Grandview Park Playlist 2026

A *free* outdoor summer concert

presented by

The Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra, Little Chamber Music & Rumble Productions

August 20, 2026 at 8:00 pm
Grandview Park ( Commercial Drive at Charles St.)
Admission: FREE! (bring a lawn chair or a blanket)

Featuring 
D’arcy Han (ZiZi)
Shireen Nabatian
Kathleen Nisbet
Amy Stephen

with The VICO Chamber Ensemble

Grandview Park Playlist is back for a second year! This free outdoor concert – a collaboration between The Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra (VICO) and Little Chamber Music co-presented by Rumble – promises a beautiful evening of intercultural music: the perfect playlist for a summer evening on Commercial Drive.

This year’s concert explores the concept of freedom and the many ways in which this can be felt, represented, and sung across musical cultures. Vocalists D’arcy Han (ZiZi), Shireen Nabatian, Kathleen Nisbet and Amy Stephen will each perform a colourful selection of folk/pop/contemporary songs arranged specially for this concert, accompanied by a unique instrumental ensemble featuring Molly MacKinnon (violin), Laine Longton (cello), Dai Lin Hsieh (zheng), Mike Brown (bass clarinet), Saina Khaledi (santour), Amy Stephen (accordion/harp), and Jonathan Bernard (percussion). 

Grandview Park Playlist weaves together strands from Chinese, Persian, Balkan, Celtic, and Métis cultures into a fresh, uniquely Canadian tapestry of sound. Come for dinner on the Drive, and stay for an hour of “music that sounds like Vancouver looks” (Alexander Varty: The Georgia Straight). Bring a blanket or a lawn chair, and join us in the park!

About the Artists 

D’arcy Han / ZiZi (featured vocalist)

Beijing born, Vancouver raised D’arcy Han has been singing and performing since she made her vocal debut on Chinese national TV at the age of 7. As a vocalist and artist, she performed at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival and toured the USA, Europe, and Asia with her many music projects. In 2017, D’arcy appeared on Sing! China (“The Voice”) with an international audience of over 400 million. The program vaulted this Canadian singer/songwriter to celebrity status. This was followed up by special performances and appearances at national television events including the Chinese Spring Gala show, the Miss World 2017 Final, the Silk Road International Film Festival, the Strawberry Music Festival and China International Fashion Week, and more. In 2018, her debut EP This is Me, reached #4 on the BBC Soul Charts, and is still peaking on Spotify and other online mediums. From stadiums to intimate stages, D’arcy captivates with what critics describe as a uniquely charming voice paired with an unmatched classiness in personal style and stage presence. An honorary member of the Canadian Association of Songwriters, D’arcy co-writes, produces and collaborates with songwriters/producers, artists, and performers from both North America and Asia. She is a cultural ambassador, committed to bridging people through music, acting and performances.

Shireen Nabatian (featured vocalist)

Shireen Nabatian is a Canadian-Iranian vocalist, violinist, and PhD candidate in cross-cultural musicology at University of California, Santa Cruz. Her dissertation research is about traditional music education, the legacies of nationalism, community, and belonging at summer music camps in California, Türkiye, and Crete. Her MA thesis was on contemporary practices in Persian dance and is now published in Anthony Shay’s edited volume, Dance in the Persianate World. Shireen has spoken at several international conferences and has taught courses such as Music of the Silk Road and Pedagogy of Music. She has performed with groups in British Columbia, Washington, and California, as well as Albania and Türkiye. In Santa Cruz, she leads the Balkan folk dance band EZGIJA, and she is advising the new UCSC Balkan Student Ensemble.

Kathleen Nisbet (featured vocalist & composer)

​Kathleen Nisbet is a fiddle player and singer from Vancouver, BC Canada. Classically trained at the Vancouver Academy of Music, she returned to her Métis roots, pursuing more traditional fiddle music. Since then she has worked with artists in a variety of genres. A collaborator and regular accompanist with Compaigni v’ni dansi Métis traditional dance, she also has composed music for independent modern dance. Recent theatre credits include A Christmas Carol with Pacific Theatre and Salmon Row with Mortal Coil. Kathleen is an active member of Vancouver’s thriving bluegrass and folk scene,  performing and touring regularly with her band Viper Central with whom she has recorded three albums. She has toured with Vancouver bands, The Fugitives and CR Avery and has made guest appearances with Hedley, Fred Eaglesmith, The Belle Game, and The Vicious Cycles to name a few. She works regularly as a studio musician and has numerous studio recording credits. She is a teacher at Saint James Music Academy where Downtown Eastside kids are provided free music lessons.

Amy Stephen (featured vocalist & composer)

Born in 1967 in Edmonton, Alberta, Amy Stephen grew up in Vancouver, BC and now resides in Coquitlam. Amy was a founding member of internationally-acclaimed celtic funk ensemble ‘Mad Pudding’ and is currently a member of Vancouver’s World Music Collective. She writes and performs cultural fusion music with her husband, Persian vocalist Amir Haghighi, and is a popular studio musician and performer around Vancouver, playing piano, accordion, celtic harp and penny whistle.

 The founder and director of Vancouver’s Aurora Celebration Choir and the Coquitlam Celebration Choir, Amy obtained a B.Mus. and a B.Ed. from UBC, studying conducting with James Fankhauser, and sang with the University Singers and the University Chamber Singers. Since then, she has sung with various groups around Vancouver, including the Vancouver Chamber Choir, the Vancouver Cantata Singers and Musica Intima.

Michael J Fleming (composer & arranger)

Michael J Fleming is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, improviser, and Doctorate of Musical Arts candidate in music composition at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Much of his recent work is inspired by ephemeral images in nature, and explores and integrates timbres and musical traditions from around the world. His dissertation research focuses on creating intercultural dialogue and bridging the gap between aurally learned and notated music, culminating in a composed work that incorporates instruments and techniques from multiple traditions. His Master’s thesis was a composed piece for North Indian tabla and chamber orchestra, featuring tabla performer Doug Scheurell. For the past few years he has worked deeply with musicians trained in traditions from Iran, China, Korea, India, and Uzbekistan. Notable collaborators include the Del Sol Quartet with members of the National Gugak Center of South Korea, the AsianArt Ensemble from Berlin, Germany, and the Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra. He has participated in various global musician and immersive performance style and composition workshops throughout the world. Michael is also an active collaborator with local musicians and artists in Santa Cruz on numerous instruments, and plays the Uzbek dutar in the touring locally based Central Asian Ensemble.

Mariah Mennie (composer & arranger)

A sound sculptor in a coat of many colors, Vancouver based artist Mariah Mennie is a composer, pianist, vocalist, percussionist, fire dancer, yogi and music educator. Her eclectic compositional world is effervescent, evoking programmatic vistas of mystical lands, wild natural places, fantastical words and psychological intricacies of the mind. She has a special interest in rare and unique instruments and loves studying different music traditions from around the world. Lately she has been exploring sound within ceremonial and healing settings. She has received commissions from Redshift, the Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra, Standing Wave Ensemble, Vancouver New Music and Turning Point Ensemble, with notable performances of her works at the ISCM World New Music Days, the VSO New Music Festival and the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival. She holds a MMUS and BMUS (Composition) from the University of British Columbia (UBC).

Production Credits

For the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra:

Farshid Samandari – Artistic Director
Melanie Thompson – Managing Director
Miriam Davidson – Operations Manager
Gina Hernandez Sanchez – Marketing & Production Coordinator

For Little Chamber Music:

Molly MacKinnon – Artistic Director

For Rumble Theatre:

Jivesh Parasram – Artistic Director
Maria Zarillo – Managing Director
Angie Descalzi – Artistic Producer
Marc L’Esperance – Sound

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The Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra (VICO), founded in 2001, is a contemporary classical music ensemble – one of the world’s first concert orchestras devoted specifically to performing new intercultural music on a grand scale. It is currently the only professional ensemble of its kind in Canada. The ensemble includes Western strings and winds (violin, viola, cello, contrabass, oboe, flute, clarinet) alongside Chinese erhu, pipa, sanxian, zheng, and sheng/suona; Persian kamanche, tar/setar, oud, and tombak; percussion from many world music traditions; and a variety of other instruments as required. Through composition, performance and educational outreach to both music professionals and the general public, the VICO supports the development of BC composers and musicians of diverse backgrounds (including Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Indian, Persian (Iranian), Latin and South American, Vietnamese, North American and European). Since repertoire for the VICO’s novel instrumentation does not already exist, creating new works (150+ new Canadian compositions since 2001, and counting!) is an integral component of all our programming – providing a framework for bringing musicians and composers together to learn from each other, in a uniquely collaborative process. The VICO’s programming includes standalone concerts and our biannual Global Soundscapes Festival; public educational events; a biannual Summer Academy, professional development workshops for established and emerging musicians and composers; the creation and distribution of educational materials (video, audio, text) via the web; outreach and collaboration with other artists and organisations in the contemporary and world music scenes of Vancouver, Canada, Europe and Asia; and more. https://www.vi-co.org 

 

Little Chamber Music

Little Chamber Music (LCM) is a non-profit performing arts society that supports diverse artistic practice through the creation of distinctive, free public events that combine music (new music/classical music/world music) with other art forms such as dance, poetry, and storytelling, as well as local history. Founded in 1990, LCM quickly became highly regarded as an innovative presenter of new music in Vancouver. As resident series at the Cultch, it gained acclaim for commissioning and producing original work (The White Album Concert, Cam Wilson’s Playground Rhymes for Grownups). From 2012-2015 Little Chamber Music was in residence with the Vancouver Park Board as part of their Field House Artist program, and in January 2015, Mark Haney became the first Composer in Residence for Vancouver’s Mountain View Cemetery. In the years that followed, LCM created more than 25 free events at the cemetery that welcomed a total audience of over 12,000. During the pandemic, Little Chamber Music launched the Isolation Commissions, a series which saw $30,000 donated by the community and redistributed to almost 150 artists who created 130 short videos, which have accumulated over 85,000 views to date. LCM welcomed new leadership in 2024 with Molly MacKinnon stepping in as Artistic Director. Molly has a long history of working with the organization as a performer, producer, and artistic associate. She is extremely excited to continue and expand on LCM’s reputation for innovative, interdisciplinary, community-minded projects. littlechambermusic.com

 Acknowledgements

The VICO, Little Chamber Music, and Rumble extend grateful thanks to the following funders for their support of this project:

  • The Department of Canadian Heritage
  • The Canada Council for the Arts
  • The Province of BC (Community Gaming)
  • BC Arts Council
  • City of Vancouver Cultural Services
  • Vancouver Board of Parks & Recreation
  • The Hamber Foundation