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School and Youth Bands in Canada

Bands came into favour in Canadian schools at the beginning of the 20th century. Educators, parents, and civic leaders recognized early the worth of the band as an adjunct to school games, dances, and other events. They also saw in it an attractive music-teaching device and an excellent means of building co-operative and coordinated behaviour and stimulating school spirit. More recently, bands have become accepted as vehicles for international cultural and educational exchange. Many Canadian school bands have undertaken international tours, winning awards and recognition.

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Walk off the Earth

Burlington, Ontario’s Walk off the Earth (WOTE) are an indie-pop band known for their innovative videos, carefully crafted cover songs, strong vocal harmonies and unique blend of folk, rock, pop and reggae. The band rose from relative obscurity in early 2012 and became an international sensation with their cover of the Goyte song “Somebody That I Used to Know.” The video, featuring the five band members performing the song simultaneously on one guitar, became one of the most watched YouTube videos that year. WOTE’s adventurous yet accessible pop sound has helped earn the band multiple Canadian Radio Music Awards, two SOCAN Awards and a 2016 Juno Award for Group of the Year.  

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Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner)

Based on an ancient Inuit folktale, Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner) is the first Inuktitut-language feature film ever made. A critically-acclaimed commercial success, it won numerous awards worldwide, including the Camera d’or for best first feature at the Cannes Film Festival and five Genie Awards, including Best Screenplay, Best Direction and Best Motion Picture, as well as the Claude Jutra Award (now the Canadian Screen Award for Best First Feature). It is widely considered one of the best Canadian films ever made, and in 2015 was ranked No. 1 of all time in a poll conducted by the Toronto International Film Festival (see Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time).

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The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood’s sixth novel, The Handmaid's Tale (1985) is a chilling dystopian vision of the future. It is set in the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian America in which fundamentalist Christians have killed the president and Congress and imposed a puritanical theocracy. The Handmaid's Tale portrays a loveless police state that oppresses women and regulates all aspects of human life with constant surveillance. The novel won the Governor General's Literary Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction Literature. It has sold more than eight million copies in English. The Washington Post’s Ron Charles called it “the most popular and influential feminist novel ever written.” It has been adapted into a feature film, an acclaimed opera, a ballet, an Emmy Award-winning television series and a graphic novel. The Testaments, a highly anticipated sequel written by Atwood, was published in September 2019. It was awarded the Booker Prize in a rare tie with Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other.

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Decorative Arts in Canada

Fine art is meant to be contemplated and interpreted; decorative art is designed to be used and enjoyed. Nonetheless, there is no sharp boundary between the decorative and the fine arts. Yet for thousands of years, people have fashioned everything from totem poles and shaman’s rattles to elaborately carved stone and ivory knives and harpoons. These items served ritual and practical purposes and carried with them both spiritual and historical meanings. There is no reason to think a useful object cannot also be a bearer of meaning. Contemporary Canadian artists and artisans continue to blur the lines between decorative and fine art.

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Waterloo Music Company Ltd.

Waterloo Music Company Ltd. Publishing and instrument retailing firm founded in 1921 by Charles F. Thiele in Waterloo, Ont. Thiele was sole owner until 1951, when Waterloo Music became a limited company with Thiele as president (1951-4; followed by R.P.

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Broken Social Scene

Broken Social Scene is an indie rock band formed in Toronto by core members Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning in 1999. They recorded their primarily instrumental album Feel Good Lost with help from a handful of friends. It was released in 2001 and more people were added to fill out its sounds on stage.

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Cirque du Soleil

Las Vegas is the last place you would expect to find art. The city rises from the Nevada desert like a pop-up cartoon of American consumerism.

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Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra

In 1944, with the prospects for a symphony orchestra for Winnipeg enhanced by the CBC's plans for a regular broadcasting orchestra, the Winnipeg Civic Music League was organized. The league established a joint stock company, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra Ltd.

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Folk Music

Few countries possess a folk music as rich and culturally varied as Canada's. Traditional folk music of European origin has been present in Canada since the arrival of the first French and British settlers in the 16th and 17th centuries (see Folk Music, Anglo-Canadian; Folk music, Franco-Canadian).

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Video Art

Twentieth-century video art is rooted in 19th-century science. It was the discovery of the cathode ray tube and the electron in 1897 which provided the basis for the electronic reproduction and transmission of images.

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Alexisonfire

Alexisonfire. Post-hardcore band, formed in 2001 in St. Catharines, Ontario and originally consisting of vocalist George Pettit, guitarist and vocalist Dallas Green, guitarist Wade MacNeil, bassist Christopher Steele and drummer Jesse Ingelevics. In 2005, Ingelevics was replaced by Jordan Hastings.

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Alberta Ballet Company

The Alberta Ballet Company was founded in Edmonton in 1958 by Ruth Carse as an amateur troupe under the name of Dance Interlude. It was incorporated in 1961 as the Edmonton Ballet Company and reconstituted in 1966 as a professional dance ensemble under its present name. Carse retired in 1975.

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Asian Canadian Theatre

Asian Canadian theatre started early in the 20th century with lavish performances of traditional Cantonese operas. Today, Asian Canadian playwrights like Ins Choi address the struggles of everyday life in Canada.