Arts Alive! Québec 2022 – Day 1

All of the Arts Alive! Quebec activities are free and do not require registration.

“Built Heritage” is the theme of Arts Alive! 2022, bringing together musicians, artists and artisans for two days of celebrations. On Friday, August 19, the festival will host two concerts during which a Quebec City painter will create a painting inspired by the music. The painting will be officially revealed the following day.

Friday, August 19, 2022

7:30 p.m. – Concert with The Aurian Haller Band

After an EP and four albums, indie folk ensemble The Aurian Haller Band has established its place in the Quebec music scene. Combining folk with jazz riffs, spoken word, and rock guitar solos, AHB offers a rich sonic palette of brass, strings, electronics, and poetry. Poet and singer-songwriter Aurian Haller has won national awards for his writing inspired by the likes of Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell.

9:00 p.m. – Concert with The Blaze Velluto Collection

Photo credit: Maxime Delbeque

On Stage, Blaze Velluto is supported by Little Miss Roy (Vocals), Sheenah Ko (Keyboards, Percussion, and vocals), Guillaume Chiasson (Bass and Vocals), and Jean-Étienne Collin-Marcoux (Percussion and Vocals). This collection of players forms a community of musicians that brilliantly convey the cinematographic quality of Blaze’s music through spells cast by electric guitars, a pallet of percussive colors, choirs of another world, organs that tremble as mountains do, and, when all goes well, strings to accentuate the exaltation and inherent lyricism of his music. Blaze has traveled far and wide throughout Quebec (Pop Montreal, Le Festif!, FME), Ontario (Canadian Music Week, River and Sky) as well as the Maritimes (Halifax Pop Explosion) for both professional engagements and personal growth. The Blaze Velluto Collection tell stories of these travels, fables of hallucinated memories in a haze of country of the great outdoors and the 60’s greatest hits – timeless music, immersive and hard-hitting.

‘’I don’t have a favorite fruit, as long as it’s ripe ‘’ – Blaze Velluto

7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. – Live painting with Julie Freedom

Julie Freedom’s pictorial universe explores the relationship of humans with nature, appealing to the intimate and universal within each of us. Her work, introspective and partially autobiographical, evokes spirituality and draws on this fragile and precious space that is in each of us.

Born in the Lotbinière region, Julie “Freedom” Laliberté now lives and creates in Quebec City. Painting and drawing have always been her favorite means of expression, starting at a very young age. Despite her scholarly and professional tribulations, painting always resurfaced, until it imposed itself as the only path to take. It is therefore after 8 years of teaching arts that she dove into her artistic career. She has just given birth to her first child and it is with joy that she undertakes this new adventure which will certainly bring to her a wind of renewal.

Her paintings aim to soothe the soul of the onlooker as much as that of the painter, and to allow them to live a fleeting glimpse of freedom.

See the full festival programming here!

The Arts Alive! Québec festival started as an initiative by the English-language Arts Network, a not-for-profit organization that connects, supports, and promotes Quebec’s English-speaking artists and art communities. Over the past five years, several regions throughout the province have participated in Arts Alive! Québec. These festivals have featured their local artistic communities with events reflecting local tastes and customs. In 2021, the Morrin Centre is proud to feature Quebec City’s artistic community for a sixth consecutive year with its own take on the festival. Arts Alive! Québec is an opportunity to come together and to celebrate local English-language creativity while building bridges between English-speaking and French-speaking communities.

This project is made possible by the support of the Government of Canada and of Québecor.

We also thank les Producteurs de lait de Capitale-Nationale–Côte-Nord and the Groupe Satir Productions for their contribution to the project.