Toronto to Celebrate Creative Spirit With "Luminato"

CCNMatthews (press release), Canada
July 31, 2006

The Toronto Festival of Arts & Creativity Announces New Name, World
Premiere Programming and Internationally-renowned Arts CEO

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(CCNMatthews – July 31, 2006) – Luminato, the new
Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity, was unveiled today with the
announcement of June 1-10, 2007 as the dates for the first of the
Festival’s annual celebrations.

The Festival, founded and co-chaired by Tony Gagliano, Executive
Chairman and CEO of St. Joseph Communications and David Pecaut,
Senior Partner at The Boston Consulting Group and Chair of the Toronto
City Summit Alliance, will celebrate the creative spirit across all
the arts each year. The Festival will feature the best of Canadian
and international artists in music, theatre, dance, visual arts,
film, design, literature and other disciplines. It will include both
ticketed and free events throughout the city engaging residents and
tourists in what is hoped to become, over time, one of the great arts
festivals in the world.

"Our vision started with the premise that Toronto, one of the most
culturally diverse cities in the world, has the potential to become
one of the most creative cities, as well," said Gagliano. "Luminato,
in time, will bring the best of the world to Toronto, and the best
of Toronto to the world."

An original name and brand was chosen to signal the festival’s unique
focus on celebrating creativity. "In choosing the Festival’s new name
– Luminato – we wanted to capture the essence of the creative spirit,
so we chose the notion of light, hence ‘lumina,’" said Pecaut. "It was
also important to capture the spirit of the city of Toronto itself,
which is exemplified by ‘TO.’ We hope ‘Luminato’ will become synonymous
with the power of the arts to enlighten all of us."

Following on an earlier announcement in July, the founders were
also pleased to formally introduce Luminato’s newly appointed Chief
Executive Officer, Janice Price. A veteran international arts leader,
Ms. Price was most recently President and CEO of The Kimmel Center
for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia and was both the Interim
Executive Director and Vice President of Marketing and Communications
at New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Ms. Price began
her career in Toronto, working with the Hummingbird Centre for the
Performing Arts, the Stratford Festival and the Corporation of Massey
Hall and Roy Thomson Hall. She has also served as a board member for
Factory Theatre, the Toronto Dance Theatre, the United Way of Greater
Toronto and the Casey House Foundation of Toronto.

Ms. Price will lead the non profit organization in developing Luminato
into one of the world’s great arts festivals attracting a large local,
national and international audience to Toronto. "I’m looking forward
to reconnecting with Toronto artists and audiences," said Price. "I’ve
spent many years managing cultural facilities, and know first hand the
positive impact those facilities have in a community. But what drew me
to this amazing opportunity was the chance to come home and create a
truly world-class festival of artistic collaboration and creativity —
one that can expand beyond walls in its engagement with audiences."

The Festival has received significant support to date, including
generous contributions and backing from governments, as well as
numerous arts, business and civic leaders.

"The Government of Ontario is contributing $2-million in development
funding to help launch the first Luminato Festival," said The
Honourable Greg Sorbara, Ontario’s Minister of Finance. "This Festival
builds on the many creative investments in Toronto in recent years
and will provide an opportunity for us to invite the world to Toronto
each year to celebrate the creative achievements of both Canadian
and international artists."

The City of Toronto has also been very supportive in the development of
the Festival. "This festival fits with the City of Toronto’s broader
vision of building on Toronto’s reputation as a city rich in arts
and culture and underscores our desire to have Toronto become known
throughout the world as a creative city," said Mayor David Miller. "The
City is supportive of initiatives like this one."

Today’s announcement also provided a tantalizing glimpse of what
Torontonians and visitors can expect in the next year in terms of
the Festival’s programming. Luminato will begin on June 1, 2007 and
run through an exciting 10 day program, including the debut of world
premiere events. A sampling of the programming includes:

Opening Weekend – Royal Ontario Museum

The Festival will launch in conjunction with the opening of the
Royal Ontario Museum’s Michael Lee-Chin Crystal on June 2, 2007. An
evening outdoor ceremony will feature the public debut of the dazzling
Daniel Libeskind-designed building, outdoor concerts and free museum
access all night long. There will be illuminations, entertainment,
and dancing in the street as the ROM celebrates the opening of the
Lee-Chin Crystal and kicks off a week of festivities for the Toronto
Arts Festival. Plans are also underway for a Luminato street festival
surrounding the ROM throughout the weekend.

"Not the Messiah" – by Spamalot creators Eric Idle and John Du Prez

Luminato and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra have commissioned an
oratorio from Spamalot Tony and Grammy Award winning duo Eric Idle
and John Du Prez to write the music and lyrics of a new work based on
Monty Python’s Life of Brian. The oratorio will be called "Not the
Messiah". The Festival is proud to present the world premiere. "It
will be funnier than Handel, though not as good," said Idle. Not the
Messiah will be conducted by Peter Oundjian, Music Director of the
Toronto Symphony Orchestra, who is also Eric Idle’s full cousin. It
will be performed by a narrator, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra,
with guest soloists and choir.

Visual Arts Display – Atom Egoyan and Kutlug Ataman –
"Auroras/Testimony"

"Auroras/Tes timony" will be a collaborative multi-media installation
created for the Festival with the Art Gallery of Ontario and exhibited
in a public space in Toronto. It is the world premiere of a co-creation
by two artists, an Armenian-Canada and a Turkish-Argentinean, who found
commonalities in each other’s work when introduced to one another in
New York last year.

Young Centre for the Performing Arts and The Distillery District

Throughout the ten days of the Festival, in the various venues of the
Young Centre for the Performing Arts and throughout the Distillery
District, celebrations will be held in theatre, dance, music, and
visual arts with the remarkable community of artists that live and
work in Toronto. As well as showcasing some of the most inspiring work
the artists have created, the Distillery portion of Luminato will
present original collaborations between disciplines and generations
with a particular emphasis on youth and emerging artists.

Closing Weekend – Waterfront – "Carnivalissima: A Spectacle of
the Senses"

Carnivalissima will be a bold celebration of Carnivals of the World,
including Brazilian, Caribbean, European, Lenten Winter Festivals
(Venice, Switzerland, Brussels, Spain), Latin and Mardi Gras.

Produced by Luminato and Harbourfront Centre, the Carnivalissima
will become a huge celebratory street party of carnivals, parades
and other spectacles, including a bold fusion of local, national and
international spectacle on the streets, on the stages, and in the
water. The Festival will use carnival traditions found in diverse
Toronto communities as a launching point for a carnival "extravaganza."

Additional information on Luminato can be found at

About Luminato

Luminato is a non-profit organization created to oversee the management
of the city’s most significant multi-disciplinary celebration of
artistic achievement and creativity launching in June 2007. The annual
festival will celebrate the creative spirit across all the arts. It
was formed as an initiative of the Toronto City Summit Alliance and by
leaders of Toronto’s arts and cultural communities. The Toronto City
Summit Alliance is a non-profit corporation dedicated to building
the Toronto region through broad civic leadership. The Alliance is
directed by a Steering Group of 50 leaders from the private, labour,
volunteer and public sectors and can be contacted through its website:
Torontoalliance.ca.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress