Returning Berezan promises `uplifting evening'
California musician, political activist and spiritual educator Jennifer Berezan was born in Edmonton and spent her early years here.
Over a ten-album career, she's collaborated with Bruce Cockburn, recorded in a 6,000-yearold temple in Malta and even had a month declared in her name in Berkeley where she now lives.
“Edmonton always felt like the musical and artistic centre of Alberta,” she notes. “I developed as a singer-songwriter playing the festivals, clubs, theatres and political events in the city. I have such great memories of the audiences I grew up with and can't wait to return.”
The 63-year-old singer is currently touring with her new album, Belonging, recently profiled in France's version of Rolling Stone.
“It was in part born out of the pandemic and though it gives a voice to the grief and loss many have felt, it is imbued with an atmospheric healing quality that expresses connection, hope and gratitude,” says the meditation-enriched practising Buddhist.
“There's a lot of Canada in the new music, including songs about early love in the Prairies, connection to the mountains and the lands of the north.”
Berezan is touring with longtime musical partner Chris Webster, who's opened for kd lang, The Band, Asleep at the Wheel and Anthony Costello.
“We will be joined on vocals by Edmonton's own Jenn Dahlen of the Ann Vriend band,” she adds.
The show is 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Old Strathcona Performing Arts Centre (8426 Gateway Blvd.), tickets $36 at jenniferberezan.com.
“It will be an uplifting evening featuring songs from Belonging and other favourites. Lots of lush harmonies and percussive grooves.”
ART
5/3-31: Larysa Matchak, Mariia Parshykova & Svitlana Melobenska (Alberta Council for the Ukrainian Arts) 5/4-15: Jessica Desmoulin (Bearclaw)
5/4-5/29: Larry Reese and Anne Wheeler: Art Inspiring Art (Trinity)
Thru 5/4: Santosh Korthiwada: Inseparable Fragments (Art Gallery of St. Albert)
Thru 5/5: Brenda Draney: Drink from the River (AGA)
Thru 5/5: Emmanuel Osahor: I made this place for you (AGA)
Thru 5/7: The Long and Short of It Edmonton Art Club Spring Show (NOA Gallery)
Thru 5/8: Modern Landscapes group show (Peter Robertson)
Thru 5/11: Greg Swain: El Hombre Esqueleto (Collins)
Thru 5/12: Within Duration group show (Rutherford Library)
Thru 5/18: Coming Up Next (Alberta Craft Gallery)
Thru 5/19: Pam Wilman, Marla Schole: Two Views (Walterdale)
Thru 5/26: Braxton Garneau: Pay Dirt (AGA)
Thru 6/2: Creating Beauty — A Watercolour Exhibition (AGA)
Thru 6/8: Caitlin Thompson: PANORAMADA (Harcourt)
Thru 6/8: Krissya Iraheta: All Guts No Glory (Harcourt)
Thru 6/15: Minutiae (Alberta Craft Gallery)
Thru 6/22: Echoes of Thunder: Unveiling the Mythical Chinese Dragon (U of A Museums)
Thru 6/29: The Wild Side: Polar Prairie Pacific (Musée Héritage Museum)
Thru 8/4: Dwayne Martineau: Boreal Fortress (AGA)
Thru 9/29: Here & Now (RAM)
Thru 12/31: Damian Moppett: Untitled Abstract Object in Space (AGA)
BOOKS
5/2: Gary Kinsman's The Regulation of Desire launch (Audreys)
5/5: Alberta Literary Awards: An Afternoon with the Finalists (Audreys)
5/7: E.D. Blodgett's Walking Into God launch (Audreys)
5/8: Robert J. Sawyer's The Downloaded launch (Audreys)
COMEDY
5/2-5: Trixx (Comic Strip)
5/3-4: Chris Heward (Comedy Factory)
5/3-4: John Beuhler (Yuk Yuk's)
5/4: Todd Barry (Comic Strip)
EXHIBITS
Thru 7/28: Angkor: The Lost Empire of Cambodia (RAM)
Thru 9/9: Dinosaurs: The Exhibition (TWOSE)
FESTIVALS
Thru 5/4: Jubalani Arts Festival (Roxy)
FILM
5/3: Dawn of the Dead 45th anniversary (Metro)
5/3: In Search of Professor Precarious (Co*Lab)
5/8: With Pleasure (Aviary)
MUSIC
5/2: Forester, Norell, Conversation, Runt (Buckingham)
5/2: Rory Gardiner (Maclab)
5/2: Lorna MacLachlan (Yardbird)
5/2: VIBES, Pre-Breaker, No Skies, Sound Foundation (Aviary)
5/2-4: ESO Classics: Schubert's Unfinished Symphony (Winspear)
5/3: Chali 2na, DJ Shrub (Starlite)
5/3: Delirium Street Party Brass, Ali Wick (River City Revival)
5/3: Tina Hartt (Yardbird)
5/3: Kill Witch, Supermodel Taxidermy, Heir To Ash, Kilusan (Dive Bar)
5/3: Lacerator, Rising Sun, Castic Fog (Aviary)
5/3: Morning Coyote, Leon's Getting Larger, Stadium 11, Delta 88 (Blakbar)
5/4: Jennifer Berezan (OSPAC)
5/4: Jay Gilday (Cask and Barrel) 5/4: Land of Talk (Aviary)
5/4: Lavs, Yuusic, Senderson, Chad Lucas, Slayhumble (Dive Bar)
5/4: Mill Creek Colliery Band: Across the Stars (Robertson-Wesley)
5/4: Rumba Caliente (Yardbird)
5/4: So Noted Singers: Les Mis (St. Albert United)
5/4: Talk, Lord of the Flies & Birds & Bees (Midway)
5/4: Land of Talk, Bells Larsen, Cassia Hardy (Aviary)
5/4: Ido van der Laan (Black Dog)
5/5: River City Big Band: The Planets and Beyond (Yardbird)
5/6: Better Lovers, See You Space Cowboy, Foreign Hands (Starlite)
5/7: Tuesday Jam hosted by Mallory Chipman (Yardbird)
5/7: Electric Six, Supersuckers, Volk Volk (Starlite)
5/7: Static X, Sevendust (Midway)
5/8: The Harpoonist, Land Lady, Sanit & Scream, Darryl Matthews (Soho)
5/8: Violent Femmes (Winspear)
5/8: VISSIA, J SCOPE (Aviary)
THEATRE/ DANCE
5/3: Edmonton's Downtown Queer History (MacEwan University)
5/3-4: Ballet Edmonton's Unir (Triffo)
Thru 5/4: Improvised Dungeons & Dragons (Rapid Fire)
5/5: The Rocky Horror Picture Show Drag Reimagining (Evolution)
5/7: Candace Bushnell: True Tales of Sex, Success and Sex in the City (Festival Place)
5/8: All Elite Wrestling (Rogers)
Thru 5/12: The Three Musketeers (Citadel)
Thru 5/12: Tiny Beautiful Things (Varscona)
Thru 6/16: Grease (Mayfield)
Thru 6/29: The 11 O'clock Number: Season 12 (Grindstone)