Events in Ottawa: March 3 – 5, 2017

1. The Hockey Sweater

What’s it like to have to wear a Toronto Maple Leafs sweater in a hockey-crazed Quebec village where everyone is a Montreal Canadiens fan? Find out with author Roch Carrier and hockey legend Ken Dryden as they celebrate Canada’s winter and favourite winter sport. Join up 45 minutes prior to each concert for free learn-and-play activities, organized by the Friends of the NAC Orchestra. Details

2. Great Canadian Maple Festival

2017 marks Canada’s 150 Birthday and what better way to celebrate than with our country’s sweetest gift to the world, maple syrup. The Great Canadian Maple Festival is a celebration of everything maple from maple syrup, maple candy, maple craft beer, cotton candy, maple soda, poutine topped with maple bacon, maple whisky, maple donuts, maple beans and wieners, maple butter, sap on a stick, and more. Maple Fest will also feature live entertainment, a kids fun zone, craft beer gardens, chainsaw carving, lumberjack competition, pancake breakfast, and a delicious selection of maple foodies. Details

3. Barnyard Break

Join us this spring as we celebrate all things maple during our annual Barnyard Break! In addition to our various animal demonstrations, join us for special features such as cooking with maple syrup and maple taffy on the snow. Plus, young visitors can listen to a classic children’s story and get creative with a Canadiana-themed craft. Details

4. Disney’s Beauty and the Beast

A tale as old as time, come out and enjoy the full musical of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Details

5. Sugar bush

Visit the historical farm site, see all kinds of animals on the farm site, have taffy on the snow, warm up at the bonfire while waiting for the wagon ride that will take you out to the sugar bush.. Details

6. The Ottawa Junior Youth Orchestra

Ottawa Youth Orchestra concert. Details

7. Afternoon Spy Training

Sharpen your espionage skills during your visit to the museum with our spy-themed activities for kids of all ages! Throughout the week of the Outaouais March Break, youth and families are invited to participate in a variety of spy activities. Do you have what it takes to crack secret codes, disguise your identity, and complete undercover missions? Put your secret agent skills to the test! Details

1. IsKwé

Named one of the ‘Top 10 Artists to Watch in 2016’ by CBC Music, IsKwé (which means ‘woman’ in her native language) is fostering an unmistakable sound that weaves together her Irish and Cree/Dené roots with poignant politically charged lyrics, dark soulful R&B rhythms, electronic flourishes, and trip hop breakbeats. Details

2. Billy Talent

Support: Monster Truck & The Dirty Nil. Details

3. Mother Mother

Vancouver-based alt-rockers, Mother Mother, today announced their 2017 Canadian headlining tour, which will kick off in Moncton, NB on February 23. The tour will see Mother Mother hitting twenty-five cities and travelling from coast-to-coast before wrapping in their hometown of Vancouver, BC with four nights at the historic Commodore Ballroom. Details

4. Eric Church

Holdin’ My Own Tour. Details

5. Agnes Obel

Agnes Obel (Denmark experimental/orchestra-indie, Play It Again Sam recs) with Ethan Gruska. Details

6. Murray McLauchlan

Murray McLauchlan is one of Canada’s most highly regarded singer/songwriters, and with good cause. Over a 40-year career, he has released 18 albums and been awarded 11 Junos. Details

7. Simon Denizart Trio

French pianist Simon Denizart, a native of Créteil on the outskirts of Paris, came to Montreal in 2011. In 2013, he formed his SD3 trio with Jeanne Corpataux on bass and Simon Bellemare on drums. After being invited to play in the new talent competition at the Rimouski Jazz Festival in 2014, the trio won the people’s choice award. On the strength of this accolade, the trio went on tour, playing 20 dates across Quebec and gaining immediate popularity. With assistance from the Canadian label The 270 Sessions, the musicians released their debut album Between Two Worlds in September 2015. Details

8. Ambassador Brass Trio

The National Arts Centre Orchestra’s Ambassador Brass Trio was formed in 2005 when the three original members of the group – Karen Donnelly, Julie Fauteux and Donald Renshaw – were selected to be “ambassadors” for the brass family on the NAC Orchestra website. At that time, the ensemble decided that it would be both educational and entertaining to combine arrangements of many well-loved music classics into a fun-filled story. Details

9. Around the World with the Rusalka Duo

Discover the beloved musical and folkloric traditions of Europe, Russia, and South America through an eclectic program featuring popular works by Bartok, Piazzolla, Tchaikovsky, and others performed on flute and piano. Details

10. Ottawa Bach Choir

Rossini: Sacred and Profane. The Ottawa Bach Choir’s second concert of the season contrasts the charming Petite Messe Solennelle for two pianos and harmonium along with secular choral works for solo ensembles, both accompanied and a cappella. The choir will be featured in the Southminster United Church Concert Series. Please join the choir for an intimate evening of choral music in a beautiful setting. Details

11. Sacra Canadiana

Under the direction of Artistic Director Laurence Ewashko and in honour of Canada’s 150th, the choir will be performing an all-Canadian repertoire written by several well-known choral composers. The Ewashko Singers will also be premiering a piece commissioned by Artistic Director Ewashko and written by Daniel Mehdizadeh. Details

1. La bonne âme du Se-Tchouan

The ancestral gods are travelling through Szechwan, one of China’s most isolated provinces. They need a place to stay, and they’re looking for a kind soul who will give them shelter. The only person to volunteer is the prostitute Shen Te, and the gods thank her by giving her enough money to open her own tobacco shop. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long for the profiteers to show up and start taking advantage of her generosity! A journey of discovery to the core of human mediocrity, a parable of exploitation and the need to change the world, Brecht’s La bonne âme du Se-Tchouan reveals glimpses of true goodness, a commodity all too rare in these times of war and crisis. Details

2. Infinity

How does a new Theory of Time change everything we know about ourselves? Three brilliant minds – a musician, a mathematician, and a theoretical physicist – smash together like colliding particles in an accelerator. Together they learn that love and time are connected in ways they couldn’t have imagined. Infinity is a shocking, funny and revelatory play about love, sex and math by Hannah Moscovitch, developed with Volcano Theatre. Details

3. Les Passants

Through a series of vignettes, everyday situations develop into curious scenarios that explore trust, risk, and our ability to navigate human relationships. Performed in French with English surtitles, this world premiere is part of a three-city, national, bilingual theatre project.Details

4. To Kill A Mocking Bird

Based on Harper Lee’s haunting, Pulitzer Prize-winning 1960 novel and the nearly flawless 1962 movie based on it, Christopher Sergel’s stage adaptation tells an important story. A black man is accused of raping a white woman in a fictional Alabama small town in the 1930s. A white lawyer defends him, defying the pervasive racism of his neighbors. The drama is seen from the point of view of the lawyer’s two small children and a friend. Details

5. Finishing the Suit

Love makes us cross oceans, throw over birthrights, overturn dynasties—or put the final touches on a bespoke suit. Come back with Bear & Co. to 1972, when being out of the closet outside one’s home can get you jailed. But inside a Jewish tailor’s shop, all secrets are on the measuring table, as the tailor puts the finishing touches on a morning suit. Eavesdrop with us as he remembers—and mourns—the two great loves of his life: a young, brash Irish actor, and an enigmatic, battle-weary Duke. Details

6. Le chant du Koï

In a town where everything is a little strange, magic lurks around every corner and the moon compels residents to sing. With stories of hunters and Koi carp, four teenagers humorously tell the tale of the year when everything changed. A ditherer who does not want to grow up, a romantic who lacks courage, a misunderstood enchantress and a newcomer who stirs up desire and jealousy: these are the characters at the heart of this tale of unspoken love, betrayal and reconciliation. Long-established laws and curfews are powerless to stop these young heroes from singing about the strength of their friendship and their will to move forward together. Details

1. Red Bull Crashed Ice

Ice cross downhill is the fastest sport on skates. Take some of the best and toughest skaters in the world, a sizzling atmosphere, stunning surroundings, and thousands of square metres of frozen water. The result? Red Bull Crashed Ice! Athletes skate down a massive ice track filled with drops, hairpin turns, and gaps at speeds of more than 50 km/h. World Championship points are up for grabs at each of the stops and the competitor who skates through the season with the most points accumulated after the races is crowned World Champion. Details

2. Ottawa Senators

3. The 2017 CWHL Clarkson Cup

4. Ottawa 67’s

1. Ottawa Cottage and Backyard Show

The Cottage and Backyard Show has everything you need for outdoor living: docks, decks, boats, outdoor furniture, canoes, kayaks, and all the latest in backyard and cottage products and services. Details

2. Seedy Saturday

Seed Exchange, talks on plant biodiversity, heritage gardening, organic gardening, and seeds. Details

3. Great Bowls of Fire

At the Great Bowls of Fire guests will select a handmade bowl made by one of the Ottawa Guild’s potters. It will be filled with delicious soups made by some of the best restaurants in town, accompanied by fresh breads offered by several excellent bakeries. While guests socialize with friends, they will be entertained by the music of Jack Hurd. Your host for the evening, Derick Fage, will present an auction of special ceramic pieces. There will also be a silent auction. Details