The Orangutan Project Benefit Concert

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Friday, October 16th, 2026
7:00 PM to 10:00 PM

Come enjoy a night of exciting jazz music and tap, jazz and ballet dance at ‘A Taste of Halloween’, featuring the outstanding Teighan Couch Jazz Trio and the much-loved Nanaimo Harbour Dance.

This special event, held to benefit conservation efforts of The Orangutan Project, whose Canadian chapter is here in BC

Tickets, $35 each, can be purchased online at: Orangutans.ca/jazz or at the church on the evening of the performance.

Doors open at 6:00 pm

. Festival seating.

Refreshments available for a small donation. Art work and Orangutan Project merchandise for sale. There will be door prizes.

Harbour Dance offers high-quality lessons from toddler age to teens. Many of its students have advanced to elite dance schools and careers.

The very talented Teighan Couch, a graduate of the prestigious Vancouver Island University Jazz Program and one of only three singers in Canada accepted to the McGill University Jazz Masters Program this past spring, is presenting her final appearance in Nanaimo at ‘A Taste of Halloween’ before returning to her hometown of Ottawa. Catch her act while you still can! She is extolled for her powerful, soulful voice and Ella Fitzgerald-style improvisations.

The Orangutan Project is a registered non-profit organisation founded in 1998 by primatologist and orangutan expert Leif Cocks.

Orangutans, who share 97% of our DNA, are critically endangered by habitat destruction for the palm oil industry in Borneo and Sumatra. Mothers are killed as forest is cleared and the orphaned babies are often snatched for the illegal pet trade. They are also victims of illegal logging, forest fires/drought and poaching.

These intelligent, gentle animals are essential to the rainforests, which help keep our Earth healthy by regulating CO2 emissions, and slowing global warming.

The orangutans are forest ‘gardeners’ that help keep the system alive as they drop seeds while feeding in the forest canopy and through their droppings- instant fertilizer!

TOP rescues orangutans and they are rehabilitated at ‘jungle schools’ where they are taught how to survive by surrogate human mothers.

The rehabilitated orangutans are released on land purchased by the organisation and monitored to check their well-being and reproductive rates.

The organisation also helps the people of the region, providing vocational, educational, medical and legal resources for them.

The Orangutan Project is one of the most highly rated organisations world-wide by ecology watch-dogs for its conservation track record.

So, come have a terrific evening and help a critically endangered species!