5 things to do in Metro Vancouver Dec. 8-14

This week’s events around Metro Vancouver include Music on Main's Music for the Winter Solstice.

Whether you’re looking for date-night ideas, free things to do or just something fun to do with the kids, you can’t go wrong with our list of events happening around Metro Vancouver between Dec. 8-14. Headlining this week’s picks is Music on Main’s Winter Solstice concerts.

For more ideas, click HERE for our coverage of Vancouver’s Arts scene.

Here are 5 things to do in Metro Vancouver this week:

Music for the Winter Solstice

When: Dec. 14 & 15

Where: Heritage Hall, 3102 Main St., Vancouver

Tickets: $49/18 (students & arts workers) at musiconmain.ca

Music on Main’s popular annual festive concert features pianist Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, keyboardist Robyn Jacob, tenor Asitha Tennekoon, and cellist Jonathan Lo. They’ll perform Solstice favourites such as Caroline Shaw’s Winter Carol and the Wyrd Sisters’ Solstice Carole as well as songs from Jacob’s art-pop quintet Only a Visitor and Alfredo Santa Ana’s A Short Song for the Longest Night of the Year. The candlelit event usually sells out.

Mae Martin: Sap

Where: Vogue Theatre, 918 Granville St., Vancouver

Tickets: $37-90 at admitone.com

One of the best things about the Prime comedy show LOL: Last One Laughing Canada, Mae Martin is the co-writer, creator and star of the semi-autobiographical comedy series Feel Good and star of a standup special, Mae Martin: Dope, both on Netflix. In Martin’s latest live endeavour, the Canadian comic covers sloths, moose, hotdogs, love, tree sap, and trying to do the right thing. According to a reviewer at pastemagazine.com, “The show represents a maturation in Martin’s work, less about curbing addictive behaviours than recasting one’s gaze entirely.” Martin has also released two radio series for the BBC, and wrote the YA book Can Everyone Please Calm Down? A Guide to 21st Century Sexuality.

Arash Khakpour and Emmalena Fredriksson: You Touch Me

When: Dec. 8-10

Where: Scotiabank Dance Centre, 677 Davie St., Vancouver

Tickets: $34/25 at thedancecentre.ca

Vancouver-based choreographers/dancers Arash Khakpour and Emmalena Fredriksson present the world premiere of a series of duets with an ensemble of people raised outside of B.C. Using dance and text, the duets are said to “investigate notions of ‘self’ and ‘other,’ cultural identity, race and gender.” Performers include Luciana Freire D’Anunciação, Isabelle Kirouac, Juolin Lee, Natalie Tin Yin Gan, as well as Khakpour and Fredrisksson. The creators are originally from Iran and Sweden, respectively.

Vancouver Bach Choir & Vancouver Opera Orchestra: Handel’s Messiah and Christmas with the Bach Choir

When and where: Dec. 10 at Orpheum Theatre, 601 Smithe St., Vancouver, and Dec 11 at ACT Arts Centre, 11944 Haney Pl., Maple Ridge

Tickets: $20-70 at vancouverbachchoir.com for the Orpheum concert; $29-49 at theactmapleridge.org for the ACT concert

The Vancouver Bach Choir presents has two concerts left of traditional seasonal choral music. On Dec. 10, the VBC is joined by members of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra at the Orpheum for Handel’s Messiah. The choir and orchestra, under the baton of conductor Leslie Dala, are joined by Canadian soloists Melody Courage, Marion Newman, Asitha Tennekoon and Clarence Frazer. New this season, the VBC performs for the first time in Maple Ridge Dec. 11. A Christmas with the Bach Choir features soloists, the Touch of Brass quintet and organist Michael Dirk performing seasonal favourites, including excerpts from The Messiah, and new and traditional carols, including sing-along audience perennials.

Living Hour

When: Dec. 9

Where: Red Gate, 1965 Main St., Vancouver

Tickets: $15 at redgate.tv

Fans of the American band Beach House will enjoy Living Hour’s languid beats and gauzy melodies, which have received accolades from Pitchfork to The Manitoban. The Winnipeg quartet is touring in support of Someday is Today, the Winnipeg quartet’s third album. In a media release, bassist/keyboardist/vocalist Sam Sarty says the record’s single Middle Name is about “getting stuck with yourself, forever, like an assigned middle name, or DNA. Some of it’s already built in, but mostly you’ll be walking around as you, doing dishes, meeting people, untangling what it means, being busy being busy… You, always it’s you!” Portland’s Dear Nora, featuring singer/songwriter Katy Davidson, and Vancouver’s Apollo Ghosts open.

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