The Rocky Mountain Symphony Orchestra (RMSO) is promising a night of romance, glamour, and artful, classically inspired jazz music as it presents “La Vie En Rose” this Valentine’s Day in Balzac.
The concert will be a great date night option for couples celebrating the love-themed holiday, according to RMSO’s musical director, Carlos Foggin.
“[It] is something to do on Valentine’s that not at a bar – we are going to set the Polaris Centre up like a jazz cabaret,” he said. “We are going to remove some of the theatre seating and put cabaret tables up front.”
Unlike its usual full orchestra concerts, La Vie En Rose is promising a more intimate listening experience. The concert will feature an eight-player all-star team of great musicians and performers. Sax man extraordinaire Jeremy Brown will lead the ensemble along with Jay Michalak on trumpet, Dylan Martin on trombone, Andrea Ciona on clarinet and vocals, Julia Brown on stand-up bass, Chris Santos on drums, Brian Cole on vibraphone, and Foggin himself on piano.
“We happen to have one of the best jazz saxophonists around,” Foggin said. “Our principal trumpet is lead trumpet with a prominent jazz band. Our principal trombone is lead trombone with a prominent local jazz band. It just made sense since we had all these people in place to explore what classical and jazz have to offer together.”
The concert will cover the scope of New Orleans jazz from its earliest intersections with the Parisienne classical music scene at the turn of previous century all the way through the greats like Gershwin, Dizzie Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, and into the present day.
But the theme of the evening, Foggin said, is really romance – life through rose-coloured glasses of love.
“There will be room to get up and move a bit if folks feel the itch to do a little dancing,” he explained. “People can get up and do a little date night dancing … We have a fantastic bar, and we will have some inspired signature cocktails for the evening. It’s probably going to feel a little more New York than Calgary in terms of the jazz playing, and it is right in your back yard.”
Tickets for “La Vie En Rose” start at $25. Curtain time is 7:30 p.m. at the Polaris Centre for the Performing Arts in Balzac on Feb. 14.
For more information on the upcoming performance, visit rockymountainsymphony.ca/jazz
