North Shore Jazz concert series launches at venues around North Vancouver through end of June
Highlights include a free show by Lebanon-born, Montreal-based artist Lamia Yared, a Dave Brubeck homage by the Marois Vocal Project, and more
Lamia Yared. Photo by Gopesa Paquette
Vancouver International Jazz Festival presents North Shore Jazz in partnership with the BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts from June 21 to 30 at various venues across the North Shore
NORTH SHORE JAZZ, one of the Vancouver International Jazz Festival’s anticipated mainstay series hosted with the BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts at Capilano University, is back in North Vancouver this year from June 21 to 30. Five free concerts will take place at different venues around town, while two ticketed shows will be hosted at BlueShore at CapU.
Among the lineup of events to look forward to is a free concert by Lebanon-born, Montreal-based artist Lamia Yared on June 22 at 1 pm at Civic Plaza (located at 14th Street and Lonsdale Avenue). Her show will be presented in partnership with Festival d’été de Québec and Le Centre Culturel Francophone de Vancouver.
A singer-musician that specializes in traditional repertoires of Arabic, Turkish-Ottoman, and Sephardic origins, Yared plays the Middle Eastern oud, a short-neck type of lute that produces a melodic, plucked-string sound.
Audiences can expect to hear some tracks off her latest album, 2022’s Ottoman Splendours, a poetic exploration of historical Ottoman music told through Yared’s strong, polished vocals and Ensemble Oraciones’s mystical instrumentals. She’ll be accompanied for the performance by a four-piece band: cellist Sheila Hannigan, percussionist Hamin Honari, clarinetist François Houle, and guitarist and fellow oud player Gordon Grdina.
There’s plenty more in store throughout the series, too. Ticketed events at BlueShore at CapU include New York’s guitarist-fronted Luca Benedetti Trio on June 27, and the 11-member Marois Vocal Project’s a capella homage to Dave Brubeck, led by Réjean Marois on June 28. In unfortunate news, a third BlueShore at CapU concert initially planned for the series—a rare performance by jazz legends Regina Carter and Kenny Barron—has been cancelled due to a repetitive strain injury afflicting Carter.
North Shore Jazz will wrap up outdoors at The Shipyards on June 30 at 7 pm with Vancouver supergroup Scott Smith and the Midnight Riders in a celebratory tribute concert to the Allman Brothers Band. It’ll be a picture-perfect opportunity to rock out to psychedelic slide guitar and passionate southern vocals on a warm summer evening. 
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