Arts Roundup
July 23, 2026

Music

• Three Edmonton musicians were included in CBC Music's annual list of 30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30: soprano Aemilia Moser, who won first prize at the 2026 Eckhardt-Gramatté Competition; pianist Sirui Li, who won the $50,000 first prize at the Prix d'Europe; and violinist Anna Yin, who is studying at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music.
• Spencer Taubner and Kelin Flanagan, who perform as the contemporary folk duo Loud in the Pines, discussed their debut album Every Colour Left and their musical careers in the latest instalment of the I Am YEG Arts series from the Edmonton Arts Council.
• Double Lunch Productions founders Craig Martell and Emily Bachynski spoke to CKUA about their suite of free resources for artists.
• Far Out Again spoke to Altyeg Music Magazine about how playing in Edmonton is shaping the band's trajectory so far.
• Hip-hop trio Maximum Potency formed after meeting at Edmonton's Sampler Cafe beatmaking event, one of several development opportunities the city offers, rapper Ramesys said.
• Marten Borch and Mika Haykowsky, also known as Sir Kadian, are seeking musicians to submit to Edmonton Folks Vol. 2, a collaborative album project aiming to showcase Edmonton's folk scene.
• Jazz musician PJ Perry spoke to CBC's Daybreak Alberta about Musicians for Canada: A Benefit Concert for Canadian Unity, which he organized for July 22 to support Alberta staying in Canada in the face of a fall referendum on potential separation.

Visual arts

• The Edmonton Arts Council is asking southeast Edmonton residents to complete a survey to inform public artwork being created by artists Gloria Mok, Emily Storvold, and Riaz Mehmood for nine utility complexes along the Valley Line LRT Southeast.
• Artist Coda Girvan painted a mural inside Millennium Place in Sherwood Park as part of the mural jam at the 2026 Alberta Summer Games.
• The City of Spruce Grove selected Tyler Toews to create a mural at Heavy Metal Place to mark the city's 40th anniversary of incorporation. Toews, known for large-scale anamorphic murals, is painting inside the Decker Properties Atrium, with an unveiling expected in late July.
• Fish Griwkowsky took a look at the demise and resurrection of the Family Drugs Gallery at 10233 97 Street NW. The collective of artists who use the space thought they were evicted, but they're now back with a show running until Aug. 30.

Theatre and dance

• Rapid Fire Theatre is seeking 1,000 signatures to attach to a provincial grant application, which would fund the next phase of the Rapid Fire Theatre Exchange, including a new black box theatre and workshop spaces.
• Lucy Haines reviewed Teatro Live!'s revival of Cocktails at Pam's at the Varscona Theatre, calling it "another entertaining edition" and singling out Rachel Bowron's performance as a highlight. The play runs through July 26.

Books and publishing

• Leduc resident Catrina Dumont published a memoir about a romance fraud she experienced, called Dialysis of the Soul: A Love Story, A Psychopath, and a Woman's Truth. The book recounts how a man she nearly donated a kidney to was later revealed to have a pattern of predatory relationships with women.
• Adriana Oniță spoke to Rayanne Haines on the Crow Reads podcast about her bilingual poetry collection Descântec For My Split Tongue, which explores in English and Romanian what is lost when a language is lost.
• Sharon Day will be the new CEO of the Edmonton Public Library, effective Aug. 17. Day has 20 years of experience in public libraries, including 17 with EPL, where she spent the last four years as executive director of customer experience. She replaces Pilar Martinez, who was CEO for 11 years; Martinez will support the transition until mid-September.
• The Alberta government has given public libraries a deadline of Jan. 1 to comply with new restrictions requiring them to limit access to materials containing visual depictions of a sexual act for anyone 15 and under without parental authorization.
• Richard Van Camp, Shani Mootoo, and Lise Gaboury-Diallo discussed place, truth, and story as community medicine on the third part of a series from the 2026 Kreisel Lecture on the Alberta Unbound podcast from Sen. Paula Simons.
• Slow War by Benjamin Hertwig was among the top-selling poetry books on the Edmonton bestseller list from the Book Publishers Association of Alberta.

More headlines

• The Edmonton Arts Council published a post on the health and well-being benefits of regularly engaging with arts, accompanied by a video on the Artists on the Ward program from the University Hospital Foundation. The foundation is also celebrating 40 years of its art collection with While We Wait and Heal, showing at the McMullen Gallery until July 26.
• The Western Investor reports that Edmonton-based Gather Co. Inc. has acquired the historic Paramount Theatre and adjacent properties on Jasper Avenue for less than $9.1 million through a court-ordered receivership sale. When the theatre opened in 1952, it was the largest cinema on the Prairies with 1,570 seats; it closed in 2003.
• The Neon Skies Festival and the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival were evacuated on July 19 due to a storm. Some fans at the Neon Skies Festival said they were confused and scared by the evacuation process.
• Postmedia highlighted the presence of Indigenous artists at KDays.

Happenings

Here are some events coming up soon:

• July 23: Disability Pride Night starting at 5pm at Earth's Refillery Coop
• July 23: Patio Series - Maria Dunn & Shannon Johnson starting at 6pm at La Cité francophone
• July 23: Our Hero, Balthazar starting at 7:10pm at Landmark Cinemas 9 (Edmonton City Centre)
• July 25: Multicultural Festival starting at 9:30am at Mill Woods Town Centre
• July 25: Mâmawihitowin Summer Gathering starting at 11am at Heritage Park Pavilion
• July 25: Steam Roller '26 starting at 5pm at SNAP Gallery
• July 26: A Salute to 1967! starting at 6:30pm at Varscona Theatre
• July 27: New Standards Jazz Orchestra starting at 7:30pm at Knox Evangelical Free Church
• July 28: Pen Pal Night starting at 6pm at Daisy Chain Book Co. (High Street)
• July 30: Our Movement Leaves Marks starting at 6pm at Nina Haggerty Centre for the Arts
• July 31: Opening Party: Under the Influence by Dunce starting at 7pm at Roxy Theatre
• Aug. 1: Pints & Pages: Sports Romance Edition starting at 1pm at 1st RND
• Aug. 1: A Scrappy Sensibility Reception starting at 2pm at Alberta Craft Council
• Aug. 1-2: Voices at Play - Open Rehearsal at Sisters Dialogue - Amanah
• Aug. 4: Sounds from the Valley: Lindsey Walker starting at 7pm at Snow Valley
• Aug. 6-9: Edmonton Folk Music Festival at Gallagher Park

And here are some more to keep in mind:

• Aug. 14-22: Festival de musique Fringe at La Cité francophone
• Aug. 15: Bound By Books Bookcrawl Round 2
• Aug. 20: ESO Outdoors at Centennial Park in Devon

Visit the Taproot Edmonton Calendar for many more events in the Edmonton region.

Taproot is taking a summer break! The Arts Roundup will return on Aug. 13.