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Toronto to Celebrate Creative Spirit With "Luminato"

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  • Toronto to Celebrate Creative Spirit With "Luminato"

    Toronto to Celebrate Creative Spirit With "Luminato"

    CCNMatthews (press release), Canada
    July 31, 2006

    The Toronto Festival of Arts & Creativity Announces New Name, World
    Premiere Programming and Internationally-renowned Arts CEO

    TORONTO, ONTARIO--(CCNMatthews - July 31, 2006) - Luminato, the new
    Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity, was unveiled today with the
    announcement of June 1-10, 2007 as the dates for the first of the
    Festival's annual celebrations.

    The Festival, founded and co-chaired by Tony Gagliano, Executive
    Chairman and CEO of St. Joseph Communications and David Pecaut,
    Senior Partner at The Boston Consulting Group and Chair of the Toronto
    City Summit Alliance, will celebrate the creative spirit across all
    the arts each year. The Festival will feature the best of Canadian
    and international artists in music, theatre, dance, visual arts,
    film, design, literature and other disciplines. It will include both
    ticketed and free events throughout the city engaging residents and
    tourists in what is hoped to become, over time, one of the great arts
    festivals in the world.

    "Our vision started with the premise that Toronto, one of the most
    culturally diverse cities in the world, has the potential to become
    one of the most creative cities, as well," said Gagliano. "Luminato,
    in time, will bring the best of the world to Toronto, and the best
    of Toronto to the world."

    An original name and brand was chosen to signal the festival's unique
    focus on celebrating creativity. "In choosing the Festival's new name
    - Luminato - we wanted to capture the essence of the creative spirit,
    so we chose the notion of light, hence 'lumina,'" said Pecaut. "It was
    also important to capture the spirit of the city of Toronto itself,
    which is exemplified by 'TO.' We hope 'Luminato' will become synonymous
    with the power of the arts to enlighten all of us."

    Following on an earlier announcement in July, the founders were
    also pleased to formally introduce Luminato's newly appointed Chief
    Executive Officer, Janice Price. A veteran international arts leader,
    Ms. Price was most recently President and CEO of The Kimmel Center
    for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia and was both the Interim
    Executive Director and Vice President of Marketing and Communications
    at New York's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Ms. Price began
    her career in Toronto, working with the Hummingbird Centre for the
    Performing Arts, the Stratford Festival and the Corporation of Massey
    Hall and Roy Thomson Hall. She has also served as a board member for
    Factory Theatre, the Toronto Dance Theatre, the United Way of Greater
    Toronto and the Casey House Foundation of Toronto.

    Ms. Price will lead the non profit organization in developing Luminato
    into one of the world's great arts festivals attracting a large local,
    national and international audience to Toronto. "I'm looking forward
    to reconnecting with Toronto artists and audiences," said Price. "I've
    spent many years managing cultural facilities, and know first hand the
    positive impact those facilities have in a community. But what drew me
    to this amazing opportunity was the chance to come home and create a
    truly world-class festival of artistic collaboration and creativity --
    one that can expand beyond walls in its engagement with audiences."

    The Festival has received significant support to date, including
    generous contributions and backing from governments, as well as
    numerous arts, business and civic leaders.

    "The Government of Ontario is contributing $2-million in development
    funding to help launch the first Luminato Festival," said The
    Honourable Greg Sorbara, Ontario's Minister of Finance. "This Festival
    builds on the many creative investments in Toronto in recent years
    and will provide an opportunity for us to invite the world to Toronto
    each year to celebrate the creative achievements of both Canadian
    and international artists."

    The City of Toronto has also been very supportive in the development of
    the Festival. "This festival fits with the City of Toronto's broader
    vision of building on Toronto's reputation as a city rich in arts
    and culture and underscores our desire to have Toronto become known
    throughout the world as a creative city," said Mayor David Miller. "The
    City is supportive of initiatives like this one."

    Today's announcement also provided a tantalizing glimpse of what
    Torontonians and visitors can expect in the next year in terms of
    the Festival's programming. Luminato will begin on June 1, 2007 and
    run through an exciting 10 day program, including the debut of world
    premiere events. A sampling of the programming includes:

    Opening Weekend - Royal Ontario Museum

    The Festival will launch in conjunction with the opening of the
    Royal Ontario Museum's Michael Lee-Chin Crystal on June 2, 2007. An
    evening outdoor ceremony will feature the public debut of the dazzling
    Daniel Libeskind-designed building, outdoor concerts and free museum
    access all night long. There will be illuminations, entertainment,
    and dancing in the street as the ROM celebrates the opening of the
    Lee-Chin Crystal and kicks off a week of festivities for the Toronto
    Arts Festival. Plans are also underway for a Luminato street festival
    surrounding the ROM throughout the weekend.

    "Not the Messiah" - by Spamalot creators Eric Idle and John Du Prez

    Luminato and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra have commissioned an
    oratorio from Spamalot Tony and Grammy Award winning duo Eric Idle
    and John Du Prez to write the music and lyrics of a new work based on
    Monty Python's Life of Brian. The oratorio will be called "Not the
    Messiah". The Festival is proud to present the world premiere. "It
    will be funnier than Handel, though not as good," said Idle. Not the
    Messiah will be conducted by Peter Oundjian, Music Director of the
    Toronto Symphony Orchestra, who is also Eric Idle's full cousin. It
    will be performed by a narrator, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra,
    with guest soloists and choir.

    Visual Arts Display - Atom Egoyan and Kutlug Ataman -
    "Auroras/Testimony"

    "Auroras/Tes timony" will be a collaborative multi-media installation
    created for the Festival with the Art Gallery of Ontario and exhibited
    in a public space in Toronto. It is the world premiere of a co-creation
    by two artists, an Armenian-Canada and a Turkish-Argentinean, who found
    commonalities in each other's work when introduced to one another in
    New York last year.

    Young Centre for the Performing Arts and The Distillery District

    Throughout the ten days of the Festival, in the various venues of the
    Young Centre for the Performing Arts and throughout the Distillery
    District, celebrations will be held in theatre, dance, music, and
    visual arts with the remarkable community of artists that live and
    work in Toronto. As well as showcasing some of the most inspiring work
    the artists have created, the Distillery portion of Luminato will
    present original collaborations between disciplines and generations
    with a particular emphasis on youth and emerging artists.

    Closing Weekend - Waterfront - "Carnivalissima: A Spectacle of
    the Senses"

    Carnivalissima will be a bold celebration of Carnivals of the World,
    including Brazilian, Caribbean, European, Lenten Winter Festivals
    (Venice, Switzerland, Brussels, Spain), Latin and Mardi Gras.

    Produced by Luminato and Harbourfront Centre, the Carnivalissima
    will become a huge celebratory street party of carnivals, parades
    and other spectacles, including a bold fusion of local, national and
    international spectacle on the streets, on the stages, and in the
    water. The Festival will use carnival traditions found in diverse
    Toronto communities as a launching point for a carnival "extravaganza."

    Additional information on Luminato can be found at www.luminato.ca.

    About Luminato

    Luminato is a non-profit organization created to oversee the management
    of the city's most significant multi-disciplinary celebration of
    artistic achievement and creativity launching in June 2007. The annual
    festival will celebrate the creative spirit across all the arts. It
    was formed as an initiative of the Toronto City Summit Alliance and by
    leaders of Toronto's arts and cultural communities. The Toronto City
    Summit Alliance is a non-profit corporation dedicated to building
    the Toronto region through broad civic leadership. The Alliance is
    directed by a Steering Group of 50 leaders from the private, labour,
    volunteer and public sectors and can be contacted through its website:
    Torontoalliance.ca.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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