Avishai Cohen Trio
[Bio]

Hot off a U.K. tour, Israeli-born Avishai Cohen is traveling all over the world, performing to delighted jazz aficionados with his band featuring Sam Barsh on piano and Mark Gilliana on drums.

The renowned bassist’s latest CD, At Home, has enjoyed rave reviews for his imaginative and masterful spins on musical styles and traditions ranging from Afro-Cuban to Middle Eastern to American Pop and beyond, and audiences the world-over are cheering his virtuosity on stage.

Until late 2003, Avishai was a member of the Chick Corea New Trio. He has played with many jazz greats including Bobby McFerrin, Herbie Hancock, Paquilto D’Rivera, Roy Hargrove and Claudia Acuna. From collaborations with pop soul artist Alicia Keys to concert works with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and The Boston Pops Symphony, Avishai is one of the jazz world’s most versatile and sought-after musicians.

“A transcendent example of the capacity of music... to reach beyond geographical and political boundaries...”
The Los Angeles Times

“A jazz visionary of global proportions”
DownBeat Magazine

www.avishaimusic.com

Zina Schiff
[Bio]

Miri Levi
[Bio]

An evening of violin, piano and voice

Chutzpah! does it again, uniting an established international violinist, Zina Schiff, with an emerging Vancouver-born vocalist, Miri Levi, for an evening of beautiful music. The multiple award-winning Schiff is a Jascha Heifetz protégé, whose special blend of passion, poetry and communicative power has dazzled audiences throughout North America, Eastern and Western Europe, Israel and Australia. She performed at the 2005 Chutzpah! festival to a standing ovation and we are delighted to bring her back to share the stage with the very talented Miri Levi who has recently graduated from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in NYC. Levi is the daughter of Lisa Nemetz, the honoured namesake of our festival. Schiff and Levi will be accompanied by accomplished Vancouver-based pianists, Zsuzsanna Lukas and Varda Seelig.

www.jamesarts.com/ZINABIO.htm

"Zina Schiff is an instrumentalist of luscious high voltage ... vintage Heifetz."
New York Times

Azuure Joffre
[Bio]

Lights, Camera... Music! combines Azuure Joffre's passion for music with her love of cinema. This dynamic and touching musical showcase brings audiences of all ages through musical archives of the films that have defined our times, combining popular movie music, comedy and trivia. You will hear showstoppers from The Godfather to Saturday Night Fever and of course, Fiddler on the Roof. Show off your musical memory and win a prize!

Azuure Joffre* has performed in Japan, the West Indies, Hong Kong, Mexico and in the worldrenowned Festival de Jazz in her native Montreal. Since moving to Vancouver in the late 1990's Azuure has performed in the successful Arts Club Theatre productions Ain't Misbehavin' and Wang Dang Doodle and her own hit show A Zoot Flap and Shuffle. Azuure has worked with internationally recognized musicians including Bill Costin, Bob Mahaney and The Hitmen XB.

* Appearing courtesy of Canadian Actors' Equity Association

Itamar Erez
[Bio]

& The ADAMA World Ensemble

Taking its name from the Hebrew word for “earth”, Adama pushes the boundaries of classical, contemporary jazz and world music to produce original work rich with Middle-Eastern and Flamenco sounds, unusual melodies and complex rhythms.

The members of Adama — Stefan Cihelka (tabla), Laurence Mollerup (bass), Nick Apivor (percussion), and Tony Nickels (oboe, English horn) — are originally from Israel and Canada, and share a broad range of musical interests and experience. The group’s internationally acclaimed leader, pianist and guitarist Itamar Erez, is the recipient of the 1997 Israeli Prime Minister Creation Prize for Composers and is an Associate Composer at the Canadian Music Centre. His music has been commissioned and performed by various soloists, ensembles and orchestras in Europe, the Middle East, United States and Canada including The BBC Singers (UK), The Israeli Chamber Orchestra, The Ra'anana Symphonette Orchestra (Israel), Partita Radicale (Germany) ALEA III (Boston) and the Standing Wave Ensemble (Canada).

“A composer to watch!”
The Boston Globe

www.itamarerez.com

in Fried Chicken & Latkes: A One Woman Experience
Vancouver Premiere

Growing up Black and Jewish in Beverly Hills as the daughter of legendary comedian Richard Pryor, Rain Pryor comes by her sharp sense of timing honestly. But, make no mistake: “This ain’t my daddy’s stand-up — I am my own person up there.”

The cabaret-style show, Fried Chicken & Latkes, recalls Pryor’s tumultuous life, growing up in Beverly Hills as the daughter of the famous comedian and a Jewish mother. Told through song and characters, the story takes us on a journey of racial identity, family, career, spiritual growth and love, providing a glimpse into the universe that was her childhood and is her life, morphing effortlessly into the people around her.

Through storytelling, comedy and a knock-out singing voice, Pryor shows that living an authentic life is not about “where do I stand” but “here I stand” and now standing ovations just keep on coming as this award-winning show is performed all over the US and beyond. In fact, she is off on a month-long tour of Australia right after this Vancouver appearance.

Pryor's show ignites on the sheer force of her explosive talent.
–Frontiers NewsMagazine

Winner of 2005 NAACP Image Award

www.rainpryor.com

Letters from Lithuania
a Chutzpah! and
Mortal Coil presentation
[Bio]

Vancouver’s own Mortal Coil—best known for their imaginative Stanley Park Ghost Train events and dream-like stilt performances around town—will bring a sense of magic and myth to audiences of all ages with their upcoming original production, Letters from Lithuania. Chutzpah! audiences are invited to an exclusive sneak preview of this work in progress which will, in August 2006, become a site-specific Coil happening in Stanley Park.

With a staged theatre excerpts, live music by Zeellia and a stilt dance performance, the artists of Mortal Coil will provide a fascinating and delightful glimpse into the process of creating Letters from Lithuania which will through experimental theatre, song, music, video, puppetry and stilt dance, tell the remarkable true story of how one man’s fear kept news of the existence of World War II Holocaust survivors sealed in envelopes, unread, for 30 years.

Mortal Coil is an interdisciplinary performing arts company with heart and a social conscience whose accomplished artists share a common passion for stilt performance. Since its incorporation in 1991, the company has been dedicated to creating imaginative theatre and spectacle for audiences young and old, with larger-than-life creatures and characters using theatre, dance, music, stilts, masks and fantastic costuming, brought to life in magical and mythical environments. Mortal Coil has presented in theatres, festivals, community workshops and site-specific events across Canada, the United States, and in Europe.

www.mortalcoil.bc.ca

“Watching Mortal Coil was like floating, untethered in the work of Marc Chagall...the delight they invoked in me was childlike and completely luxurious.”
Colin Thomas, The Fringe Review