Luminato
Encyclopedia
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Launched in 2007, Luminato features local, national, and international artists from a variety of genres; including, classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
and contemporary music, dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
, theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
, film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
, visual arts
Visual arts
The visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, and often modern visual arts and architecture...
, fashion
Fashion
Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...
, food
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
and design
Design
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
. Events take place in multiple indoor and outdoor locations throughout Toronto’s downtown core.
Luminato 2011 runs from June 10–19, 2011.
History of Luminato, Toronto Festival of Arts & Creativity
Luminato was founded by Tony GaglianoTony Gagliano
Tony Gagliano LL.D. is a Canadian-Italian businessman, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is the Executive Chairman and CEO of St. Joseph Communications, Canada's largest private communications company. St. Joseph is the publisher of many of Canada's magazines including Toronto Life and Fashion...
(Executive Chairman and CEO of St. Joseph Communications
St. Joseph Communications
St. Joseph Communications is a Canadian communications company based out of Toronto.-History:St. Joseph Communications was founded in 1956 by Gaetano Gagliano as a printing house. Gaetano Gagliano and his growing family emigrated from Italy shortly after the war. Upon their arrival to Canada,...
) and the late David Pecaut
David Pecaut
David Kent Pecaut, was an American-born Canadian civic leader, city builder and a strategist. He was known for his visionary initiatives, and solutions-based approach to social issues. He was able to convene different stakeholders, and implement holistic solutions. He was instrumental in...
CM
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
Senior Partner at The Boston Consulting Group) in 2007.
Janice Price was selected to be Luminato’s first CEO and remains in this position today. Born in Toronto, Price most recently served as the President and CEO of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts is a large performing arts venue located on Broad Street, along the stretch known as the "Avenue of the Arts", in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is owned and operated by Kimmel Center, Inc., an organization which also manages the Academy of Music in...
in Philadelphia, and was both the Interim Executive Director and Vice President of Marketing and Communications at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of New York City's Upper West Side. Reynold Levy has been its president since 2002.-History and facilities:...
in New York.
Chris Lorway, Artistic Director, heads up the artistic team. Lorway has more than 12 years experience working in the international arts community. Prior to Luminato he was a Senior Consultant for AEA Consulting in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
where he worked on a number of projects including long-term strategy development for the Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
, The Royal Shakespeare Company and Jacob's Pillow
Jacob's Pillow
Jacob’s Pillow Dance is a dance center, school and performance space located in Becket, Massachusetts, in the Berkshires. The organization is known for the oldest internationally acclaimed summer dance festival in the United States. The facility also includes a professional school and extensive...
.
The team also works with a Festival Advisory Committee consisting of local arts leaders. This ensures Luminato achieves balanced programming for Toronto audiences as well as introducing Canadian artists to international arts organizations and opportunities.
As of 2009, this committee consists of the following individuals.
FESTIVAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEMBERS
William J.S. Boyle – CEO, Harbourfront Centre
Charles Cutts – President & CEO, The Corporation of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall
Atom Egoyan
Atom Egoyan
Atom Egoyan, OC is a critically acclaimed Armenian-Canadian stage director and film director. Egoyan made his career breakthrough with Exotica...
– Director & Filmmaker, Ego Film Arts
Kevin Garland – Executive Director, National Ballet of Canada
Piers Handling – Director & CEO, Toronto International Film Festival Group
Karen Kain
Karen Kain
Karen Alexandria Kain, CC is a retired Canadian ballet dancer, and currently the Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Canada.-Early Training:...
– Artistic Director, National Ballet of Canada
Bruce Kuwabara
Bruce Kuwabara
Bruce Bunji Kuwabara, B.Arch, OAA, FRAIC, RCA, AIA is a Canadian architect and partner in the firm Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects ....
– Partner, Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects
Bruce Mau
Bruce Mau
Bruce Mau is a Canadian designer. Mau is the creative director of Bruce Mau Design, and the founder of the Institute without Boundaries.-Life and career:...
– CEO, Bruce Mau Design Inc.
Alexander Neef – General Director, Canadian Opera Company
Peter Oundjian
Peter Oundjian
Peter Oundjian is a violinist and conductor, the youngest of five children from an Armenian father and English mother. He also claims Scottish ancestry through his maternal grandfather, a Sanderson, and the MacDonell of Glengarry clan.Oundjian was educated in England, where he began studying the...
– Music Director, Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Albert Schultz
Albert Schultz
Albert Schultz is a Canadian actor, director and the founding artistic director of Toronto's celebrated Soulpepper Theatre Company.-Education:...
– General Director, Young Centre for the Performing Arts
Matthew Teitelbaum
Matthew Teitelbaum
Matthew Teitelbaum is the director and CEO of the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, Canada and an art curator.- Biography :...
– Director, Art Gallery of Ontario
Andrew Shaw
Andrew Shaw (businessman)
Andrew Robert Shaw is the President & CEO of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. In 2011 he was awarded the Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management Scholarship in recognition for being one of Toronto's non-profit leaders....
– President & CEO, Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Luminato 2010
The fourth edition of Luminato ran from June 11–20, 2010. Nine new works were commissioned or co-commissioned by Luminato for the 2010 festival, including the North American premiere of Rufus WainwrightRufus Wainwright
Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright is an American-Canadian singer-songwriter. He has recorded six albums of original music, EPs, and tracks on compilations and film soundtracks.-Early years:...
’s Prima Donna
Prima donna
Originally used in opera or Commedia dell'arte companies, "prima donna" is Italian for "first lady." The term was used to designate the leading female singer in the opera company, the person to whom the prime roles would be given. The prima donna was normally, but not necessarily, a soprano...
and the world premiere of Volcano Theatre’s The Africa Trilogy. Luminato 2010 presented five world premieres, four North American premieres, and one Canadian premiere, as well as the North American debut of Syria’s acclaimed dance company, Enana Dance Theatre. Luminato 2010 took place in 36 venues across the city, featuring artists representing 30 countries, including: Australia, Syria, Germany, USA, Kenya, South Africa, UK, New Zealand, Iran, Japan, and Spain; as well as Canadian artists from 8 provinces.
Luminato First Night featured concerts by Jully Black
Jully Black
Jully Black |Julie]]"; born Jullyann Inderia Gordon; November 8, 1977) is a Canadian R&B singer–songwriter. She has collaborated and written for many artists, including Nas, Missy Elliott, Saukrates, Choclair, Kardinal Offishall, Destiny's Child, and Sean Paul.-Life & career:Black was born Jullyann...
, Sass Jordan
Sass Jordan
Sarah "Sass" Jordan is a Canadian, Juno Award winning, rock singer/songwriter who grew up in Montreal.- Biography :...
, and Melanie Fiona
Melanie Fiona
Melanie Fiona Hallim is a Canadian R&B and Grammy-nominated recording artist from Toronto, Ontario. She was born to Guyanese immigrant parents of African, Indian, and Portuguese descent and grew up in the inner city of Toronto. Living in a music filled household, Fiona says she always knew music...
, and performances by Tony Allen
Tony Allen (musician)
Tony Oladipo Allen is aNigerian drummer, composer, and songwriter who currently lives and works in Paris. He is currently writing his autobiography "Tony Allen: Master Drummer of Afrobeat" with author/musician Michael E...
and Bela Fleck
Béla Fleck
Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and technically proficient banjo players, he is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.-Early life and career details:Fleck was born in...
at Queen’s Park on the Festival’s opening weekend. Throughout Luminato, the Wish Come True Festival’s Rainbow King popped up in unexpected places, encouraging Festival-goers to enjoy the closing weekend celebrations in Queen’s Park, including FriendsWithYou’s Wish Come True Festival, National Bank Financial’s World Divas and Global Blues concerts, a World Music Celebration, and the President’s Choice® 1000 Tastes of Toronto™ food event.
Three curatorial threads were explored throughout Luminato 2010: the relationship between east and west, artist rights, and a celebration of the diva.
The fifth anniversary edition of Luminato 2011 will take place from June 10–19. Programming announcements will be made in early 2011.
Luminato 2009
The third annual Luminato was June 5–14, 2009. Themes of the festival included the celebration of the guitar, the commemoration of Edgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
, and the exploration of society's relationship with technology. The festival was opened by Randy Bachman
Randy Bachman
Randolph Charles "Randy" Bachman, OC, OM is a Canadian musician best known as lead guitarist, songwriter and a founding member for both the 1960s–70s rock band The Guess Who, and the 1970s rock band Bachman–Turner Overdrive...
at Yonge-Dundas Square as part of the Luminato First Night event. The 10-day event included performances by Goran Bregovic
Goran Bregovic
Goran Bregović is one of the most internationally known modern musicians and composers of the Balkans. He currently splits his time between Paris and Belgrade, where he settled down during the Yugoslav Wars.Bregović has composed for such varied artists as Iggy Pop and Cesária Évora...
, a Brazilian Guitar Marathon and a tribute to Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
featuring the Cowboy Junkies
Cowboy Junkies
Cowboy Junkies are a Canadian alternative country/blues/folk rock band. The group was formed in Toronto in 1985 by Margo Timmins , Michael Timmins , Peter Timmins and Alan Anton ....
; Holly Cole
Holly Cole
Holly Cole is a Canadian jazz singer, particularly popular in Canada and Japan for both her versatile and distinctive voice, along with her adventurous repertoire, which spans such divergent genres as show tunes, rock, and country music.-Holly Cole Trio:In 1983, Cole travelled to Toronto to seek a...
; Danny Michel
Danny Michel
Danny Michel is a singer-songwriter from Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario.- Biography :Danny Michel was born in 1970 next to the "Smiles n' Chuckles" chocolate factory in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada...
; Steven Page
Steven Page
Steven Jay Page , is a Canadian musician. Along with Ed Robertson, he was a founding member, lead singer, guitarist, and a primary songwriter of the music group Barenaked Ladies ; he left the band in 2009 to pursue a solo career....
; Carole Pope
Carole Pope
Carole Pope is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, whose provocative blend of hard-edged New Wave rock with explicit homoerotic and BDSM-themed lyrics made her one of the first openly lesbian famous entertainers in the world...
; Bill Frisell Trio; Issa
Issa (singer)
Jane Siberry , born October 12, 1955 in Toronto, Ontario, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, known for such hits as "Mimi on the Beach", "I Muse Aloud", "One More Colour" and "Calling All Angels"...
(formerly Jane Siberry); Colin Linden
Colin Linden
Colin Linden is a Canadian musician, songwriter and record producer. He has worked with a wide variety of artists including Bruce Cockburn, Lucinda Williams, T-Bone Burnett, Colin James, Leon Redbone, Rita Chiarelli, Chris Thomas King and The Band.Linden is primarily a electric blues guitarist,...
; Stevie Jackson
Stevie Jackson
Stevie Jackson is a Scottish musician and songwriter. He plays lead guitar and sings in the Glasgow based indie band Belle & Sebastian. Jackson's guitar playing is distinctively retrogressive and melodic, with a heavy use of reverb and minimal effects...
(Belle & Sebastian); Harry Manx
Harry Manx
Harry Manx is a musician who blends blues, folk music, and Hindustani classical music. He was born in the Isle of Man where he spent his childhood and now lives on Saltspring Island, British Columbia, Canada....
; Jason Collett
Jason Collett
Jason Collett is a Toronto based singer-songwriter. He has released four solo albums, and is a member of Broken Social Scene. His latest album, Rat a Tat Tat, was released in March, 2010.-Early life:...
; Sarah Slean
Sarah Slean
Sarah Hope Slean is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet, and occasional actress from Pickering, Ontario. She has released eleven albums to date .-Major recordings:...
and musical director Kevin Breit
Kevin Breit
Kevin Breit is a guitar player from McKerrow, Ontario. His group, The Sisters Euclid, has been a fixture at the Orbit Room in Toronto for the past 13 years. Breit has worked as a session musician with a variety of musicians including The Miller Stain Limit, Norah Jones, Michael Kaeshammer, Celine...
.
Luminato 2009 featured the North American Premiere of Robert Lepage
Robert Lepage
Robert Lepage, is a playwright, actor, film director, and stage director from Québec City, Québec, and is one of Canada's most honoured theatre artists.- Life and work :...
’s nine-hour epic Lipsynch, which weaves together the stories of nine interconnected lives over the span of 70 years.
Author Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
presented the Canadian premiere of his latest novel, The Graveyard Book
The Graveyard Book
The Graveyard Book is a children's fantasy novel by English author Neil Gaiman. The story is about a boy named Nobody Owens, who after his family is murdered is adopted and raised by the occupants of a graveyard...
at the Jane Mallett Theatre. The event was moderated by Mark Askwith
Mark Askwith
Mark Askwith is a Canadian producer, writer, interviewer , and a familiar name in the fields of science fiction and comics.-Early life:...
(Producer at CTV’s SPACE).
Luminato 2009 also included RedBall Project by artist Kurt Perschke. The 15-foot inflatable ball was placed in a new location each day of the festival.
Luminato 2008
The second annual Luminato was June 6–15, 2008. The event featured 1,400 local artists and hosted 40 international arts managers and producers who were seeking new works to present abroad. According to a festival wrap-up report, Luminato attendance at ticketed events rose 11% from the first year’s attendance numbers.There were a number of free public events in the 2008 festival, including Luminato’s opening week celebrations at the Yonge-Dundas Square with the TELUS
TELUS
Telus is a national telecommunications company in Canada that provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services including internet access, voice, entertainment, video, and satellite television. The company is based in Burnaby, British Columbia, part of Greater Vancouver...
Light On Your Feet dance series. Luminato featured street artists using Toronto's public space as their open canvas in Streetscape Program. Another free event was Mille Femme, a tribute to 1,000 artistic, creative and inspiring women from Toronto and their protégés.
The festival also featured four world premiere events, and seven Canadian premiere events celebrating diversity and art. Programming highlights from the 2008 Luminato Festival included:
Black Watch
Black Watch
The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland is an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The unit's traditional colours were retired in 2011 in a ceremony led by Queen Elizabeth II....
, The National Theatre of Scotland’s theatrical piece by playwright Gregory Burke
Gregory Burke
Gregory Burke is a Scottish playwright from Rosyth, Fife, Scotland.-Life:His family moved to Gibraltar in 1979 and returned to Dunfermline in 1984. He attended St John's Primary in Rosyth, St Christopher's Middle School in Gibraltar, Bayside Comprehensive, Gibraltar and St Columba's High School,...
, based on interviews Burke conducted with former soldiers serving in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. The Herald (UK), gave it a five-star review and wrote “Black Watch is an astonishing artistic whirlwind. The world must see this play. Immediately.”
The Festival also featured director Tim Supple
Tim Supple
Timothy Supple is an English theatre and opera director.Tim Supple began working as an assistant director at the York Theatre Royal. Between 1988 and 1991 he directed at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, Leicester Haymarket and Chichester Festival Theatre Timothy (Tim) Supple (b. 1962) is an...
’s international version of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream presented by a company of 23 India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n and Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
n dancers, street acrobats, martial arts
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
experts, musicians, actors and performers. The play was performed in seven languages; English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
, Malayalam, Sinhalese, Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
, Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
, Marathi
Marathi language
Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...
, and Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
. The Daily Mail (UK) described it as “Ravishing and enchanting. Supple’s all-Indian production is a Dream as you’ve never seen it.”
Luminato presented Mikel Rouse
Mikel Rouse
Mikel Rouse is an American composer. He has been associated with a Downtown New York movement known as totalism, and is best known for his operas, including Dennis Cleveland, about a television talk show host, which Rouse wrote and starred in.Rouse writes music that is idiomatically and...
’s epic opera trilogy for the first time in repertory. The multi-media musical trilogy includes The End of Cinematics, a live video collage. In high contrast are Rouse’s solo show Failing Kansas, a multi-media opera directly inspired by Truman Capote
Truman Capote
Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...
’s In Cold Blood
In Cold Blood
In Cold Blood is a 1966 book by Truman Capote.In Cold Blood may also refer to:* In Cold Blood , a 1967 film and 1996 miniseries, both based on the book* In Cold Blood...
, and his talk show opera, Dennis Cleveland, a fusion of pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
and rhythmic structures.
Luminato 2007
The inaugural Luminato festival took place from June 1–10, 2007. The event featured over 1,300 local and 214 international artists participating in events taking place at over 30 venues across the downtown Toronto core. The festival had over 1,035,000 attendees present, both local Torontonians and tourists.Luminato’s program featured 10 world premiere events, including six commissioned or co-commissioned works: Book of Longing
Book of Longing
Book of Longing is the first new poetry book by Leonard Cohen since 1984's Book of Mercy. First published in 2006 by McClelland and Stewart, Book of Longing contains 167 previously unpublished poems and drawings, mostly written at a Zen monastery on Mount Baldy in California, where Cohen lived from...
, VIDA!, Norman, Not the Messiah, Pulse Front, and Auroras/Testimony.
Some highlights of Luminato’s inaugural festival included:
Book of Longing, a music theatre piece using Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
’s poetry set to music by Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
. Luminato hosted the inaugural performance of the international tour, which then continued to other festivals and venues around the world.
Not the Messiah (He’s a Very Naughty Boy), the comedic oratorio commissioned by Luminato, and written by Eric Idle
Eric Idle
Eric Idle is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, writer, and comedic composer. He was as a member of the British comedy group Monty Python, a member of the The Rutles on Saturday Night Live and author of the play, Spamalot....
& collaborator John Du Prez
John Du Prez
John Du Prez is a musician, conductor, and composer. Du Prez was a member of the 1980s multi-hit Salsa-driven pop band Modern Romance and has since written several Film scores including Oxford Blues and the final Carry On film, Carry On Columbus...
. Based on Life of Brian, the hour-long oratorio premiered at the Toronto festival before beginning an international tour.
Pulse Front: Relational Architecture 12 was a light installation produced by Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is a Mexican-Canadian electronic artist who works with ideas from architecture, technological theater and performance. He holds a Bachelors of Science in Physical Chemistry from Concordia University in Montreal...
and was situated at Toronto’s harbourfront. The installation was dependent on audience participation, with 20 onsite handlebars linked to computers that transmitted the heart beats of those who touched them to one of 20 searchlights streaming above Harbourfront Centre, Toronto.
Luminato Festival’s Core Values
The Luminato festival is centred on “celebrating the creative spirit” and defines three “pillars” to anchor the festival programming: collaboration, accessibility and diversity.According to the Toronto Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
, Luminato has been successful in meeting its stated core values thus far:
● Collaboration: Luminato works with existing arts groups; instead, Toronto’s cultural organizations were recruited as partners. (Including, the National Ballet, the Young Centre for the Performing Arts
Young Centre for the Performing Arts
- History :Gooderham and Worts was originally founded by James Worts, a British immigrant, in 1832. The company Became one of the worlds largest distilleries and in 1859 they constructed the largest distillery in Canada, also one of the largest in North America. This distillery is what remains...
, Soulpepper Academy, Harbourfront Centre
Harbourfront Centre
Harbourfront Centre is a key cultural organization on Toronto, Ontario's waterfront, situated at 235 Queen's Quay West. Established as a crown corporation in 1972 by the federal government to create a waterfront park, it became a non-profit organization in 1991. Funding comes from corporate...
, Tapestry, Theatre Direct, and the Art Gallery of Ontario
Art Gallery of Ontario
Under the direction of its CEO Matthew Teitelbaum, the AGO embarked on a $254 million redevelopment plan by architect Frank Gehry in 2004, called Transformation AGO. The new addition would require demolition of the 1992 Post-Modernist wing by Barton Myers and Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg...
.
● Accessibility: Approximately 80% of the events are free.
● Diversity: There is wide-range of programming, stretching from different cultural and artistic backgrounds.