Something very special happened at the National Arts Centre Gala on Saturday night.
It took place while Canadian singing legend Jann Arden and her musicians were on stage with the NAC Orchestra, performing her 1994 hit Could I Be Your Girl. Several audience members in the front row of Southam Hall rose to their feet and began moving rhythmically to the music, their arms waving in the air. Their action prompted more people to join in. Soon, the majority of the audience of nearly 2,000 was clapping, singing along and swaying to the music, looking happy and carefree while collectively connecting to the music.
The gala concert was the perfect high note for Adrian Burns to end her time as chair of the board of trustees at the NAC. She steps down this December, after 20 years on the board. She’s served as chair for the past eight of them.
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For Ginger Bertrand, some of her earliest childhood memories in Ottawa are centred around healthcare. “I grew up across the street from what was originally the General Hospital,” she explains,
“I think that this was the National Arts Centre at its best,” she proudly told OBJ.social after the show was over.
“I’ve known Jann Arden for years but I think she pulled out all the stops,” said Burns, calling the performance from the nine-time Juno Award winner “fabulous”.
The evening marked a superb comeback for the gala, which was last held in 2019, before COVID crushed concerts and crowds everywhere.
After the show, everyone could take advantage of clocks going back an hour by heading to the free party in the lobby. There was also a 350-person dinner held with top corporate sponsors and individual donors on Southam Hall stage.
Well-known journalist and ardent music lover Paul Wells saw the strong audience engagement during the concert as a positive sign for the NAC, a national showcase for the performing arts. “It’s actually really important that the community can feel like this is their house, too,” Wells told OBJ.social at the post-concert reception. For the record, he did not groove during the show (“I’m a bit of a stick in the mud”, he joked, self-deprecatingly) but his wife, Lisa Samson, did.
Erin Benjamin, president and CEO of the Canadian Live Music Association, called Arden’s performance “absolutely incredible” to watch. “I think there’s nothing more important than coming together at a concert at the NAC to experience this exodus from a very difficult time and our future together through music.”
Making the night even more memorable was the news that the gala had raised just over $1 million for the Adrian Burns Fund for Women Leaders in the Performing Arts. The announcement was made on stage by honorary chair Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, wife of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Jayne Watson, CEO of the NAC Foundation. With Remembrance Day right around the corner, Watson wore a very pretty poppy-printed dress by Canadian designer Tanya Taylor.
The new fund will create opportunities across the country for professional skills development in the performing arts for women while, at the same time, honouring the legacy of a leader. That Burns served 20 years on the NAC board is remarkable, Watson told OBJ.social earlier, as she and NAC president and CEO Christopher Deacon prepared to greet arriving guests. “I think it shows how highly regarded she is among the circles that makes those decisions,” said Watson, calling Burns a trailblazer.
Burns, who was born and raised in Regina, has strong ties to Calgary and Ottawa. She’s had a distinguished and brilliant career in business, corporate and public governance, broadcasting, and the arts. She’s received numerous awards and recognitions, including being honorary captain of the Royal Canadian Navy.
Burns and her husband, lawyer Greg Kane, first got involved with the NAC around 1990 through its annual fundraising gala. They went on to chair the event, both separately and together.
This year’s NAC Gala concert was about shining the spotlight on women artists. The first half of the show featured the NAC Orchestra under the baton of Cuban-born Cosette Justo Valdés, resident conductor of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. Also featured were the talents of soprano Jonelle Sills and mezzo-soprano Simona Genga.
After intermission, Arden took to the stage. She was joined by maestro Elizabeth Baird, who was serenaded with the Happy Birthday song on her special day by the Arden, the orchestra and an audience that sounded, joked Arden, like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
While Arden was wickedly funny throughout, making her audience laugh at every turn, she also shared some personal stuff. She talked about how her father’s alcoholism and unpredictable behaviour led to her developing an interest in music. She would escape down to the basement to pass time with her mom’s old guitar while listening to vinyl records from Columbia House. “I’d start making up songs when I was 10 or 11 years old,” said Arden about life’s silver linings.
Arden, who hails from rural southern Alberta, also expressed deep concerns over Canada as a divided country, telling the audience that the nation will recover with some “patience and just a little bit of breathing room”.
As well, she told her listeners how much she’s enjoyed being an unofficial ambassador for Canada during her three decades of touring around the world. “I’m proud to be from here. I’m so proud. Nothing is going to diminish that. I’m never not going to be a Canadian girl, and I owe this country everything I have.”
Among the attendees were Lt. Gov. of Ontario Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Treasury Board President Mona Fortier, Ottawa mayor-elect Mark Sutcliffe and outgoing mayor Jim Watson, Canada Council for the Arts CEO Simon Brault, CBC president and CEO Catherine Tait, retired NAC CEO Peter Herrndorf, and deputy minister Isabelle Mondoufrom Canadian Heritage. Also seen was Ottawa’s busiest banker Marjolaine Hudon, regional president of RBC, which was among the major sponsors.
