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.
LOVE YOU WRONG TIME
A hilarious, no-holds-barred song cycle featuring two friends looking for love while contending with the fetishization of Asian women.
Using music, true stories, bar games, and stand up, Maddie Bautista and Deanna H. Choi’s inventive, interactive show serves as a battle cry in the wake of mass violence against Asian femmes, creating a space for rage, grief, tenderness and ruthless comedy. It’s a good time, with teeth.
This smart, hilarious comedy sold out before the opening of its world premiere—don’t miss your chance to see it at The Cultch!
Winner of 2 Dora Mavor Moore Awards (Outstanding Sound Design & Composition, Outstanding Performance in an Ensemble)
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where you go
Continuing our work with Indigenous choreographer Olivia C Davies, we return to tell more of the story of Where You Go weaving together voices, dance, lighting and costume design, to create an immersive journey through love, friendship and devotion. Davies’ writes: “In a world where the only event that keeps you moving forward is the potential that you will meet your beloved once again, haunted by words said and unsaid, and by regrets and hopes unfulfilled, abandoning the struggle for power in a field of possibility after the loss, they wander here where damages are repaired, love knows no bounds and the only way to go is up. Climbing forever up towards the stars that only shine for them, falling ever so softly back to the earth to start all over again. This pair of star-crossed lovers, reunited in the Afterlife, carry forward the agreement of the heart, ’til death do us part.’”
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30th Anniversary Concert and Reception
Celebrate Standing Wave’s 30th Anniversary at the Annex with what is sure to be Vancouver’s new music event of the year! This extraordinary evening will feature no fewer than five world premieres by composers with deep ties to the ensemble: Peggy Lee, Nicole Lizée, Matthew-John Knights, Russell Wallace, and Jacqueline Leggatt. These brand new works showcase the innovative spirit that has defined Standing Wave for three decades. Join us for an unforgettable night of cutting-edge music, and stay for a celebratory reception to toast the ensemble’s remarkable legacy. Tickets are limited, so secure yours early!
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Gamelan Gita Asmara
Vancouver’s only 25-piece Balinese gamelan ensemble performs in New Westminster for the first time! Immerse yourself in the shimmering percussive sounds of Balinese music, accompanied by intricate dances and colourful costumes. With three international guest artists, Gamelan Gita Asmara (GGA) will perform a range of traditional and contemporary works of music and dance.
Gamelan Gita Asmara celebrates its 23rd season with a stunning concert of dance and instrumental music from the classical traditions of the island of Bali, Indonesia. Artistic director Michael Tenzer and guest director I Putu Swaryandana Ichi Oka have programmed a collection of works that provide a cross-section of the styles and forms of gamelan music and dance.
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Radical Traditions: New Music for Gamelan
Come hear the vibrant and shimmering sounds of three local gamelan ensembles! Over the years, Gamelan Bike Bike, Gita Asmara, and Kembang Telang have been nurturing the community-based practices of Balinese gamelan music in Vancouver, mentored by some of Bali’s most outstanding artists. On May 17, they present a stunning concert of dance and instrumental music blossoming from the island’s classical traditions.
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Kaija Saariaho – Notes on Light
Turning Point Ensemble is pleased to honour the originality and poetry of the music of Kaija Saariaho with a concert that will present a focused and moving portrait of music of her past twenty years. Kaija Saariaho, who passed away at the age of 70 in June 2023 said, “The task of today’s artist is to nurture with spiritually rich art. To provide new spiritual dimensions. To express with greater richness, which does not always mean more complexity but with greater delicacy.” To quote her obituary written by Keith Potter in The Guardian, “Her focus dwelt on the conjuring of shimmering, slowly evolving sound worlds whose translucent and dreamy tendencies are frequently likened to visual images: light on water, the night sky, whether starry or black, and the colour spectrum itself.”
The concert will include Notes on Light, featuring solo cellist Isidora Nojkovic and an ensemble of 19 musicians, and several more intimate vocal works sung by Robyn Driedger-Klassen with small ensembles.
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