Preview of Performers for Gung Haggis Fat Choy™ 2005
The musical performers are planning their presentations and creating some
great surprises. Here's a sneak peak at who's coming.
Shelagh Rogers and Tom Chin will co-host with me. Shelagh is known to millions of people across Canada as the voice of CBC Radio's “Sounds Like Canada.”
Shelagh first interviewed me about Gung Haggis Fat Choy in 2003, and
she has wanted to come ever since. Tom Chin is known as the voice
of that funny Chinese Canadian comic in crazy costumes and a regular
host of Asian Comedy Night for Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre.
Fred Wah
is our poet for the evening, that would make Robbie Burns proud.
Fred is a winner of the Governor General's Award for Poetry, and writer
of over 17 published books. Fred says that his father was
Scottish-Irish-Chinese-Canadian and his mother was Swedish.
Joe McDonald & Brave Waves,
perennial Gung Haggis Fat Choy performers. Q: What do you get
when you cross bagpipes with Indian tabla drums + other musical
instruments? A: Braves Waves! Joe has also appeared with me on
CBC Radio's “The Round Up,” and “Sounds Like Canada” and was featured in the CBC TV special “Gung Haggis Fat Choy.
Opera Soprano Heather
Pawsey,
says of her participation at 2004 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner –
“It was a hoot!” as she sang songs in old Gaelic and Mandarin
Chinese. She also changed costumes from a very smart long dress
tartan and vest outfit to a very sexy red Chinese cheong-sam.
While spending Christmas in Sasketchewan, her mother bought her a new
outfit to wear for Gung Haggis Fat Choy! For 2005, she will again
sing in Mandarin + sing an opera song set in Scotland.
Dr. Jan Walls
is by day a university professor and director of the David See Lai Lam
Centre for International Communications. Other times he is a
masterful storyteller of clappertales – a kind of Chinese “rapping”
from the village markets. Last year he had to give up Gung Haggis
Fat Choy for an invitation by Yo-Yo Ma to perform for his Silk Roads Project at the Peabody Essex Museum in Boston. We are happy to have Jan this year and that we don't have to compete with Yo-Yo Ma.
Karen Wong & Zhongxi Wu with friends Alex Chisolm & Carmen Rosen. Karen and Zhongxi are the core of Dragon River Shadow Puppet Theatre
and became Gung Haggis-ified when they performed with Todd for First Night
Vancouver on Dec. 31, 2004 for 2 packed and enthusiastic shows.
Karen was born in Montreal and raised in North Vancouver, she plays the
sheng
– a unique 2000 year old 13 reed wind blown organ made of bamboo
pipes. Zhongxi aka “Jonesey”, born in Harbin, China, plays the
suona – a loud reed flute, and two years ago, he took up
BAGPIPES! Now add to the mix their celtic musician friends
Alex Chisolm and Carmen Rosen and anything can happen!
LaLa
is a contemporary East-West hip hop artist. She has a wonderful
soulful voice and has just released an album called Night Angles as a
duo called Jell. LaLa was seen in the CBC TV special “Gung Haggis
Fat Choy” singing Auld Lang Syne with Brave Waves.
Veera devi
Khare is a classically trained Soprano and recently created her show titled A Touch of Opera, A Touch of India.
She also writes and performs her own hip hop music, and performs
Broadway songs in addition to classical music. Recently CBC Radio
featured Veera in a music show called “A Fine Cabaret” to celebrate the
radio dramatization of Rohinton Mistry's novel “A Fine Balance”. Veera
stole the show!
Vincent and Cameron Collins,
are the incredible high-stepping Highland Dancing brothers that have
won awards everywhere they go. Cameron this year alone, won the
US Western Open, Canadian Western Open, and BC Closed
Championships. And he placed in the top 15 in Open at the World
Championships in Scotland this year – his first as an adult. Last
year, he placed 3rd runner up in Junior Divison.