The James Bond film catalogue runs further than its reputation tends to allow. The distance between Shirley Bassey’s full-voice assault on a title song and Billie Eilish’s low-mic restraint is not merely stylistic; it demands genuinely different ensemble responses, different approaches to scoring and phrasing. The Espionage Orchestra was built around that problem. Their 13-piece construction — horn section, string quartet, rhythm section, and two lead vocalists — gives them the instrumental resources to follow the music across six decades without flattening it into a single register. They bring that program to Brockville Arts Centre on Friday, October 9 at 7:30 p.m.
About the Show
Ed Lister, a Juno Award-winning trumpeter, composer, and arranger based in Ottawa, created the production and wrote all arrangements and orchestrations under his Ed Lister Music banner. Those original orchestrations matter: rather than a tribute built around mimicking recordings, the ensemble’s arrangements were tailored for these 13 players, giving the program coherence as a live performance. The repertoire spans, in the ensemble’s own framing, from Thunderball to Skyfall, covering songs originally performed by Tom Jones, Paul McCartney, Carly Simon, Tina Turner, Duran Duran, Sam Smith, Adele, and Billie Eilish, alongside the decades-spanning Bond work of Shirley Bassey.
The two featured vocalists carry considerable individual histories. Rebecca Noelle has 15 years of performance across the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Asia, and Europe, and has shared stages with B.B. King, Johnny Winter, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Buddy Guy, Norah Jones, and Bonnie Raitt; her debut album was a jazz collaboration with pianist John Noubarian. Michael Hanna Sr. works across jazz improvisation, blues, and gospel; he performs regularly in Ottawa and manages RMI Publishing, the catalog housing more than 300 compositions by his late father, jazz pianist Sir Roland Hanna.
The Espionage Orchestra has been performing since 2019, logging more than 30 shows. In October 2025 the ensemble appeared at the National Arts Centre’s Babs Asper Theatre in Ottawa. The Brockville date opens a two-night run, with a second performance in Ottawa the following evening.
Venue & Logistics
Brockville Arts Centre is a heritage theatre in historic downtown Brockville, Ontario, serving audiences in the broader north-country region. Doors open at 7:00 p.m.; the show runs from 7:30 p.m. to approximately 9:30 p.m. EDT, with an intermission.
Tickets
Tickets are $49.25 CAD. The show is all ages; complementary support worker tickets are available through the box office. Buy tickets