and serial activist (Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award – Popular Music) Denis Gougeon – Composer (Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award – Classical Music) Graham Greene, C.M. – Actor (Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award – Screens and Voices) Patrick Huard – Comedian, film and television actor, host, screenwriter and producer (Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award – Screens and Voices) Sandra Laronde, M.S.C., O.M.C. – Multidisciplinary artist, artistic director, choreographer, producer and author (Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award – Dance) April Hubbard – Performance artist, arts administrator, and Mad Disability advocate (Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Voluntarism in the Performing Arts) Jeremy Dutcher, M.S.M. – Composer, performer, language carrier, ethnomusicologist and activist (National Arts Centre Award Recipient) GGPAA Ceremony Date: Friday, June 13, 2025 Time: 6 p.m. Location: Rideau Hall Ballroom, 1 Sussex Dr., Ottawa GGPAA Show Date: Saturday, June 14, 2025 Time: 8 p.m. (red carpet begins at 7 p.m.) Location: NAC, 1 Elgin St., Ottawa About the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards Created in 1992, by the late Right Honourable Ramon John Hnatyshyn, then-Governor General, and his wife, Gerda, the awards are presented annually to Canadians whose extraordinary achievements have contributed significantly to the enrichment of Canada's cultural life. Learn more about the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards. Notes for Media: To guarantee your access to the Rideau Hall ceremony, we ask that you please confirm your attendance with the Rideau Hall Press Office at [email protected]. Media are asked to arrive at the Princess Anne Entrance no later than 5:45 p.m. on the day of the ceremony. Photos of the ceremony taken by the Governor General's official photographer will be made available upon request. Stay connected: Follow GovernorGeneralCanada on Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube. SOURCE Governor General of Canada
Cision Canada
10 hours ago
- Cision Canada
PARAMOUNT+ GREENLIGHTS SKYMED SEASON 4
Production Begins later this summer and Includes Returning Cast Natasha Calis, Morgan Holstrom, Mercedes Morris, Sydney Khune and Aaron Ashmore. TORONTO, June 11, 2025 /CNW/ -- Paramount+ announced today a greenlight for Season 4 of Canadian series SKYMED with Paramount+ in Canada on board for first time in the series history. The hit medical drama follows the triumphs and tribulations of young medics and pilots who fly air ambulances across the remote skies of Northern Canada, weaving together intense journeys with jaw-dropping medical rescues 20,000 feet in the air in the most remote conditions. Produced by Piazza Entertainment, the eight-episode season begins production later this summer in North Bay, Ontario and Manitoba, and will stream exclusively on Paramount+ in Canada, the U.S., Latin America and Brazil, UK, Australia, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Additionally, Paramount+ in Canada will welcome SKYMED Seasons 1 – 3 to the platform this fall introducing the full series to new audiences prior to the fourth season's exclusive premiere on the service in 2026. "Paramount+ in Canada is thrilled to introduce our audiences to SKYMED, a Canadian story set against a truly spectacular part of our country," said Vanessa Case, Vice President of Content, Paramount+ and Pluto TV Canada. "Julie Puckrin created something really special, and Vanessa Piazza and the team at Piazza Entertainment brought it to life. Originally developed with the CBC, we're excited to continue the series as we partner with Piazza Entertainment to deliver a fourth season of this fresh and Canadian take on the medical procedural." "We're thrilled to be partnering with Paramount+ in Canada and to continue our relationship with P+ globally," said Vanessa Piazza, Executive Producer and President at Piazza Entertainment. "It's also exciting that a new audience will be able catch up on previous seasons of SKYMED – and get ready for Season 4 – all in one place on Paramount+ in Canada." Returning to SKYMED are series regulars Natasha Calis (Nurses) as Hayley, Morgan Holmstrom (Outlander) as Crystal, Mercedes Morris (Ghosts) as Lexi, Sydney Kuhne (Ginny & Georgia) as Stef, and Aaron Ashmore (Ginny & Georgia) as Wheezer. Additional casting announcements will be made in the future. SKYMED Season 4 will be produced by Piazza Entertainment in association with Paramount+ in Canada and CBS Studios. The series was created by Julie Puckrin and inspired by her sister and brother-in-law, who met flying air ambulances. Puckrin also serves as executive producer, along with Gillian Hormel and Vanessa Piazza. From Manitoba, Rhonda Baker, and Carrie Wilkins serve as producers. SKYMED is distributed internationally by Paramount Global Content Distribution. The first three seasons of SKYMED were produced by Piazza Entertainment in association with the CBC and CBS Studios. Seasons 1-3 are currently available to stream on CBC Gem and will be available on Paramount+ in Canada this fall. About Paramount+ Paramount+ is a global digital subscription video streaming service from Paramount that features a mountain of premium entertainment for audiences of all ages. Internationally, the streaming service features an expansive library of original series, hit shows and popular movies across every genre from world-renowned brands and production studios, including SHOWTIME®, BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures and the Smithsonian Channel™, in addition to a robust offering of premier local content. The service is currently live in Australia, Austria, Canada, the Caribbean, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latin America, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S. For more information about Paramount+, please visit and follow @ParamountPlusCA and @ skymedtvseries on social media. About CBS Studios CBS Studios is one of the world's leading producers of entertainment programming, with dozens of globally popular series for broadcast and streaming. The Studio's expansive portfolio includes a diverse slate of commercially successful and critically acclaimed programming which includes genre-defining franchises such as NCIS and the STAR TREK universe, fan-favorite comedies such as The Neighborhood and Ghosts, the newly reimagined Matlock, and buzzy international co-productions such as COLIN FROM ACCOUNTS and upcoming King & Conqueror. About Piazza Entertainment Piazza Entertainment was founded in 2016 by Executive Producer, Vanessa Piazza (SkyMed, Lost Girl, Dark Matter, Nurses, XIII, The Other Half). Piazza Entertainment is a film and television production company established to create premium television programming for the domestic and international markets. Piazza's partnerships included a multi-year first look deal with international distributor and studio Entertainment One, which concluded in 2019. In addition to SkyMed, Piazza Entertainment has several other projects actively in development.
