Our Recommendations
Indulge your appetite for arts and culture.
With so many exciting arts and culture events happening you can feel overwhelmed. The Music on Main Team is here to help! We’ve carefully chosen a list of wonderful digital and live events to discover and experience. Whether you’re looking for a theatrical diversion or a blockbuster art show, some new dance or a classical concerto, our recommendations is a list of must-see events whenever you’re looking for a hit of culture. Make sure to check back often, as we are always scouting fun events that we think you’ll love!
Our Recommendations are must-see events, some from our Vancouver home base and a few from across the globe that we think you’ll enjoy. We’re your trusted source that you’ll want to come back to every time you’re looking for something new and exciting to discover. If you’re looking for only Music on Main events check here.
THE MUSH HOLE
A heart-opening dance theatre performance that lays bare the lived truths of Canada’s first Indian Residential School, The Mohawk Institute, also known as The Mush Hole.
From 1828 to 1970, State and Church systems worked to sever Indigenous children from their families, culture, and language. Through the eyes of two generations of Survivors, The Mush Hole evokes the raw, unflinching realities of this legacy. Featuring a powerhouse all-Indigenous cast, the performance fuses visceral movement, haunting cinematic imagery, and a stirring original score to summon the experiences still held within the school’s bricks and mortar.
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ganavya
Co-presented with Chan Centre in collaboration with Indian Summer Festival
Hailed by The Wall Street Journal as “among modern music’s most compelling vocalists,” ganavya is a boundary-defying artist whose voice and vision transcend genre. For her Vancouver debut at the Chan Centre, she performs music from Nilam—a luminous new work that coalesces lullaby, poetry, and prayer into powerful, poignant music.
Through improvisation, storytelling, and sacred sound, ganavya’s music offers a space of deep listening, healing, and belonging. We invite you to enter her world for an evening of profound artistry and spiritual connection.
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Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, piano Concerts Café Classico Series
“… Keyboard virtuoso and avant-garde muse” – Georgia Straight
“The outrageously talented Vancouver pianist Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa … deftly spans an array of atmospheres with impressive mastery and stylistic clarity.” – Jason van Eyk, Musicworks Magazine.
In honour of Canada Music week, one of “Canada’s foremost contemporary music pianists” (CBC Radio) will perform several generations of our country’s finest composers.
The concert will open with an informal conversation between LCMS’ Artistic Director Elizabeth Bergmann and the artist, followed by complimentary coffee, tea and refreshments before the performance. The performance will take place in the Rose Gellert Hall and will last approximately 60 minutes, with no intermission.
James Ehnes Plays Beethoven
Celebrate the 50th birthday of internationally renowned violinist and friend to the VSO, James Ehnes, as he presents Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. Maestro Tausk and the VSO also welcome Krisztina Szabó to perform Jeffrey Ryan’s Miss Carr in Seven Scenes, a series of songs celebrating the iconic British Columbian painter. Dive into Swim, an invigorating work by Cassandra Miller whose compositions have been described by The New Yorker as “engulfing… music that reminds us how to cry.”
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Ravel’s Boléro
Feel the beat with an evening of pulsing music led by Conductor Naomi Woo. Haydn’s “Drumroll” Symphony kicks things off on a thrilling note, alongside Ravel’s iconic Boléro with driving snare drum and one of the most unforgettable climaxes in classical music. Performed at the BBC Proms in 2022 by percussionist Colin Currie, Nicole Lizée’s concerto for percussion and orchestra, Blurr is the Colour of My True Love’s Eyes, is a tour-de-force inspired by techniques found in stop-motion film and photography.
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INFINITY
The season continues with INFINITY, featuring two of the world’s foremost and truly masterful choreographic voices. Crystal Pite’s Frontier is back following its unforgettable 2024 Ballet BC debut, and the work of Jiří Kylián makes a triumphant return to our stage with the visionary 27’52”.
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