The first wave of acts booked for this summer’s TD Victoria International JazzFest has been announced, and among them are a veteran soul singer, jazz legend and upstart bassist.
Herbie Hancock leads the top-tier acts slated to appear at the annual 10-day festival running June 21-June 30. The jazz icon, winner of 14 Grammy Awards, is set for a Royal Theatre performance on June 29.
Detroit native Bettye LaVette, a soul singer who resumed her long-dormant career to great acclaim in 2005, is booked to play at the Broughton Street venue on June 21.
Singer-bassist Esperanza Spalding and her 12-piece outfit, the Radio Music Society, will take the Royal Theatre stage on June 22. Spalding, 28, turned heads when she beat Justin Bieber, Mumford and Sons and others by winning best new artist at the 2011 Grammy Awards.
The full lineup of JazzFest acts will be announced in April. For more information, go to jazzvictoria.ca.
Tickets go on sale Feb. 7 at the Royal Theatre and McPherson Playhouse box office, by phone at 250-386-6121 or online at rmts.bc.ca. — Mike Devlin
Shania centreto be torn down
TIMMINS, Ont. — A tourist attraction celebrating country-pop singer Shania Twain has officially be-come a money pit of taxpayer dollars.
The Shania Twain Centre in this northern Ontario community permanently closed its doors Friday, barely a dozen years after its grand opening. It will be demolished to become part of an open-pit gold mine.
The centre consumed about $10 million in government funds for its construction in 2000-2001, and racked up more than $1 million in operating deficits in the years since.
— The Canadian Press
Jailed punkerput in hospital
MOSCOW — Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a jailed member of the Pussy Riot feminist punk band, has been hospitalized after complaining of headaches and suffering from overwork at a prison colony known for its tough conditions, her lawyer said Friday.
Tolokonnikova has suffered from headaches since last spring. Her condition has worsened since October, when she was sent to a prison colony to serve her two-year sentence for the band’s protest against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow’s main cathedral, lawyer Irina Khrunova said. — AP
Orchestra getsnew conductor
NEW YORK — Valery Gergiev has been appointed principal conductor of the Munich Philharmonic starting with the 2015-16 season. He will succeed Lorin Maazel.
Gergiev, 59, remains artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, a position he has held since 1988.
— The Associated Press
PlayStationupdate coming?
NEW YORK — Sony is poised to unveil the next PlayStation game console on Feb. 20, a date that would give the company a head start over Microsoft’s expected announcement of an Xbox 360 successor in June.
Sony Corp. invited journalists to a press event in New York City. The company has not said what it plans to show off, but signs indicate that it’ll be the PlayStation 4. — AP
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