http://michellekaz.com/news.html Michelle Kaz: News Jannis' PHPRss class - http://www.jannis.to/ Sun, 20 May 2012 01:33:47 -0700 http://michellekaz.com/news.html#45
It has been quite a while since I have written any entries, as many of you know I was traveling across Canada from September to December. I started in Halifax, Nova Scotia and made my way through every province, making it all the way to Victoria, British Columbia! It was a great trip and amazing to see so many beautiful and neat places. As Canadians we are generally pretty proud of our country, but from my personal experience I can say that experiencing Canada from coast to coast brings that pride to a whole new level! You also realize how expansive it really is, as I traveled by train and bus mostly and it took almost TWO days just to get out of Ontario! I learned so much on my journey; about Canada, its history and parks; and about myself, as tends to be the case on travels such as these!

With all of that being said, why not kick off the New Year, and my debut performance back (!), with a kick-butt, fellow Canadian?

THIS Friday, Saturday and Sunday OLG Casino Thousand Islands presents A Musical Tribute to Kenny & Shania! The performance will take place at the Firehall Theatre in Gananoque, with Friday and Saturday shows at 8:00 PM and a 2:30 PM matinee on Sunday. Cliff Edwards, former member of the Canadian 70s group, the Bells ("Stay Awhile"), will be covering the classic country of Kenny Rogers, while I myself take on the new country hits of Shania Twain! Of course we'll have to throw a couple surprises in there too.

My apologies for the late notice, but I do hope that many of you can make it to a show this weekend; it is looking to be a great run of performances! I am definitely excited about this one; the theatre will be set up cabaret style for you (tables and chairs) - and I even get own dressing room! Exciting I tell you!

For tickets you can call the Thousand Islands Playhouse at 613-382-7020, or purchase online at www.1000islandplayhouse.com.

I hope you have all been doing well and have had a great start to your 2012 so far. I look forward to seeing lots of faces in the crowd this weekend!

Sincerely,

Michelle :)]]> http://michellekaz.com/news.html#45 Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800 The Official Site - Michelle Kaz - News http://michellekaz.com/news.html#44
I hope you are all doing well and soaking up the summer sun whenever you can!

I have a busy summer ahead of me with gigs and I would like to fill you in on some of the upcoming ones. Tonight, tomorrow (FRIDAY!!) and this Sunday I will be performing as the vocalist for the Sounds of Jazz Big Band. You can find more information about the group at www.sojkingston.org. They should be some fun shows as there is nothing quite like the music of a full instrumental jazz group!

Thursday, July 7th - 7:30 PM - Gananoque Town Hall
Friday, July 8th - 7 PM - Market Square, Kingston
Sunday, July 10th - 7 PM - Lions Civic Gardens, Kingston (behind the Cataraqui Town Centre, off of Gardiners Road)

Okay, so those are the dates for performances with Sounds of Jazz! Now for an exciting announcement about the Michelle Kaz Quartet...

The quartet has been booked to play jazz EVERY TUESDAY for the rest of the summer at the Kingston restaurant Olivea! Yeah! Now you won't have to try and figure out which date is the "every other week" date! And yes, the day has been changed from Wednesdays to Tuesdays for the rest of the summer - but be sure to check out our drummer Pat Denroche perform in Fort Henry's Sunset Ceremonies every Wednesday at the fort!

That was a lot of exclamation points, but this is exciting news for the group as we all thoroughly enjoy playing at Olivea. We look forward to having you come out this summer, it really is such a great night of delicious food and live music.

This is somewhat of an early notice, but the Michelle Kaz Quartet will also be playing at the DOX Restaurant and Lounge, located in the Holiday Inn Waterfront in Kingston, Saturday, July 30th from 6-9 PM. They have a beautiful patio right on the water, perfect for a summer evening out.

Okay, I think I have covered most of the important dates here, I will be sure to send an email out Tuesday as a last minute reminder of Olivea that night!

Thanks again to the Gananoque Ribfest for having the quartet play this past Sunday too; it was all of the guys' first time being to Ribfest and we had a great time!

Happy Thursday (almost Friday!)!

Musically Yours,

Michelle :)]]> http://michellekaz.com/news.html#44 Thu, 07 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700 The Official Site - Michelle Kaz - News http://michellekaz.com/news.html#43
First of all I would like to remind you that the Kingston Jazz Festival officially kicked off this evening - and what a great kick off it was! The Dave Holland Quartet opened the event performing at the Grand Theatre in downtown Kingston and I was lucky enough to catch some of the show. It was fabulous! I hope you can make it out to some of the events happening over the next couple of days! There will be shows at both the Grand Theatre and the Mansion, along with free music all day Saturday starting with Porch Jazz from 12-3 PM and jazz in Confederation Basin from 3-6 PM. I will helping out with some of Saturday's shows so if you are out and about drop by and say hi! You can find more detailed information about the festival by following this link: http://kingstonjazz.ca/kingston-jazz-festival/.

Also, my bassist Paul Clifford, who some of you may have caught at Olivea, will be playing Saturday afternoon with his own group at 48 Ordnance St. starting at 1:00 PM. Come and check him out!

I will also be playing this very crazy and jazzy weekend in Kingston - from 6-9 PM at the DOX Restaurant and Lounge downtown! The restaurant is located in the Holiday Inn Waterfront hotel, by the 1000 Island Cruises and just down from Confederation Basin. I will be playing jazz for a couple of hours, a similar show to Olivea, so if you haven't had the chance to make it down to one of those yet, or simply enjoyed what you did hear, it would be great to have you in the crowd THIS SATURDAY (June 25th)! The DOX has, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful patios in Kingston, as it is literally on the water and I am looking forward to some good weather, a nice sunset, and some great tunes!

I hope to see many of you out this weekend! Let's celebrate the first week of summer with some live jazz!

And don't forget about Olivea this Tuesday, June 28th from 6-10 PM!

Sincerely,


Michelle :)]]> http://michellekaz.com/news.html#43 Thu, 23 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700 The Official Site - Michelle Kaz - News http://michellekaz.com/news.html#42
I hope you are all doing well. I am just sending out this email as a reminder of my performance with the trio tonight at the RCHA Club on Ontario St. close to City Hall. We will be playing jazz and standards for about an hour, starting at 10 PM. Bracelets are $10 and allow you to go to the different event venues throughout the day. To get more information on the event, which is a fundraiser, you can check out www.homegrownlive.ca.

Homegrown Live is a music festival celebrating live music in Kingston, Ontario. Help raise money for the Joe Chithalen Memorial Musical Instrument Lending Library and collect food donations for the Partners in Mission Foodbank.

I hope to see you there! And don't let this May rain get you down, summer has to come eventually! Whether or not you are loving the weather or strongly disliking it, I bet an evening of jazz would make you feel great no matter what!

Sincerely,

Michelle :)]]> http://michellekaz.com/news.html#42 Fri, 27 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700 The Official Site - Michelle Kaz - News http://michellekaz.com/news.html#41
I hope everyone is doing well. On this rainy April day I have some exciting news keeping me bright and chipper...

Tomorrow night at my Olivea gig I will be doing a LIVE album recording! I am so excited! The evening will follow as usual, with the band playing jazz and standards from 6-9 PM BUT this time we will have Kingston recording engineer Duncan Holt there to help us out! Duncan has worked with me on my last two albums and I can't wait to work with him again for this project!

Queen's student Justin Chin will be photographing the evening, along with taking some video footage. I worked with Justin for a Queen's singing competition I was in at the beginning of the semester and he was great - I am really excited to be working with him again! You can check out Justin's work at www.justinchin.ca - there is some really cool stuff there. And if you want to see the video he shot and produced for me just follow the link below:

http://vimeo.com/19153197


I am so glad that this special evening is going to be captured for you all to see!

I always love getting dressed up for performances which is why I am so excited to announce that I will be working with Ezia Couture to design a unique headband for tomorrow's show! Ezia Couture is company founded by two sisters from Calgary - one of whom goes to Queen's! Ezia has been a part of numerous fashion shows around Queen's this year and even made an appearance on Calgary Breakfast Television last year! The team at Ezia are a really great group of young people and I thought it would be fun to do something together! You can learn more about Ezia Couture at www.eziacouture.com.

As you can tell I am quite excited for tomorrow's performance and have tried to get some of my peers involved - who says Jazz can't reach both the young and oldER? :)


I have lots of other performances coming up over the next couple of months and will be sure to keep you posted on all on them. Thanks again for another year of support. For more information about tomorrow's performance or any others, be sure to check the Calendar which is always being updated! And of course I will be sure to let you know all of the details about the brand new album I will be releasing... for those of you who keep asking when I will be recording those jazz tunes - this is it!!!

I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible tomorrow night - make sure to call and reserve your table as the last couple of weeks have been a great success and we are hoping to have another amazing audience for the evening!

Musically Yours,

Michelle :)


P.S. You may have noticed my newly updated website - I hope you like it! Happy Spring Cleaning!]]> http://michellekaz.com/news.html#41 Tue, 26 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700 The Official Site - Michelle Kaz - News http://michellekaz.com/news.html#40
I hope everyone has been able to get off to a good start this year, January can seem to last forever but no fear - February is here in two days! And with the coming of February I have some performance announcements to make!

First things first, THIS WEDNESDAY, I will be singing with a jazz trio at the Kingston modern Italian restaurant, Olivea. For those of you who may not be as familiar with the restaurant, it is located right across from Market Square on the corner of Brock St. and King St. It is a very cozy restaurant with excellent food (myself and the piano player can attest to this!) and the perfect place for you to stop by on a cool February evening... why not February the 2nd from 6-9PM? The performance will be of both jazz classics and standards, some of my favourites, so I hope as many of you as possible can make it out.

My next area of discussion is that I am one of 10 finalists in this year's SingCon singing competition, run by the Queen's Chinese Student Association! The finals will be THIS Saturday, February 5th from approximately 6:45 to 10 PM, with doors opening at 6PM. The top 10 will be performing and then the top 5 will be chosen and will sing again in the same evening. Tickets are $12 and can be purchases in Macintosh-Correy Hall on Queen's University Campus for anyone interested in attending. There is a "Fan Favourite" vote, so it would be great to have lots of supporters out at the show! I shot the introduction video for my performance this past Sunday and it looks really neat, so I can't wait to see how the entire show comes together. We had a great group song rehearsal yesterday - but you'll have to come to SingCon to find out what we are singing - AND what I will be singing! Wish me luck!

So those are my two big announcements at the moment, but I would just like to remind everyone associated with Queen's that Monday Night Jazz at Alfie's is still happening, every Monday night from 10:30PM-12:30PM. This semester has started off really well with some great crowds - hopefully I will see some more faces as the term progresses!

Since many of you are so kind as to ask me how school and such is going when I run into you, I will tell you that it has not been any easy year, but I am learning a lot of great information and have met some absolutely wonderful people at the Queen's School of Music.

Summary? Jazz THIS Wednesday and every Monday, Pop THIS Saturday, and Classical Everyday!

I hope to see you soon!

Sincerely,

Michelle :)]]> http://michellekaz.com/news.html#40 Sun, 30 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800 The Official Site - Michelle Kaz - News http://michellekaz.com/news.html#39
My goodness it has been quite some time since my last entry, and it has been a very busy last couple of months. I have just finished my semester at school and am looking forward to celebrating this holiday season to the fullest! Hot chocolate, snow, Christmas movies and carols... what could be better?

Thank you to everyone who came out to the beautiful restaurant of Capers in October and November, I had a wonderful time performing there and am looking forward to more shows in the New Year. I will be performing at Capers, a fine dining restaurant in Belleville, Ontario, numerous times throughout the next year and there will be more information posted on the site as the dates are clarified. It is a wonderful evening of jazz and standards mixed with a warm atmosphere and amazing food, so hopefully you can make it out to one of the dates next year!

Both "For You At Christmas" and "Only One" are available through Contact, and at the local Kingston Chapters and Indigo stores, if you are looking for some holiday music or stocking stuffer ideas!

Thank you so much for your support this past year, I am so thankful and I wish you all the best in your own lives. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and for those of you celebrating, a very Merry Christmas. I look forward to seeing and performing for you in the coming year of 2011!

Sincerely,

Michelle :)]]> http://michellekaz.com/news.html#39 Fri, 17 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800 The Official Site - Michelle Kaz - News http://michellekaz.com/news.html#38
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and are ready to kick-start this 4 day week!

I have a busy weekend of performances and I wanted to make sure to fill you in before the dates arrive.

This Friday the Queen's University School of Music will be putting on their annual Showcase concert. The evening will feature performances from the Queen's Wind Ensemble, Choral Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra, Samba and Jazz Ensembles. I myself am a member of the Choral Ensemble and will be making an appearance with the Jazz Ensemble. Wow, that's a lot of ensembles!

If you are interested in coming out and supporting the Queen's Music program and community, you can find the details for the event listed below, on my website, or at http://www.queensmusic.ca/music/?q=events/calendar. Come out and see some of Kingston's rising talent!

And on to Saturday...

I will have two performances on Saturday; the first will be a public jazz concert at the Maple Leaf Restaurant in Gananoque and the second is a private function for the Rotary Club of Kingston. If you are attending the Rotary Club dinner, then I will see you Saturday night!

My afternoon performance at the Maple Leaf Restaurant will be with a jazz group, fellow students from Queen's University, and definitely some of the school's brightest and best. The cost is free - but you should try some of the great food! The show will be part of the 2nd Annual "Jammin' In the Islands" music festival, featuring local and non-local artists performing in venues throughout Gananoque this weekend ONLY. Details about the show will be attached below, and are also available on my website! I really hope you can make it out, as it will be a wonderful afternoon of great food and great jazz and standards. What else could be better on a Saturday in October?!

Once again, I hope all of you had lovely weekends and are enjoying this fall season. I look forward to seeing you at upcoming events, and sending you more updates as the month progresses (HINT: I will be performing as an opening act at Ale House on October 27th, details on my website!!).

Musically Yours,

Michelle :)



Friday, October 15th, 2010
Showcase Concert - 7:30 PM
Grant Hall
Queen's University
Kingston, ON

Price: $10 adults; $5 students & senior

Showcase Concert, featuring performances from the Queen's Symphony Orchestra, Wind, Jazz and Samba Ensembles, and the Queen's Choral Ensemble.


Michelle will be performing as a soloist in the Jazz Ensemble and is a member of the Queen's Choral Ensemble.

Please come and support some of Kingston and Queen's best and brightest young musicians!


Tickets are available for purchase at the door.

http://www.queensmusic.ca



Saturday, October 16th, 2010
Jammin' In The Islands - 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM
The Maple Leaf
65 King Street East
Gananoque, ON
(613) 382-7666

Michelle will be performing with a jazz group during the festival's second run!


The 2010 Jammin' In The Islands will be jam-packed with music, fun and first-class entertainment. Anytime is a good time for a tasty mix of jazz, blues, big band, Dixieland and Swing, but a whole weekend is even better. Three days with more than 30 presentations from October 15 -17. already booked at the Firehall Theatre for this year's Jammin' In the Islands, Georgette Fry, Filet O' Soul and Liner Notes Live. Cabaret seating on Friday, Saturday nights and Sunday matinee at the Firehall Theatre is first-come first-served as capacity is limited. Restaurant and dining hosts may require reservations, please check locations on the website. For venues and schedule information visit www.jamminintheislands.com]]> http://michellekaz.com/news.html#38 Tue, 12 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700 The Official Site - Michelle Kaz - News http://michellekaz.com/news.html#37
I hope you have been enjoying your September so far, it is always such a busy month!

I am writing to you on this lovely Thursday morning to remind you all that tonight is the night! "Remebering Hank and Patsy" has its Kingston premiere at the Confederation Hotel dowtown and it is a show you will not want to miss! If you have not purchased your tickets yet it's not too late. All of the information about the time and how to get tickets is at the end of this email, but make sure you contact the hotel as soon as you can - it is going to be a busy night!

The band, Cliff Edwards (Hank) and I have all been hard at work preparing for tonight - I can promise you that you will not be disappointed when you come. If you do not want to attend the dinner, tickets are available soley for the performance at 7:30PM.

I am so excited for the show - get ready for an evening of remembering two of country music's best!

Musically Yours,

Michelle


Thursday, September 23rd, 2010
Remembering Hank & Patsy - Dinner - 6 PM, Show - 7:30 PM
Confederation Place Hotel
237 Ontario St.
Kingston, ON
Toll Free: 888-825-4656
Price: $50 Dinner & Show, $15 W/O

The evening's performance will be a tribute to Country superstars Hank Williams and Patsy Cline, featuring Cliff Edwards (The Bells) as Hank Williams and Michelle Kaz as Patsy Cline. Enjoy a night of wonderful food, dancing, music, and reminiscing! A show not to be missed!


Keyboards: Tim Hallman
Guitar: Dan Kasaboski
Drums: Doug Gravelle
Bass: Joe Brady


Call 613-549-6300 ext 118 to Reserve Your Seat]]> http://michellekaz.com/news.html#37 Thu, 23 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700 The Official Site - Michelle Kaz - News http://michellekaz.com/news.html#36
I hope you have all been enjoying your nice warm summers and are soaking up every last minute of it! Here's a little update on my life in music:

1) I will be performing at a show TONIGHT at Sydenham United Church in Downtown Kingston. The show will feature Blue Canoe Production alumni, including myself, singing a large variety of the most famous musical numbers - all in one evening! The show starts at 8PM and tickets are $10. It is going to be a great show, and you really should not miss it, I mean, it's probably the most awesome thing to do on a Thursday night!

http://www.bluecanoeproductions.ca/ClassicsNight.html


2) For those of you 19 and up, I will be playing an acoustic set at the Myles Acres Wine and Food Fair this Saturday from 12:30-1:30PM. Songs for the event will be a variety of jazz tunes and standards. If you are very much intrigued by the idea of spending an afternoon with some wine and delicious food then follow this link: http://kingstonjazz.ca/ . Maybe I will see some of you there!

3) Sunday I am off to Ottawa for a competition at their annual Exhibition, so we'll see how that goes! No matter what it will be a wonderful opportunity to perform and should be lots of fun! Isn't that usually how a competition goes?

4) And finally I will be off to study the wonderful genre of jazz for a couple days up in Quebec before school starts in September. I better see all of you 19 Queen's students and alumni at Alfie's on Monday nights in the fall!

For more upcoming show details (such as the Hank Williams and Patsy Cline one September 23rd), be sure to check out my website. And don't forget the SHOW TONIGHT at 8PM!

A huge, ginormously big thanks again for all of your support, it means a lot.

Musically Yours,

Michelle :)]]> http://michellekaz.com/news.html#36 Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700 The Official Site - Michelle Kaz - News