Former Nylon Micah Barnes to perform in Victoria
The Victoria Playhouse will present jazz crooner Micah Barnes and pianist Holly Arsenault in concert Monday, Aug. 6, beginning at 7:30 p.m. Barnes has been a treasured voice on the Canadian music scene for decades, and is a former member of the popular A Capella group The Nylons. He began his career in the cabarets and jazz clubs of Toronto while still a teenager and became a well-loved singer/songwriter on the Queen Street scene before joining The Nylons and touring the world. Recording with the A Capella Pop act brought Barnes into the global music scene and landed him in Venice Beach, California, where he launched a solo career touring the U.S. Barnes’ latest show, “New York Stories,” which he is presenting in Victoria, is a musical tour of the Big Apple featuring favourite songs from the world of Broadway, jazz and Doo Wop from legendary New York songwriters like Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Carole King and Burt Bacharach, as well as numbers from Barnes’s critically acclaimed disc “New York Stories.” The piano has been Arsenault’s favourite toy since the age of four when she came upon the tired old upright at her grandmother’s house in Cape Breton, N.S. In the years since, she has travelled the globe as a pit musician, music director, sideman, soloist and leader of her own trio. Arsenault currently lives and plays in Halifax, N.S., with forays into the wider world as opportunities and adventures beckon. For tickets call the Playhouse box office at 1-800-925-2025 or order online at www.victoriaplayhouse.com.