With plans to animate multiple venues in downtown Vancouver, the inaugural Jade Music Festival will be taking place from November 28 to December 3, 2022.
Multi-Platinum Canadian music artist Tyler Shaw.
Owing to Vancouver’s proximity to Asia, its large pan-Asian demographic, and the historic connections between the cultural diasporas of both West and East, event organizers – Vancouver’s own We Are Canadians Too Society – felt that an event of this type would offer a meaningful example of cross-cultural collaboration through the unique and specific lens of Chinese-language music. Festival organizers also know that, alongside these opportunities for cultural collaboration and cross-pollination, such an event can also serve as an important channel for representation and visibility. The Festival has received support from Amplify BC’s Music Industry Initiatives program.
The Festival’s programme will be eclectic. There will be live performances showcased at the historic Vancouver Playhouse on Wednesday, November 30, and Thursday, December 1. A performance by multi-platinum JUNO-nominated producer/songwriter Tyler Shaw will grace the stage of the the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Friday, December 2. Beyond the international reach showcased during marquee events like this, there will also be multiple appearances from award-winning BC-based artists during the Festival. Examples include JUNO-nominated musician Ginalina, and songwriters and vocalists Vanessa Lefan and Athena Wong. Artists drawn from throughout Canada will also be featured.
Canadian Cantopop singer Athena Wong.
Beyond artistic programming, there will also be ample opportunities for industry community and connection to thrive. The Festival will also offer workshops and panels focused on industry support for Chinese-language music and musicians, with hopes of creating future cross-country and international collaborations for these artists and industry professionals. Additional session highlights include a workshop with Grammy award-winning producer, Jeff Bova, and a talk that features Tyler Shaw discussing his own unique experiences in the music industry.
The Festival is free to attend, and you can RSVP here.
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[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”3.22″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”3.27.4″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”]Stretching from the Yukon down to the United States border, Route 97 is the longest continuously-numbered highway spanning the province of B.C. With numerous tours and artists already making stops from Alberta through to western British Columbia as part of longer tours, Mandy Wheelwright and Mark Greenhalgh saw an opportunity to help fill the gaps between these stops through the creation of a new enterprise that would consciously showcase these same activities: Route 97 Culture. Over the next few weeks, Route 97 Culture will animate a host of regional venues with top-flight artists.
By creating a ‘road culture’ of live performances, supported by meaningful partnerships with venues and event producers in each region, Route 97 Culture brings diverse musical performances to audiences throughout the interior of BC, ensuring that regional audiences have access to the same opportunities as their urban counterparts. Amplify BC’s Music Industry Initiatives and Live Music programs has proven formative to this initiative’s sustainability and continued success.
Alex Cuba in a recent performance.
Throughout the Fall of 2021, Route 97 Culture has presented a broad diversity of artists, including Grammy award-winning BC-based vocalist, Alex Cuba, and BC-based Indigifunk band Curtis Clearsky & the Constellationz. Looking ahead, their next event will showcase Inuit throat singers PIQSIQ on November 4, 2022, at the Okanagan College Campus.
With the goal of creating a robust regional touring corridor that unlocks opportunities for artists and audiences alike, while also showcasing different musical styles and animating regional venues, Route 97 Culture has more surprises in store over the coming weeks. Next month, the company will reach into a new genre by presenting the fast-rising indie pop powerhouse Begonia. Begonia will be performing on November 18 at Revelstoke Performing Arts Centre, followed by a November 19 engagement at the Vernon District Performing Arts Centre, and culminating on November 21 at the Cleland Theatre.
Tickets can still be purchased online for the Penticton show at Cleland Theatre here.
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Sound The Alarm: Music/Theatre and re:Naissance Opera will be bringing the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Angel’s Bone by Du Yun and Royce Vavrek to the ANNEX in Vancouver from November 25 to November 27, 2022. Beyond the the contributions of these two collaborative producers, the opera will also be mounted with support from first-time creative partners Loose Tea Music Theatre, Arraymusic, and Vancouver’s venerable Turning Point Ensemble. This will be the work’s Canadian premiere. Amplify BC’s Live Music program is supporting this presentation.
Angel’s Bone is a timely new piece that focuses on the gritty and unsparing realities of human trafficking and its all-too-frequent impacts on youth. Like many contemporary operas, the goal of this new project – beyond pushing the contemporary music envelope itself forward – is focused around fostering social engagement and awareness linked to a timely issue.
The genesis for this undertaking is rooted in collaboration. As an experienced opera and music theatre producer who strives to ‘sound the alarm’ on contemporary social issues via each of his company’s projects, company head Alan Corbishley was initially approached by Debi Wong, founding Artistic Director of re:Naissance Opera, to strategize on if this would be a viable offering to follow-up to their last joint presentation of Handel’s ACIS + GALATEA (2017). In the context of the social and artistic success of that particular project – a Queer re-framing of Handel’s work, which was spotlighted by Vancouver Classical Music that same year – the timing and potential for Angel’s Bone felt opportune.
When asked to reflect on the context and rationale for presenting Angel’s Bone, Corbishley offers, “Whether new to opera, or an opera veteran, this will likely be a shock to the senses. It’s an explosive piece of music that presents a jarring narrative – and, therefore, it’s not for the faint of heart.”
Alongside the opera’s weighty themes, the score itself will take listeners on a journey encompassing medieval chants, electronic sounds, dance music, and punk-inspired arias, nestled snugly alongside more conventional operatic idioms. The project promises to be a journey for the ears, a challenge to the senses, and a story from the heart that will change artists and audiences alike.
Tickets for Angel’s Bone can be purchased here.
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Liraz, who will perform at this year’s Festival.
Both a cultural mainstay and B.C.’s largest and most prominent Jewish festival, The Chutzpah! Festival will make a triumphant return to Vancouver’s cultural calendar from November 3 to November 24, 2022. This year’s event will feature a wide variety of entertainment for all ages. Building on two decades of diverse history, this year’s festival will continue to celebrate international dance, music, theatre, storytelling, multimedia arts, and comedy. All of this will represent the breadth and depth of an eclectic, multicultural, and deeply contemporary Jewish experience. Creative BC is delighted to support the Festival via its Live Music program, delivered via its Amplify BC fund.
The two-week festival will offer numerous concerts, new dance works, cabarets, and multimedia events. Highlights include an opening night cabaret, “Not a Day Goes by”, with City Opera Vancouver and a roster of talented local singers, celebrating the music of Stephen Sondheim; pianist Leslie Dala delivering the piano suites of composer Philip Glass in conjunction with Ne. Sans Opera & Dance’s world premiere of Hourglass, and Auto Jansz sharing a series of folk ballads with The Flame’s storytellers, to name but a few. This year will also mark the debut of a series within the Festival showcasing the the work of Persian artists of Jewish and non-Jewish backgrounds. The series will culminate in performance by Persian-Jewish contemporary artist Liraz.
Dan and Claudia Zanes, who have also contributed to this year’s Festival.
As in prior years, the Festival will also feature many artistic presentations for all ages. Examples include family and school shows featuring Dan and Claudia Zanes, offering accessible and relaxed performances, as well as the return of local company Axis Theatre, and their play Th’owxyia: The Hungry Feast Dish, inspired by a timeless, charming, and instructive Kwantlen First Nation tale of a sly little mouse who outwits an ogress.
Tickets are still available, and can be purchased here.
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Yvonne Kushe is a multidimensional creative and self-styled ‘artrepreneur’. She displays equal talent as a singer, songwriter, educator, curator and comic. She is also the founder of PolliNATION, a collective initiative that provides artists in both Uganda and North America the opportunity to collaborate and tap into different creative circles while also promoting their music.
Funding from the Career Development program in 2021 enabled Yvonne to expand a creative initiative of her own: the production and recording of her debut album, Unchained, at Idio Recording Studios. The album was brought to life with the support of producer Ron Nazal, alongside sound engineer Justin Hicks. Alongside its bolstering Yvonne’s profile as a fast-rising emerging artist, the album also allowed her to showcase her plethora of artistic influences and substantial musical range.
Growing up in Uganda, Yvonne was drawn to music and the arts from a young age. She drew inspiration from envelope-pushing artists like Brenda Fassie, Angelique Kidjo, Ms Lauryn Hill, Bob Marley, Macy Gray, Eartha Kitt, and Cher: each unique musical voices that continue to inform her approach to music-making. When her career took flight in 2010, she quickly identified formative opportunities to gain practical experience: singing commercial jingles, and providing background vocals for several recording artists.
By the end of 2011, a path was clear. Yvonne debuted as a singer-songwriter with two singles: ‘’Mayah’’ and ‘’Kanywani’’. The two songs were themselves completely different genres and writing styles – a theme that has been consistent with her music in subsequent years. After Yvonne’s move to Canada in 2014, she dedicated herself to self-improvement: forging meaningful connections with fellow artists, and opening herself up to opportunities to advance her career.
At the heart of Yvonne’s musical influences are personal connections to home and family, alongside themes of resilience, resistance, and triumph.
“I create music that marries the two worlds that I’m from: Uganda, where I was born and raised, and Canada, where I came into myself. Over the last eight years, my music has reflected life experiences from my time here in Canada. Through my music, I find myself exploring themes such as mental health, gender, love, heartbreak, healing, and systematic oppression.”
Yvonne continues, “I create for myself, first, and then I invite anyone and everyone that can relate to the themes I sing about to feast on my music. Beyond that, however, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that my music centers the Black woman, and her multilayered experiences. Her joy, her pain, her healing, and her successes are what I hope to mirror through my storytelling and music.”
As a creator comfortable in multiple styles and genres – always questing for the raw sense of story at the heart of each musical idea – Yvonne believes that her versatility as an artist has translated to a richer experience for listeners.
“I want listeners from all walks of life to know that my music is intentionally amorphous. When I create, I aim for a roller-coaster of different themes and colours inspired by life, and the by energies around me. I’ve always rebelled against the idea that I had to stick to a particular genre or style in order for my music to be taken seriously. I wanted – and, I still want – to experience the full spectrum of music, without its demarcations and categories. I follow the melodies wherever they take me, and trust that they’re leading me on an excursion to unearth the truth of things about myself and the world around me.”
Since Unchained‘s successful release, Yvonne has continued to pursue opportunities to grow her career, refine her skills, and forge new connections with her audiences from all walks of life. Over the past 18 months, she has played to enthusiastic and engaged crowds at the Surrey Fusion Festival, the West Vancouver Harmony Arts Festival, the African Descent Festival, and the Kaleidoscope Festival, as but a few examples.
In each instance, Yvonne has sought to create personal connections with these audiences through her music, while also serving as a positive role model for other emerging artists. In particular, Yvonne seeks to inspire and unite fellow artists of African diaspora: through her past and current projects, she continues to help these artists find their own unique voices, and reflect their unique lived experiences back to their listeners.
When asked to reflect on her own experiences to date with Creative BC, Yvonne recounts a journey that was – at times – daunting, but ultimately fruitful.
“In October 2020, when I applied in support of Unchained, it was my first time applying. I was intimidated by the process, but also excited for the prospects. Creative BC offered underrepresented groups the opportunity to work with grant coaches, and I was fortunate to work with the amazing Sage McBride.”
Buoyed at the memory of how this kind of practical encouragement and support ultimately led to success, Yvonne is eager to offer similar advice to others considering an application to Creative BC.
“I would encourage applicants to take advantage of resources like info sessions as much as possible. They’re very helpful, and allow you not only to understand the logistics of the programs, but also give you an opportunity to get real-time clarification from program staff. During the info sessions, I often listen to what other applicants are asking, and make mental notes for myself.”
You can download your copy of Unchained here.
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Photos and artwork courtesy of Kayla Sullivan, Caleigh Kats, and Yvonne Kushe.
After two years of uncertainty and postponements, LUNA SOUND is roaring back with its 2022 installment, and is slated to be bigger and better than ever before. The first LUNA Arts Festival launched to widespread acclaim in 2019, and was the first event of its type in the region. Organizers are thrilled to bring the excitement back to Revelstoke, B.C. from September 23 to 25, 2022.
Ndidi O, one of the headliners for LUNA SOUND in 2022.
The weekend kicks off on Friday evening with a celebratory showcase featuring ten artists presented across four stages. Together, they’ll deliver a wide range of diversity in talent and genre. The Big Bang Stage will showcase electronic music performed by DJ Shub, Witch Prophet, and Khanvict; the Starlight Stage will showcase hip hop, performed by Lex Leosis, Ndidi Cascade, and Leonard Sumner. The Gravity Stage will showcase driving punk from Kitty & The Rooster and The Pack A.D. And, the Constellation Stage will feature R&B, blues & soul performed by Ndidi O and Dacey. The evening will be emceed by noted Vancouver drag artists PM and Continental Breakfast.
Beyond its performance elements, this fulsome weekend will also feature many different art installations, interactive performances and an art alley throughout the day and night. LUNA ARTS will be the focus of the Saturday, and and LUNA STUDIO will represent the focal point of Sunday’s proceedings.
Khanvict, another LUNA SOUND artist.
Uptake for this event’s return has been brisk, but tickets to the LUNA SOUND portion of the weekend are still available here. And, if you’re unable to participate in person, you can still bring the experience to you by visiting the LUNA SOUND Spotify playlist.
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Photos and artwork courtesy of Khanvict, LUNA SOUND, and Franco P. Tettamanti.
On September 17 and 18, 2022, The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, in collaboration with the Musqueam, will join forces in the presentation of Come Toward the Fire, a new, two-day multidisciplinary arts festival with a special Indigenous focus. The event will be a festival-style concert and gathering presented just days prior to the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, celebrating Indigenous talent, creativity and resilience. As a performance series and a community event, Come Toward the Fire will offer a timely means for audiences from all walks of life to feel connection and inspiration in equal measure. Come Toward the Fire has received support from the Live Music program at Amplify BC.
Thanks to this investment, all daytime Festival activities on the Saturday will be free. They will feature Musqueam community presentations that highlight weaving, canoeing, and historical methods of gathering, preparing, storing, and serving traditional Musqueam fare. There will be music and dance performances from artists such as PIQSIQ, Julian Taylor, Lady Sinncere, and Indigenous Enterprise, as well as a variety of vendors and food trucks. The event will also feature an outdoor documentary screening of Stories from Musqueam, originally curated by the Belkin Gallery. The Saturday evening segment will feature over a dozen artists and groups performing at the historic Chan Shun Hall; here also, admission will be offered free of charge to all Indigenous community members.
The weekend will conclude on the Sunday evening at the Chan Centre. In a culmination to the weekend’s proceedings, this storied and iconic venue will host legendary Indigenous icon and musical star Buffy Sainte-Marie in what is sure to be an electrifying performance that will send audiences home with stories and songs in their heads and hearts.
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As an emerging, multi-talented vocalist, instrumentalist, and creator, Serena Sun has found her niche: pop music that conveys deep feelings. Through her songwriting, she unpacks and interrogates life experiences in a way that creates catharsis and connection among her listeners.
Support from the Demo Recording program over the past year has afforded just such an opportunity for Serena. This past year, the program supported production costs associated with “Homecoming”, one of her upcoming singles. Thanks to this funding, Serena was able to engage noted Vancouver producer Nathan Chiu to ensure that the depth and quality of the single’s sound engineering aligned with her original artistic vision.
But – in a broader sense – who does Serena write for? And, why?
“I write for the dreamers and the doers; the people who look at life as one big and wonderful puzzle that has an underlying force guiding each of us and pulling the pieces together,” Serena says. “I want someone getting into my music for the first time to know that each song is a story.”
In the case of “Homecoming”, the story is, in fact, deeply personal. As a single penned with characteristically-disarming honesty, it delves into Serena’s lived experiences returning to her hometown of Vancouver after seven years abroad. Despite having spent these years seeking fulfillment externally, it was only after her return home that the peace Serena had been craving manifested in full.
Along with the personal significance inherent in “Homecoming”, Serena also hopes that the song – along with other recent tracks: “Butterflies” being but one specific example – will connect similarly with new and established audiences.
“My hope is that these songs resonate powerfully with my current fanbase, while also reaching a new audience thanks to their themes. This will allow me to further develop – and, develop sustainably – in this industry as an independent artist!” she says.
“Homecoming” is just the latest in a series of recent successes for Serena. In June of this past year, her debut EP – Shadows on the Ceiling – took flight. Filled with sung-through stories of resilience, belonging, and loss, each expressed in an accessible and melodic pop style, the EP was warmly received by listeners. As an album, Shadows on the Ceiling entertains and inspires in equal measure, while also reminding listeners that, no matter the challenges they might be navigating, they aren’t alone. In this way, the personal becomes the universal.
“I’m very proud of Shadows on the Ceiling,” Serena continues. “In releasing this collection of songs, I was able to share the stories behind different traumas I’ve experienced, and how these situations have shaped me. Moreover, I also came to truly appreciate the value of collaborating with others to achieve unique and different sounds in my music.”
Beyond its healing properties, this EP release has also had a clear and evident impact on Serena’s continued development as a songwriter.
“The experience of Shadows on the Ceiling informed my decisions in creating “Homecoming”. Thanks to it, I am entering a new era in my music,” Serena says. “I am looking forward to taking more risks, and to trusting my inner judgment when it comes to the lyricism, depth, and emotional and sonic landscapes of my songs moving forward.”
Alongside these recent professional achievements, Serena also draws momentum from many other artists that strive for similarly emotive storytelling in their work. When asked about the musical elements within and beyond her life that have inspired her own creativity and output, Serena is quick to offer, “I have so many inspirations! Currently, I’d say that the most influential artists in my world are Lizzy McAlpine, Julia Michaels, and FINNEAS.”
Delving more thoughtfully into inspiration as a concept, Serena is similarly quick to offer her own words of encouragement to those considering applying to Creative BC in search of support for their own projects.
“I would heavily encourage B.C.-based artists to apply to Creative BC for their support. While grants like these may seem daunting at first, it’s important to remember that there is a human on the other side of the screen. They want to help artists grow and succeed in their artistic endeavors!”
Serena concludes, “I would advise those applying to have clear goals in mind, and to not be discouraged if it takes a few rounds to succeed. It’s all worthwhile in service to your story, and to your art.”
All photos and artwork courtesy of Serena Sun.
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Being a two-time Olympian and bronze medalist, Charity Williams is no stranger to the big stage. This time, the stage happens to be both literal and metaphorical: it refers to her role as the lead organizer for the inaugural Function Festival, taking place on August 20th, 2022, at Ship Point, in Victoria, B.C.
In 2020, Charity knew she wanted to help create space, visibility, and opportunity for the BIPOC community. So, she began organizing local events and street murals. With these events being successful – qualified by plenty of interest, uptake, and community support – she continued to dream bigger. These aspirations culminated in the inaugural Function Festival.
The first-time festival will be headlined by Kaash Paige, and boasts a slate of noteworthy B.C.-based BIPOC talent that includes Boslen, Prado, Turunesh, and Micky Weekes. In talks with Creative BC about the event, Williams also notes that she’s thrilled and honoured to have also secured Notorious Cree for the festival: they will be presenting a dance performance at the event. Alongside musical and dance performances, there also will be a vendor village, food trucks, live art displays and an onsite barbershop for attendees.
The Function Festival is an all ages event, and will also feature a dedicated area for children. Tickets are on sale until August 20th for $35; children under the age of 12 will be offered admission at no cost. You can get your tickets here.
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Hailing from coastal British Columbia, Jocelyn Pettit is a musician who seeks to connect people through music. Through her work, she celebrates cultural heritage and traditions, and uplifts creativity. Utilizing her talents of fiddle playing, composing, singing, and stepdancing, Jocelyn performs powerfully uplifting and unifying concerts that celebrate the uniquely propulsive and kinetic joy she finds in music-making.
Recent support from the Career Development program has enabled Jocelyn to explore cultural traditions and folk heritage via the release of her latest album, Wind Rose. Named for the nautical compass used by 18th-century seafarers, and serving as an additional metaphor for the visible and invisible forces that inform the currents of life, the album features 12 tracks. It includes a mix of original compositions inspired by core themes of home and travel, nestled alongside fresh interpretations of traditional and contemporary tunes. Wind Rose saw release on June 3, 2022. The title track’s music video debuted on the same day.
Jocelyn, at home on B.C.’s rocky coastline.
As a new album, Wind Rose draws inspiration from Celtic, folk, and world music traditions, and features band members and guest collaborators drawn from North America and Scotland. With careful curation evident in its makeup, Wind Rose provides listeners with an ethereal and eclectic mix of melody, rhythm, and dance. Career Development funding supported artistic and production costs associated with the album’s development. This funding also enabled Jocelyn to optimize opportunities associated with the album’s release through the creation of an updated website with integrated e-commerce capabilities. This enabled her to drive promotional, marketing, and business development efforts. In doing so, she was able to sustainably connect this latest project to new audiences at her periphery while also maintaining ties to those already engaged.
“As a multicultural artist, with Scottish, Irish, French, and Malaysian heritage, I integrate in my music the Celtic and folk traditions of my roots. I draw on influences from places and cultures encountered during my musical travels to create my compositions, with the goal of bringing tradition-based music to a wider scope of audiences.” Jocelyn explains.
She continues, “It has been the biggest compliment in all my years of performing to see people dancing to my music, tapping their feet, singing along, being emotionally moved, [and sometimes] reaching out afterwards to say it brought back happy memories, or that they could relate in some way.”
As her third album, Wind Rose marks a high point in Jocelyn’s already-established career. Over the past fifteen years, she has toured nationally and internationally: sometimes backed by her own five-piece Jocelyn Pettit Band, and also appearing as an musical duo with select collaborators. Her work has taken her to festivals and venues across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Malaysia.
Jocelyn in a moment of outdoor celebration.
Jocelyn has also enjoyed radio and television appearances with CBC and the BBC, and has performed with world-renowned artists, including The Chieftains (Ireland), The Battlefield Band (Scotland), and Carlos Núñez (Spain), among others. With a strong musical focus supported by thoughtful business strategy, Jocelyn’s two prior self-produced albums (Debut, in 2010, and Caravan, in 2015) have earned multiple nominations at the Canadian Folk Music Awards and the Western Canadian Music Awards. Simultaneously, she continues to maintain a busy schedule as a music educator, teaching fiddle and stepdance lessons and community workshops to learners of all ages and levels.
When asked to reflect on the genesis of Wind Rose, Jocelyn offers, “This album was inspired by home and travel, and two years of living in Scotland. It includes more original material than my previous releases. I’m really excited to share this new music! It was recorded with my fabulous B.C.-based band members, and guest collaborators in Glasgow. The Wind Rose name is very fitting: my hometown’s name is a Coast Salish word that means ‘Mother of the Wind’. It’s definitely a windy place!”
Culminating in a Master of Music from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, this period abroad also brought about new influences, composition inspiration, and memorable performance opportunities for Jocelyn. Career highlights during this period included engagements at the Celtic Connections Festival – the UK’s premiere celebration of Celtic music – appearances at Edinburgh Castle and Blair Castle, as well as at Scotland House in Brussels, Belgium, performing for HM Queen Elizabeth II and HRH Prince Charles, performing on the violin of influential 18th-century composer, Niel Gow, and connecting with new collaborators.
These collaborative connections have proven integral to future opportunities. During this period, Jocelyn also broadened her musical and creative works by forming a meaningful partnership with Ellen Gira, an American cellist. This partnership has continued to bear creative fruit: In July 2022, Jocelyn and Ellen released a duo album, All It Brings, comprised of soulful and high-energy folk music from Scotland, Ireland, North America, and Scandinavia. They are also touring this summer and fall throughout British Columbia, Ontario, Québec, and the Eastern United States. Ellen remains one of Jocelyn’s core creative partners: in both collaborative and performative capacities, their energy and chemistry is palpable.
Jocelyn in 2021.
When invited to reflect on the inspirations that fuel her creative processes, Jocelyn is quick to offer that, to her, “…inspiration is everywhere! Keeping the mind open to input is so important. I have an inspiration garden where I plant seeds of creative ideas. I love listening to the sounds of new kinds of music! Discovering new albums is fun.”
In this vein, Jocelyn continues, “I’m inspired by music with movement: grooves, harmonies, global rhythms, and blended combinations of traditional and contemporary folk influences. Catchy melodies are exciting and memorable. Inspiration evolves and changes. Some favourite musicians who have inspired me include Natalie MacMaster, Hanneke Cassel, Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas, The Fretless, The East Pointers, Flook, Frigg, Dreamers’ Circus, and Andrew Bird – there are so many great musicians out there!”
Jocelyn concludes, “A shout-out to independent artists managing all aspects of developing your career: you’re amazing. What an intensely busy juggle! It’s inspiring to see fellow indie musicians making it happen, and supporting each other.”
Connecting more fully with the setting for Wind Rose’s music video.
Energized with this reflection on generosity of spirit, Jocelyn is also quick to offer it to other independent artists contemplating an application to Creative BC on behalf of their own projects.
“Go for it! Research the guidelines carefully, ask a trusted friend or family member for feedback, and give yourself lots of time before the deadline. Determination pays off over time, and the more often you apply, the more chances you have of being considered for support. All the best with your projects!”
You can grab your copy of Wind Rose here, and on Bandcamp.
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Photos courtesy of Audrey Thizy.
With a void of live music festivals being felt in Squamish, B.C., Kirsten Andrews, Patricia Heintzman and Tamara Stanners all knew they had past experience that could lead to something special, that could help add to the community. With their passion for supporting, nurturing, and promoting music, the trio felt a calling to create Squamish Constellation Festival.
Their inaugural festival was held in 2019 and returns this year, running from July 22 to July 24th at Hendrickson Field in Squamish, B.C.. This year’s festival is headlined by July Talk, Black Pumas, Sarah Mclachlan, featuring performances from Dear Rouge, Jessia, Mauvey, Ocie Elliot, Fake Shark, Hotel Mira, and many more.
Not only will the aim be to shine a light on live music, the festival will be featuring local artists, artisan and creators on the event grounds. Circus West will be captivating audiences across the entire festival grounds with their site– wide circus performances, workshops and installations alongside local artists showcasing throughout the festival.
Tickets are still available for the Squamish Constellation Festival on July 22-24, visit the website for more details.
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With the third weekend of July quickly approaching, this also means the 8th annual African Descent Festival at Thornton Park is right around the corner. Since it’s creation in 2015, founder Yasin Kiraga M. and the African Descent Society BC have been offering this free community event that features a wealth of talent in music, art, crafts, culture, food, history and fashion.
This year will be aiming to top the success of 2021’s hybrid offering of live and online, which amassed 11,000 attendees at the event and 250,000 online viewers. Artists that will be performing include Master KG & Zanda Zakuza, Safi Madiba, Mazacotte Band, Makhadzi, Teon Gibbs and Xhalida and many more.
Beyond the wide variety of music and art being showcased, there also will be an assortment of African food and vendors. The event will also include a fashion show that is produced by Mawogan Fashion.
Check out the full schedule for the African Descent Festival on July 16 & 17.
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Founded in picturesque Roberts Creek by director Serena Eades (herself a veteran 25-year music educator, armed with dual music degrees from the Berklee College and Brandon University), the Serena Eades Academy of Music offers budding violin and fiddle players of all backgrounds the opportunity to thrive.
The Academy’s founder, Serena Eades, in a moment of celebration with two Academy members.
Thanks to a recent investment from Amplify BC’s Music Company Development program, the Academy has been able to extend this opportunity to even more musicians through the launch of a new site in North Vancouver, while also hiring more staff to support its other locations throughout B.C.
Upon launching in Roberts Creek in 2019, the Academy immediately drew interest from community members, youth, and families hungry to learn the violin and fiddle. Quickly, the Academy’s community-focused operations grew to a regional scale. During the early days of the pandemic, the Academy was able to sustain momentum by offering online classes to students. Thanks to this continued growth, and supported by an initial investment from Creative BC, the organization soon opened two new locations: a space in qathet (Powell River), alongside additional teaching studios on the Sunshine Coast.
In any given year, the Academy now serves nearly 150 students with a core faculty of regular violin and fiddle instructors, supported by guest clinicians drawn from studios and concert halls the world over. Instruction basics include the rudiments of music theory and musicianship, individual and ensemble performance skills, and an introduction to chamber music. In-person instruction (including structured workshops, and more spontaneous ‘jam sessions’, often led by special guest artists) is available for local students; online options are also offered to those beyond B.C. proper. Students currently range in age from 3 – 75, and span a gamut of abilities from complete beginner to pre-college level. At the Serena Eades Academy of Music, staff are dedicated to creating a sense of enduring community between instructors, students, and their families. All are welcome!
Intergenerational learning opportunities are an Academy highlight.
When asked about the Academy’s broader mission, Serena offers, “We are not merely a source of music education: we are instrumental in the development of the life-long skills of discipline, critical thinking, self-empowerment, and creative problem solving through music. We aim to broaden the scope of cultural awareness and knowledge of our students by exploring repertoire beyond the traditional white, Western European canon, and hosting instructors of diverse ethnic identities. We strive to create a respectful community of students and educators across generations, gender and ethnic identities, physical and mental abilities, and geographic locations.”
Since receiving this most recent support from Creative BC in mid-2022, the Academy has responded to increasing regional demand for its services by expanding its quathet (Powell River) space, hiring two new permanent instructors for its Sunshine Coast studios (bringing the Academy’s permanent instructor roster to seven), and launching a fourth location in North Vancouver. Private and group classes are already available in each of these spaces. To drive engagement, a comprehensive marketing and business development strategy is already proving integral to student recruitment and retention efforts, and to creating increased awareness of the Academy’s unique opportunities for collaborative music-making. By increasing its visibility and connection to new and prospective students, the Academy can offer bursaries and scholarships to those in need, while also maintaining flexibility for those whose finances require it: thereby ensuring that no one is turned away from instruction for financial reasons.
The Academy’s leadership is excited at the potential for these investments to drive its mission on an even broader scale over the longer term. Serena continues, “Funding from Creative BC has been instrumental in our ability to support and grow our community of students and families by allowing us to hire more staff, market to new locations and demographics, supply our studios with PPE to keep our teachers and students healthy, and develop a studio-specific curriculum and BIPOC string composers’ database. We have also been able to expand our offerings beyond private lessons by presenting workshops, partnering with local businesses, and developing chamber music ensemble and fiddle group programs.”
Teaching the basics of reading music.
Beyond these investments in capacity, access, and service delivery, support from Creative BC has also enabled the Serena Eades Academy of Music to plan for longer-term projects that build community, and that engage new demographics at a time where the fields of classical and concert music confront deep questions of equity in an era of systemic change.
In the coming months, thanks to Amplify BC’s support, the Academy will present an inaugural string workshop summit, open to existing and new prospective students. The event will bring together string players drawn from each of the Academy’s home communities to learn music and works developed specifically by Indigenous, Métis, and Black composers. Over the longer term, efforts like these will enable the Academy to extend a hand of welcome to many for whom individual or collaborative string musicianship may have once seemed unwelcoming – or, at the very least, out of familiar reach. The Academy’s commitment to Reconciliation is palpable: beyond undertakings like these, the team has also donated proceeds from past student recitals to the Indian Residential School Survivors Society, and the Syiyaya Reconcilliation Movement in Shíshálh (Sechelt).
Dene Nation fiddler (and friend of the Academy) Wesley Hardisty.
As Serena and her team contemplate this longer term, they also recognize the role that funding agencies like Creative BC have played in the Academy’s ability to strategize and plan longer-term, and dream bigger than ever before. When asked to reflect on what insights her own efforts have yielded that may support other organizations seeking similar resources, Serena offers, “My advice to anyone considering applying to Creative BC for support is to be clear on your vision, flexible in your execution, and passionate about your purpose. Ask for advice, believe deeply in your project, and the support will come!”
Serena concludes, “We are incredibly fortunate to have this institution in B.C., and not a day goes by that I am not grateful for both the financial support that Creative BC has provided, and the confidence that this support has given me in delivering my projects.”
You can learn more about the Serena Eades Academy of Music here.
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Photos and artwork courtesy of the Serena Eades Academy of Music.
A recent acoustic guitar live performance.
As a Kelowna-based artist and producer, Jodie B is equally at home in the realms of alternative hip-hop and blues. Her musical career began on the streets at the age of 3, and has since steadily progressed to encompass regional shows, community events, and international music festivals. Jodie B’s instruments of choice are a purple bass, a Fender Tele, and a six-key harmonica belt. Her sister, Nique Blue, often accompanies on the mandolin, alto saxophone, or acoustic guitar. In every instance and setting, Jodie B’s music is lyrical, accessible, and warm. It promotes her own values: authenticity, kindness, equanimity, and perseverance.
Headlining a festival in 2019.
A recent investment from Amplify BC’s Career Development program has enabled these qualities to resonate with a wider audience. On June 1, Jodie B launched the music video for her new single, “Human”: a multi-award-winning project filmed and produced on the traditional and unceded territories of the Sylix – Okanagan people. As a music video, “Human” conveys a message of deep empathy through its look at the many enduring connections between the human body and nature. B.C.’s pristine interior, with its palette of rugged forests, old-growth fields, and sun-baked flats, provided a compelling and cinematic backdrop for its story to play out.
Beyond its reminder of these interconnections, the video itself is a call to action: a warning for humans to return to right relations with the natural world, and practice mindful empathy with all of its living inhabitants. Career Development funding directly supported production and development costs associated with the video. The significant production values associated with this support have earned the video a robust mix of critical and popular acclaim. To date, “Human’s” accolades have included:
- Oniros Film Awards New York, Grady Jury Award
- New York International Film Awards, Grand Jury Award
- Winner, Award of Excellence, Best Shorts Competition
- Season 2, Hamburg Film Awards, Finalist
- 2021 Humanitarian Award, Honorable Mention, Best Shorts Competition
- Official Selection, Hamburg Film Awards 2022
- Finalist, 4theatre Selection 2021
- Semi-Finalist, Paris International Short Festival 2022
As a musician who is working actively to grow their video production skills and abilities, Jodie B is pleased at the opportunities working on this project have unlocked in her career. “Without Creative BC’s support, I would not have been able to assemble the team that produced this incredible, award-winning music video. Because of its high production values, the video itself has gone on to win eight international awards! I would never have been able to hire the talent needed to bring the production to life without this funding,” she says. “Beyond production costs, working with this team provided me with mentorship skills that I will one day share with others.”
A 2021 photo shoot.
This most recent success has been informed by years of persistence, and a willingness to take on virtually any opportunity. Over the past few years, Jodie B has appeared at the Shambhala Music Festival (in 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2019), and has opened for artists such as Kytami, DubFx, The Pharcyde, and Methodman & Redman. Beyond these performance credits, she has co-produced for some of the industry’s leading hip-hop voices, including Q, Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Mayday!, Nino Bless, and Slug from Atmosphere, all in 2020. In 2021, Jodie B. increased her focus on growing as a producer by becoming the new owner of Frequency Sound 528, a recording studio promoting safe spaces for emerging and underrepresented artists to create and collaborate. Later in 2021, Jodie B joined the Danio Management family: home to artists including Stickybuds, KLab, Slynk, Fort Knox Five, JPod, and Featurecast. In each of these efforts, Jodie’s continuing mission has been to spread kindness through her lyrics and music, and share unique perspectives informed by her own lived experiences.
When asked to consider some of the formative lessons and insights that the “Human” video project has left her with, Jodie B reflects, and offers, “The project made me let go of my own limiting beliefs, and encouraged myself to set new goals I didn’t even know were possible, At the same time, it really made me understand the value of community, and how important it is to work with MANY artists! The great lessons of community, and of involving many talented minds, made this project what it is today.”
A moment in performance with an amplified violin.
Jodie B is deeply grateful to those who have inspired her success to date. When asked to consider the inspirations that have informed her work, she is quick to offer that, “Literally anyone, going out there, facing their fears, and taking the steps needed to achieve their greatest dreams is my inspiration!”
Jodie B also credits a few specific industry mentors for the fortitude that fuels her focus. As she notes, “Speaking personally, a few individuals have really given me reason to look up to them: Jane Aurora at Capsule Studios, Atmosphere, Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Jay Shetty, Two Feet, Tash Sultana, and DubFx.”
In keeping with the same spirit of mentorship, Jodie B is also quick to provide guidance and ready encouragement for those new to music production – and to grant-seeking on a whole.
“Do it! Leave yourself a lot of time, stay organized, believe in yourself, stick to the plan – and don’t be scared to ask for help,” she says.
“There are so many amazing resources and individuals that are eager to help you succeed. You don’t have to do it alone.”
“Human” can be heard and seen here.
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Photos courtesy of Jodie B.
Since 2010, Blue Light Studio has been a vital resource for B.C.’s music industry. Conceived by founding owner/producer/engineer Kaj Falch-Nielsen as a dedicated East Vancouver resource for music professionals from all walks of life, and specializing in indie, rock, pop, country, and singer-songwriter genres, the full-service recording studio prioritizes access and inclusion, and takes pride in service excellence.
Thanks to funding from Amplify BC’s Music Company Development program in 2022, Blue Light Studio is increasing its capacity to provide world-class experiences and resources to B.C.-based musicians at all stages of their careers. Already an innovative leader in the areas of recording, mixing, mastering, production services, musical arranging, voiceover, and video production, funding from Creative BC is enabling the studio to upgrade its recording gear, expand its mixing and mastering services, develop new service packages for clients, and expand staff roles and responsibilities: an important engine of job creation and economic growth for the studio and the sector at large in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Beyond these investments in recovery, these Amplify BC-supported upgrades will also enable Blue Light Studio to continue operating on par with competitors, improve quality and speed of service delivery, and grow clientele throughout B.C. Completion of these upgrades is anticipated by June 2023.
A Blue Light Studio recording panel.
Beyond these physical and technological upgrades, Creative BC has also made recent investments in the ability for the space to serve as an inclusive incubator and catalyst for local artists seeking exposure and visibility two years into the pandemic. As a multi-instrumental musician with years of North American touring experience that predated his founding of Blue Light Studio, Kaj’s understanding of the industry’s evolving needs – both on a sectoral level, and in the context of the individual artists that represent its lifeblood – runs deep. Since inception, Blue Light Studio has also presented over 120 live music events for local audiences, featuring more than 130 B.C.-based artists. During the pandemic, a weekly, digitally-streamed version of this activity, known as the Blue Light Sessions, represented a lifeline for artists; a 2022 grant from Creative BC’s Live Music program is enabling this program to continue at capacity in a hybrid format. Live performances will gradually resume, and also be offered digitally, for audiences beyond Vancouver proper.
A Blue Light Sessions event, shortly prior to the pandemic.
The plan is for the re-launched Blue Light Sessions to run live from the studio itself at least once a week, and showcase at least 50 local artists throughout the remainder of 2022. Live performances will also streamed on Facebook and YouTube to maximize audience reach, and maintain existing engagement on these platforms. The artist roster will be 100 percent Canadian, with at least 60 percent of this total being BIPOC/LGBTQIA2S+. Beyond its service as a convener and launching pad for local artists seeking reconnection with live audiences, Kaj and his team hope to build out the online streaming aspects of this performance series into something on the scale of AudioTree.tv, Black Cab Sessions, and NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts series – albeit with a distinctly B.C.-based perspective. The physical and logistical up-fitting detailed above is already proving integral to this objective.
Over time, Blue Light Studio has historically provided space for local musicians in search of places to gain meaningful experience in a setting that affords equal weight to process and product. Over the years, groups like Said the Whale, The Swollen Members, and Small Town Artillery have each launched formative elements of their careers at Blue Light, and continue to serve as powerful ambassadors for the homegrown ingenuity and expertise that characterizes B.C.’s music industry. Beyond these marquee groups, a host of emerging artists have also found support, inclusion, and opportunity at the studio, and continue to benefit from its influence.
Session guitar warmup in progress at Blue Light Studio.
As the sector continues to build back from the pandemic, one thing has become clear: collaborative and versatile resources like Blue Light Studio will lead the way in ensuring that artists and audiences alike can continue to listen, together for many years to come.
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Photos and artwork courtesy of Blue Light Studio.
OXLIP is Northern Irish-born singer-songwriter Jayne Trimble’s moniker for the stage. The name is inspired by wildflowers and woodlands evocative of the darkly-windswept British Isles, alongside a host of literary archetypes ripped straight from the Brontë era. OXLIP has been creating intricate musical worlds in similarly-windswept and coastal Vancouver since 2012. As an artist, she’s inspired by music’s restorative properties as much as she is intrigued by the intricacies of the natural and metaphysical worlds, paradoxes in classical literature, and the complex legacies of Victorian-era gender politics.
Promotional art for Come All Ye Fair And Tender Ladies.
Thanks to Amplify BC’s Career Development program in 2022, OXLIP has indulged these curiosities through the development and release of Come All Ye Fair And Tender Ladies, a studio album that unifies traditional European and North American folk songs with abstract psychedelic elements. This hybrid approach wrests these pieces from the realm of artifice into fresh relief for contemporary listeners. Named for the eponymous American folk ballad first heard in the Appalachian region (and made famous through later covers from Peter, Paul and Mary, Pete Seeger, and Joan Baez, among other 20th century mainstays), the tracks themselves are ethereal and spare. Sitting somewhere between hymn and madrigal in style, they are also largely characterized with the warm sounds of the banjo, the mandolin, and the acoustic guitar, alongside the quiet presence of an organ and synth continuo. Career Development funding has supported the album’s engineering, production, and mastering, alongside the development of artwork and promotional photos in support of its launch. The album – OXLIP’s fifth – saw a mass-market release on May 27, 2022.
As a largely self-produced multi-instrumental musician, and as comfortable in the realms of folk and traditional music as she is with ambient soundscapes and indie rock, OXLIP is no stranger to projects that challenge boundaries, cross-pollinate audiences, and interrogate the tensions that lie between the concrete and abstract elements of the human experience. Her deceptively-simple hymns and folk songs are engineered to trigger nostalgia and sentiment; her more avant-garde and experimental projects invite reflection on deeply visceral themes like love, death, sex, and loss. No matter the setting or context, however, OXLIP’s intention is for her work to evoke real reflection and open-hearted response in her listener.
“I create music because of the healing, transformative power I believe it has,” she says. “Music is deeply personal for me. Since the age of 30 – I’m now 38 – I’ve been on a healing journey that music has been a big part of. My voice and my music have gone from what I perceive to be unsure and insecure-sounding to fully embodied and empowered. I know that this energy is transmuted sonically to the listener when they hear my music. That’s really exciting to me!”
OXLIP’s Canadian Folk Music Awards nomination for Emerging Artist of the Year (2022).
Come All Ye Fair And Tender Ladies’ arrival as a new album marks the crest of a period of sustained career momentum for OXLIP. Earlier in 2022, she received an Emerging Artist of the Year nomination at the Canadian Folk Music Awards in support of her sophomore release, Your Mother Was A Peacock, which offered a folk music-infused platform for stories that explored the recurring archetypes throughout art and literature surrounding ‘women as scapegoats’. Shortly thereafter, the title track from OXLIP’s fourth album – A Kind of Premonition – saw a feature within the fifth season of MTV’s acclaimed Ex On The Beach series. In recent years, she has also enjoyed concurrent visibility in the North American and UK press, with profiles, interviews, and features on BBC Radio, the Just Us Folk radio program, and CBC’s The Next Chapter, among other platforms. OXLIP is also the CEO and founder of a boutique recording studio and record label for women, World Peach Records.
Your Mother Was A Peacock album artwork (2021).
As a songwriter, OXLIP’s efforts are informed by an alchemy of classical mythology, folklore, and the lasting legacies of Victorian-era social conventions. In both live and studio settings, she blends carefully-considered aesthetics with taste, style, and an artisan’s skill. Over time, much of OXLIP’s music has been characterized by strong themes associated with women, and their representation in historical fiction. As she elaborates, “I trained as an actress in London and Moscow, and I have a great passion for classical literature. A lot of my inspiration stems from these sources. I write a lot from the perspective of women throughout history who could not – or, who cannot – tell their stories, and I care deeply about equality and freedom for women. That theme comes through a lot in my music.”
Widespread audience appreciation for OXLIP’s efforts to weave thoughtful storytelling and social justice elements into her commercial output has bolstered her career trajectory. This approach has enabled OXLIP to feed her own personal passions and curiosities while shrewdly growing existing and new audiences. When invited to reflect on those moments that have represented the most significant catalysts to current success, OXLIP returns to her recent nomination at the Canadian Folk Music Awards for Peacock as something particularly elemental. She recalls, “This was such a pivotal moment for me: the first time I’d ever had recognition to this degree for my work! It was very validating, and I very much enjoyed going to Prince Edward Island for the awards ceremony earlier this year.”
Despite coups like these, however, OXLIP keeps perspective on the formative efforts and experiences that have enabled her career to take flight. She continues, “But, all of the projects and hard work leading up to [the nomination] were all really important in their own ways. My music career has been a long, slow burner, but it’s also felt like investing in the stock market: there’s compound interest, and eventually, it builds on itself, and becomes rewarding. I’m proud of how I’ve carved out my own path, and not accepted defeat from setbacks. There is a confidence that develops over time, and this can’t be bought or learned overnight. So, that feels good.”
OXLIP at the Old Southland Stables, preparing for a photo shoot associated with Come All Ye Fair And Tender Ladies.
When OXLIP takes inventory of the attributes that have informed her successes, perseverance, resilience, generosity of spirit, and tenacity emerge as natural watchwords. Why? She quickly cites her producing partner: the longtime songwriter and indie artist Damien Jurado. Beyond his service as a musical contemporary, Damien’s iterative approach to music – one that, often, intentionally prioritizes process over product – has markedly shaped OXLIP’s own strategies. As she explains, “Damien has steadily built up his audience over years and years of hard work and persistence: he just celebrated 25 years in the industry! Getting to chat with him about life and music in LA while he produced an album that I had recorded was amazing. There was so much kinship and identification with him as a person, and his [way of working]. He has become, for me, a mentor, as much as [he’s] my producer.”
As OXLIP’s musical and creative stars continue their dual ascent, she remains mindful of ways in which she can continue to inspire others contemplating a similar creative path. This extends to sharing her tactics for securing the support that fuels these goals. When asked to reflect on what advice she’d offer to those contemplating a Creative BC funding opportunity, her response is simple.
“I’d say to just go for it! Many people have asked me for tips and advice about grants at Creative BC. And I always say, ‘Creative BC wants to support you: they’re looking for opportunities to be part of your career – so, be honest, and don’t overcomplicate your application.'”
OXLIP concludes, “I’ve attended [many] grant info sessions, and one thing has always been clear: they don’t [ask for] or need fluffy answers. Bullet points are fine, and that’s really refreshing, as not all of us are experienced grant writers!”
Come All Ye Fair And Tender Ladies can be purchased here.
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Photos and artwork courtesy of OXLIP, World Peach Records, Pearl Rachinsky, and Carol Gandra.
When Vineet Miglani and Nidhi Kamboj identified a sustainable means of bringing more live music and art to Gibsons, B.C., they knew it was an opportunity that they couldn’t pass up.
Having chosen to forego the rigors of big-city life for a slower pace in the idyllic community, Miglani and Kamboj also maintained dreams of contributing to the arts and culture of this region. To make good on this aspiration, they purchased a local church, with the end goal being its transformation into a live music venue. Support from Amplify BC’s Live Music program has proven integral to this transformation’s success.
Sitka String Quartet playing an afternoon matinee at High Beam Dreams.
Upon launching in the summer of 2018 as High Beam Dreams, the pair immediately felt the love from their community. Miglani recalls, “The day [we] opened [our] doors, the whole community on the Sunshine Coast came out to support us!”
Oxlip in recent concert at High Beam Dreams.
Following this initial success, the venue’s first show sold out in well advance. This inaugural set featured an intimate night with El Grupo Cuban, who not only delivered a full set, but also prepared dinner for attendees. Since these early forays into community-building through performance, High Beam Dreams has maintained a commitment to regional arts and culture. These efforts have not gone unnoticed: in 2020, the enterprise won both the Business Excellence Award for Best Community Impact, and the Small Business BC Award for Best Immigrant Entrepreneur.
As they contemplate the remainder of 2022, Vineet conveys his excitement at focusing on ways to continually elevate and showcase the plethora of talent that exists in B.C. Their next show – planned for Saturday, May 21 – will feature Nanaimo’s own David Gogo, a Blues artist who will appear with opener Marisha Devoin. In June, they look forward to hosting Kym Gouchie, a Lheidli T’enneh Nation (Prince George) artist, in support of National Indigenous History Month.
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Photos courtesy of Greg Eymundson / Insight-Photography.com, and High Beam Dreams.
Musical collaborations that bridge global gaps can inspire artists and audiences alike to listen their way into a more connected world.
Zhongxi Wu and Mark Takeshi McGregor, of the VICO ensemble.
Thanks to funding from Amplify BC’s Career Development program in 2022, the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra (VICO) is preparing for exactly this kind of concert at the Cultch’s Historic Theatre on June 11. The unique occasion will connect some of the best of B.C.’s homegrown talent with an Azerbaijan-based father and son duo making their Western Canadian debut. Tickets are available here.
The VICO in a recent dress rehearsal.
The concert itself is “Music From the Heart”, a ground-breaking international collaboration that will feature the 22-member orchestra, alongside special guest artists Ramiz Guliyev (tar) and Ayyub Guliyev (composer and conductor). The concert will occur for a live audience, and – thanks to support from Amplify BC – will also be captured and shared digitally in the near future.
The VICO, founded in 2001, is 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. A 2012 recipient of the City of Vancouver Cultural Harmony Award, the VICO has been described as “the United Nations of music” (CBC Radio), and “music that sounds like Vancouver looks” (Georgia Straight).
The VICO in a recent recording session at the ANNEX.
Twice-postponed previously due to the pandemic, the live “Music From the Heart” programme will feature Canadian contemporary classical music by B.C. composers, including Farshid Samandari, Taraneh Foroozan, and Mark Armanini. The release of the subsequent video – beyond a static performance capture, an immersive, fully-fledged concert production in its own right – will be one of the flagship events of the VICO’s 20th anniversary season in 2021/22.
When asked to reflect on what drives the VICO’s inspirations to seek out and champion projects like this one, Melanie Thomson and Mark Armanini (VICO’s Communications Manager and Artistic Director, respectively) offered that, “The VICO’s inspirations come from many regions of the world, through the musicians we work and create with, who are not only talented in their individual practice and/or cultural tradition, but also unusually open to learning new ways of creating and performing music together across cultural and linguistic boundaries. As artists, VICO composers and musicians are inspired by carefully listening to each other, and by the way that music can break down barriers of knowledge and understanding, leading to exciting and inspiring new collaborations.”
Thanks to Amplify BC’s investment, the VICO is similarly investing in its longer-term ability to market and disseminate quality digital programming that is both complementary to its live presentations, and a compelling experience its own right. By increasing the diversity and quality of digital programming it is able to offer (including to an international viewership), the ensemble is also able to identify new audiences and sources of revenue to sustain operations in the longer term.
Saina Khaledi & Marjan Alekhamis, of the VICO, in rehearsal.
The digital capture and dissemination of this live concert will also provide current and future audiences with insights into the unique instrumentation that can typically be heard at a VICO event.
“In our Creative BC-funded project, a compelling performance video will offer viewers rare, close-up views of the VICO’s diverse instruments (Chinese erhu, Persian kamanche, Azerbaijani tar, violin, viola, cello, contrabass, percussion from around the globe),” says Mark. “The sound will be carefully recorded on vintage analogue audio equipment to ensure that the unique colours of each instrument are clear and present.”
When asked what advice they’d offer to others considering seeking funding from Creative BC, Melanie reflects, and says, “Talk to a program officer, and find out how your work might fit with Creative BC’s funding envelope! The perception can be that these grant programs are focused more on popular/commercial entertainment, but the VICO’s continued experience is proof that there is room for other types of projects, as well.”
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Photos and artwork courtesy of John Endo Greenaway / Big Wave Design, Melanie Thompson, and Alistair Eagle.
In the wake of two years of pandemic-related delays and postponements, the Odlum Brown Fort Langley Jazz and Arts Festival – a Live Music program funding recipient – is thrilled to announce the headlining acts for its 2022 in-person festival.
The roster includes blues guitarist and singer Sue Foley, jazz vocalist Molly Johnson, jazz-funk band The Shuffle Demons, jazz trumpeter Michael Sarian, jazz pianist and singer Champian Fulton, Afro Dominican Latin Jazz percussionist Junior Santos, and soul-gospel performer, Warren Dean Flandez – among others.
There will also be numerous free and low-cost events that activate public spaces, provide showcase opportunities for local and visiting artists, and engage young people, families, and community residents from all walks of life.
Learn more and buy tickets.
In 2009, Jesse Valstar and Bretton Melanson were just two twentysomethings with an idea. 13 years later, they’re proudly known as the co-founders of Western Canada’s Armstrong Metal Fest.
When Valster returned from a European sojourn that included attendance at several festivals, it left him with a thirst for more. Around the same time, Melanson had a similar experience attending a weekend bush party that included a stage, camping, and other immersive elements. When they compared notes, it was clear they wanted to recreate this experience: ideally, in their own hometown of Armstrong, B.C.
Lively costumes and apparel are a feature of the festival.
In its first year, the event was successful, and felt like a big party: in its second year, attendance doubled. To keep pace, the festival needed a larger venue. After some deliberating, a decision was made in favor of the Hassen Memorial Arena, which allows for on-site camping, and is close to several amenities. The Arena welcomes children of all ages, with those under 10 receiving free admission. The site also features a family-friendly camping site, dubbed Atlantis, which allows for a more peaceful experience for families that attend. Support from Amplify BC’s Live Music program earlier this year has enabled this festival to refine its offerings to cultivate new audiences with confidence.
Metalheads from far and wide can expect this year’s festival (slated for July 15 – 16, 2022) to be packed full with talent, as Valstar noted. When we asked him which bands he’s most excited for, he reflected, and offered, “This is a tricky question. Seriously, I just took another look at the list; I can’t single any of them out. We did a good job this year!”
Cage match time!
Alongside the festival’s roster of core artists, the Okanagan-based wrestling promotional company Thrash Wrestling will have their traditional ring outside of the arena. New for 2022, Valstar notes that a rumoured cage match may be on the books. Attendees are also encouraged to visit local wizard Drizzlb Tums, and join in on the Beer Helmet March: a special event that features personally-crafted beer case helmets. Alongside their propensities for refreshment, these helmets serve an added purpose: they can earn participants prizes and special giveaways.
The most-coveted prize? Two tickets to next year’s festival, of course!
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As a field and a medium, opera is facing a systemic reckoning. Concepts like equity, representation, and access are being questioned by producers, artists, and audiences alike. At the heart of this effort lies a fundamental question: In 2022, what stories is opera trying to tell? By whom? And – perhaps most importantly – for whom?
re:Naissance Opera confronts these questions each day. Since taking flight in 2017 under the founding artistic leadership of interdisciplinary performance artist Debi Wong, the Vancouver-based professional company has been driven by a commitment to racial equity, intersectionality, and artistic innovation. The company stewards local artists, and prioritizes the perspectives and lived experiences of Deaf, Queer, and IBPOC creators.
Re:Naissance Opera founding artistic director Debi Wong.
Poet and librettist J.D. McClatchy (1945 – 2018) once famously stated that, “The only thing more expensive than opera is war.” Thanks to a 2022 investment from Amplify BC’s Career Development program, the composer behind one of re:Naissance Opera’s most recent works is overcoming this hurdle: building new musical skills, refining her abilities, and finding a broader audience for her work than before.
Vancouver-based musician Katerina (Kat) Gimon is the composer behind Did I Just Say That?, a comedic chamber operetta with libretto by Vancouver-based multi-disciplinary artist Valerie Sing Turner. Inspired by actual events, the 20-minute piece delves into the story of a friendship being tested between Cecilia, a white composer, and Gabriella, a writer of colour, as they battle over the merits of entering a new opera competition together. The sung-through work interrogates themes of feminism, racial intersectionality, and what it means to embody artistic risk in a patriarchal society in which women must diminish or silence themselves to advance. The project was co-commissioned with Visceral Visions in 2020, workshopped in the summer of 2021, and saw a successful public performance during IndieFest Vancouver (an annual industry showcase event for indie and chamber opera producers, presenters, and other stakeholders). Vancouver-based répétiteur Perri Lo served as Music Director.
Did I Just Say That?’s composer Katerina Gimon.
Career Development funding from Amplify BC is supporting the sound recording activities related to the production of Did I Just Say That?, allowing Kat the opportunity to grow her professional skills and abilities as a composer and orchestrator. In the coming months, she will expand the opera’s existing piano-vocal score to a 12-piece chamber ensemble encompassing five string parts and five wind parts, alongside piano and percussion. The expanded score will be recorded with local singers, and released in two formats: as a standalone digital album, and as the soundtrack for an upcoming animated film adaptation of the piece, slated for release in 2023.
As a classical composer who has enjoyed success in choral settings, but who is relatively new to opera as an idiom, Kat is excited at the opportunity to gain new skills and reach new audiences via this foray into the multi-disciplinary compositional world that the medium affords.
“What’s exciting to me about operatic composition is that it offers a unique and satisfying challenge of storytelling in close collaboration with a writer,” she says. “Valerie and I have developed a great collaborative working relationship: each taking the lead at times, playing off each other’s ideas, and challenging one another.”
Post-performance talkback with the cast and creative team.
Did I Just Say That? is only the latest in a series of innovations from re:Naissance Opera. Past projects have included Jesse: An ASL Opera (presented in 2019, Deaf-led, making creative use of ASL in its libretto and dramatic structure, and exploring how languages are experienced and expressed), and Acis & Galatea (presented in 2018 as an unapologetically-subversive ‘gender liberation’ of the pastoral standard by Handel). The company’s prior projects have also made disruptive, forward-looking use of technology (as but one example, 2019’s OrpheusVR: A Virtual Reality Opera, which was among the first successful professional forays of its kind in Canada).
When asked to comment on re:Naissance Opera’s approach to the creation methodology behind genre-pushing and boundary-challenging projects like Did I Just Say That?, Debi asserts that, ultimately, these efforts are devised to sustainably develop and equip artists to thrive in a rapidly-shifting landscape.
“re:Naissance Opera creates everything from contemporary opera on proscenium stages to virtual reality video games to science fiction podcasts. At a high level, it looks like we can’t make up our minds on an artistic form, but what we really do is develop artists,” she says.
Debi elaborates, “We invite in amazing creators, and instead of asking them to adhere to our idea of an artistic form, we ask them how they want to break the boundaries of musical storytelling – and, what kinds of worlds they can imagine for future generations. Then, we find the tools, people, technology, and artistic forms that will empower them to tell their stories and bring their new worlds to life.”
The creative team in workshop mode.
Debi concludes, “To me, engaging with Western European opera – or, any art form, really – represents an invitation to connect and converse with historical practices, and the artists that have come before us. Opera has a long lineage of innovation that intrigues me. So, when you come to see a re:Naissance Opera project, whether it is in a concert hall or via a VR headset, you are essentially experiencing one of our many responses to a question that was asked 450 years ago: what might be possible when we bring music and drama together to immerse audiences in imaginary worlds?”
The post-show talkback at the opera’s premiere. Debi Wong, Teiya Kasahara, Perri Lo, Emma Parkinson, Eva Tavares, Valerie Sing Turner, and Katerina Gimon (L – R).
When asked to comment on the personal and creative inspirations that drive these kinds of collaborative outputs, Debi is quick to offer, “My first answer to this question is Valerie Sing Turner. Seriously! She is such an incredible artist, advocate, and arts leader. For me, as a woman of colour, and [as] an arts leader that is still finding my own leadership style and path, I feel lucky to be in community with Valerie. She is truly a bright light.”
Debi continues, “On a completely nerdy level, I am [also] obsessed with sci-fi, and new mythology. This past year, I have read Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents, N.K Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy, and James Marlon’s Black Leopard, Red Wolf and Moon Witch Spider King. These are stories and worlds that I know will always live with me. I have higher aspirations after being immersed in these stories.”
Music Director Perri Lo in action.
When asked about her inspirations for the thoughtful and incisive libretto at the heart of Did I Just Say That?, Valerie says, “I’m more comfortable writing prose. So the idea of writing in verse and making text rhyme kinda terrified me! To challenge myself, I had two inspirations: Tim Rice, the lyricist for iconic musicals such as Chess, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, and Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and hip-hop. Both [examples] constantly amaze me with their wittiness, political sharpness, and ability to shape words and rhymes with a fresh take that delights the wordy nerd in me!”
Through this project Kat, Valerie, and Debi – and, re:Naissance Opera, as a company – are enabling opera to cast away any stubborn notions of artifice and engage the audiences of the future. As Debi notes, “Opera isn’t a historical artifact, and it doesn’t have to be stuck in time. It can still be driven and shaped by interdisciplinary artists who want to find innovative and artistic ways to engage with the crucial conversations of our time.”
Did I Just Say That?’s librettist Valerie Sing Turner.
Building on this, Valerie notes, “I think there’s a perception that opera and musical theatre are just expensive pageantry about people and stories that are largely irrelevant to contemporary audiences, particularly racialized communities – and, rightly so! What I loved about creating my first opera was the freedom to use the form to heighten the visceral impact of stories that matter to me in the here and now, as a racialized woman who cares about injustice and inequality. And as a playwright, witnessing the strong emotional impact on audience members of my words set to music has made me realize that there are just some things better expressed through song.”
The dystopian Afrofuturist work by Octavia E. Butler: an inspiration for re:Naissance Opera’s Debi Wong.
As an artist committed to equity in all elements of the art-making process, Debi is also candid about the sectoral and systemic blind spots that must be challenged to support this momentum. She offers, “At re:Naissance Opera, and in my own work, I feel called to build new structures and systems. I am tired of conversations about broken systems and imaginary glass ceilings, and of power structures that cannot be reformed to include people who look like me. I am ready to create new ways of lifting up community. I am excited to empower [those] artists, whose voices are consistently ignored and erased, to tell their stories. And, I am excited to use artistic expression to strengthen our interconnected communities.”
Concept art for OrpheusVR at re:Naissance Opera.
Debi, Kat, and Valerie remain appreciative of what Amplify BC’s funding has made possible for Did I Just Say That?, coupled with other re:Naissance Opera activities in recent years.
Debi notes, “Like all grant applications, the process can be ornery and frustrating, but at the end of the day, when we need someone to fund a big idea, we always think of Creative BC first. If you have time and capacity, it’s worth a shot!”
Beyond their ability to influence contemporary minds, hearts, and conversations, timely projects like Did I Just Say That? enable opera to exist and thrive alongside any other contemporary medium that upholds the human experience at its core. As the form continues to respond to quickly-shifting social, demographic, and technological currents, it is artists like Kat, Debi, and Valerie who continue to revolutionize its accessibility and relevance as a vital and vibrant 21st-century force.
re:Naissance Opera:
Website | Instagram | Facebook
Katerina Gimon:
Website | Instagram
Valerie Sing Turner:
Website | CultureBrew.Art | “Dare to Dream” (centerpiece aria from Did I Just Say That?)
Photos courtesy of re:Naissance Opera.
Vancouver, BC (April 13, 2022) – Creative BC proudly announces 121 recipients of Amplify BC grants that will advance the development of local talent across the province’s music and sound recording industry. The $1.5M is being delivered through two programs, with the Career Development program providing $1,213,124 to 104 B.C.-based emerging and established artists, and the Record in BC program providing an additional $294,876 to 17 projects to catalyze business development for the province’s world-class studios and talented producers.
Both programs are part of Amplify BC, the Province’s music fund administered by Creative BC and renewed in April 2021 with $22.5M in funding over three years as part of B.C.’s $10-billion COVID-19 response.
In FY2021/22, the Career Development program had the highest demand in the history of music funding through Creative BC with 584 applications from B.C.-based creators, the majority of which were first-time applicants. Applications were scored according to program priorities, including economic impact, intellectual property and audience development, and support for a broad range of artists. As part of Creative BC’s commitment to equity and diversity, the program also took measures to support prioritization of applicants from groups experiencing systemic barriers to industry participation. The 104 successful recipients of the Career Development program were selected by Creative BC and a panel of industry professionals representing a variety of genres, industry backgrounds, regions, and demographics:
Career Development FY2021/22 Recipients
Applications to the Record in BC program for out-of-province artists were evaluated by Creative BC based on the priorities of the program: attracting established artists to the province to create economic activity and jobs for B.C. studios, recording professionals, and music companies; building the reputation of B.C.’s recording industry; and supporting a broad range of artists. This program also took measures to prioritize applicants from underrepresented groups:
Record in BC FY2021/22 Recipients
Learn More:
Amplify BC: https://creativebc.com/programs/amplify-bc
StrongerBC: https://strongerbc.gov.bc.ca/
Quotes:
Melanie Mark, Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport:
“Providing these grants is a crucial part of rebuilding B.C.’s music industry. We know that people working in the music sector have endured incredible financial hardship and this funding recognizes the extra support artists and businesses need to reboot their careers and make progress on their music-related projects as we paddle together towards economic recovery in this province.”
Bob D’Eith, Parliamentary Secretary for Arts and Film:
“This funding will help B.C.’s incredible music industry to thrive once again. I’m proud of our government’s investment of $22.5 million over three years through Amplify BC, which has made these grants possible. This support is making a difference for musicians, studios and producers. It is enabling them to move beyond the turmoil of the past two years, and providing access to opportunities for the future.”
Prem Gill, CEO, Creative BC:
“We are proud of the diversity, quality, and number of talented artists applying to Amplify BC’s Career Development program, focused on the creation of B.C.-based intellectual property,” said Prem Gill, CEO of Creative BC. “As artists and audiences await their return to the stage, the business activities of sound recording, music video creation, and marketing continue. Through the Record in BC program, we can also ensure that our province’s brand as a recording destination remains strong.”
“Sabai” | Career Development Grant Recipient:
“Without this funding, I would have to wear too many different hats trying to write, produce, mix and master my own songs. This grant allows me to work with people who specialize in what they do best like mix/mastering engineers, songwriters, vocalists, session players. As a result, I’ll be able to create better records. It also creates more jobs and exposure for everyone who works on the Sabai project, and we all grow together as a team.”
Jane Aurora, Producer, Capsule Studios | Record in BC Grant Recipient:
“Record in BC is a great opportunity for Capsule Studios to host high-calibre out-of-Province artists. Sarah Burton is an exceptionally talented singer song-writer based in Toronto, and this funding will see her latest album project come to life at both Afterlife and Capsule Studios. In collaboration with some of B.C.’s best A-list session players and engineer Erik Nielsen, I look forward to producing a quality album of Sarah’s material.”
Media Contacts:
Karin Watson
Creative BC
media@creativebc.com
604-736-7997
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About Creative BC:
Creative BC is an independent society created and supported by the Province to sustain and help grow British Columbia’s creative industries: motion picture, interactive and digital media, music and sound recording, and magazine and book publishing. The society delivers a wide range of programs and services with a mandate to expand B.C.’s creative economy.
These activities include: administration of the provincial government’s motion picture tax credit programs; delivery of program funding and export marketing support for the sector; and provincial film commission services. Combined, these activities serve to attract inward investment and market B.C. as a partner and destination of choice for domestic and international content creation.
The society acts as an industry catalyst and ambassador to help B.C.’s creative sector reach its economic, social, environmental and creative potential both at home and globally.
Website: www.creativebc.com
When Josias Tschanz and Garrett Woon first crossed paths in Vancouver nearly a decade ago, they were each reeling from some of life’s worst hurdles. Thanks to funding through Amplify BC’s Career Development program, they’ve been able to continually process and navigate them as OurGlassZoo, one of BC’s most innovative and promising emerging bands. OurGlassZoo’s upcoming album, Aftermath, represents a testament to and accounting of this resilience.
OurGlassZoo’s Aftermath album pre-release occurred for a sold-out crowd The Fox Cabaret on Friday, May 27, with special guests Prevail (of The Swollen Members), and fellow local bands 29 East and Lunchtime. The album itself will see a June 24 release on the SONY Orchard label.
A gift from a fan, presented at a recent live performance in May 2022.
Back in 2015, Josias and Garrett – both newcomers to Canada – had each navigated difficult breakups, and unexpectedly lost respective friends to suicide. Mental health and emotional wellness were constant areas of focus. Their shared decision to form OurGlassZoo – a local, electronic pop-rock band, now on a fast rise – enabled them to begin to look beyond these challenges. From its very early days, everything about the band, including its distinctive name, has reflected a shared commitment to honesty and transparency around life’s systemic challenges. By creating accessible and deeply thematic music that reflects the myriad realities of the human condition to audiences, Garrett and Josias intentionally foster intensely ephemeral spaces where these same audiences can listen their way into a greater sense of authentic connection.
“OurGlassZoo, [as a name], represents a world in which everyone is always trying to look perfect, even though they feel empty on the inside”, explains Josias. “The citizens of OurGlassZoo are manipulated into being superficial. In the process, they forget to connect with one another on a more human level. We, the band, are inviting the citizens of OGZ to reconnect with who they truly are through our music – and, in doing so, finding their own lights within the darkness.”
Josias Tschanz, OurGlassZoo.
As both a lyricist and an established filmmaker, Josias has worked to infuse OurGlassZoo’s music with a cinematic sensibility and broad social impact. No topic is beyond the scope of careful exploration: the band’s candid performance style and warm, open-hearted presence in both live and studio settings enables individual listeners to connect personally to OurGlassZoo’s music in ways that meet individuals in their respective moments, regardless of context.
Garrett offers that, “In a way, we’re taking our listeners on a journey. While Josias documents a story at each port, Garrett and the other band members are the ship’s hull, mast, and rudder. Two teams sailing together, experiencing, breathing, and taking it all in. Damage onboard occurs, but we try to stay on track, work on the problem, and press on.”
OurGlassZoo’s inaugural live performance was a sold-out concert at the Studio Nightclub on Granville Street in the fall of 2017, with musician and arts advocate Kristina Lao, joined by Trevor Mills, a local mental health advocate. The band worked in partnership with the Canadian Mental Health Association to promote the concert. They successfully raised $3,000 during the event for the CMHA’s suicide prevention program. Their music in that period was largely classic pop-rock: highly melodic, charged with warm synth and driving guitar motifs, and replete with hooks for listeners.
Support from Amplify BC has proven integral to OurGlassZoo’s growth and development. In early 2021, the band secured its first-ever grant from the Career Development program, and spent the next few months recording the album Aftermath, in tandem with Monarch/Vertical Studios. The ten-track album convenes different genres (including, in a first for the band, hip-hop), and features core OurGlassZoo members drummer Ramon Crespo and bass player Scott Rogers, alongside a woodwind and brass section (comprised of saxophone, trombone, and trumpet), cellist Jonah Ocean, pianist Sandra Stadler, Tom Dobrzanski on keyboards, Erin Puckey on backup vocals, and JUNO Award-winning hip hop artist Prevail (of The Swollen Members fame). Material from the album saw a successful initial test for audiences during a sold-out live concert in late 2021, at Vancouver’s historic Railway Club.
An appreciative crowd at The Fox Cabaret for OurGlassZoo in May 2022.
In the winter of 2022, a subsequent investment from Amplify BC’s Career Development program enabled this new album to convey its timely messages of hope and resilience to an even wider audience. This additional funding enabled OurGlassZoo to invest in print and digital marketing and promotion for Aftermath, both in Metro Vancouver, and further afield. The traction gained from this marketing thrust also enabled the group to re-sign with WCMA-nominated Canadian record label Volunteer Media, alongside SONY Orchard, for future releases.
Recent world events have only underscored the timely relevance of OurGlassZoo’s Aftermath as both an artifact of a specific time and place, and a piece of art with universal relevance. “Ironically, the first single, ‘Free’, featuring Prevail, was released in a time where there have been crises occurring throughout the world,” says Garrett. “Its main themes are about freedom and equality. The song originated from a conversation between Josias and Prevail about these concepts as subject matter, which eventually led to this unique collaboration.”
In early 2020, the band released its first official music video and single, ‘Astronaut’, from its then-new EP, Hindsight. As Josias explains, “The music video was based around a cinematic concept of entrapment, in which everyone had to wear a mask. The timing of the video felt very odd, as the [COVID-19] pandemic was declared a few days after its release.” The music video also stars Georgie Daburas, who plays Sabrina’s father in the acclaimed Netflix series The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Notably, the release also secured nominations for Best Rock Music Video at the London Music Video Festival later that year, before winning the same accolades outright at the LA Music Video Awards shortly thereafter.
The follow-up music video for the OurGlassZoo single, ‘Sins’, is similarly enjoying success on the film festival circuit. The story follows an ancient and mysterious figure that emerges into an isolated and dystopian world, using the kinetic power of dance to awaken an archetypal inner child. To date, the video has won awards at the International Music Video Awards, the Munich and Rome Music Video Awards, and the Vancouver Independent Film Festival. OurGlassZoo has also since released its new single, ‘Here’, on March 25, and will release the third single from Aftermath, ‘Reminisce’ (featuring O.K.A), on April 29, 2022.
Josias and the band in a studio session.
When asked to comment on the impact that Amplify BC’s support has had on Aftermath, Josias says, “Thanks to this grant, we were able to work with collaborators and artists that enriched our musical journey, and brought the project itself to another level. Without it, the outcomes would have been very different.”
Josias also notes that this recent funding from Amplify BC has enabled OurGlassZoo to invest strategically and sustainably in its media profile and market presence as an emerging local band. “We were also able to obtain new band photos, and collaborate with an experienced marketing company, which led to interviews, blog features, presence on Spotify playlists, and even presence on the radio,” he says. “A potential music video for ‘Free’, as a single, is also a future possibility.”
OurGlassZoo in Vancouver, B.C.
Beyond this anticipated growth, 2022 Career Development support for OurGlassZoo has also manifested in outcomes that were unanticipated, but equally timely and opportune. Chief among them has been the opportunity for the group to collaborate with KutMusta Kurt, who is known for remixes for acts such as Linkin Park and the Beastie Boys. The band is currently working with him, alongside JUNO Award-winning hip-hop artist Moka Only, on a remix of ‘Free’, to be released later this summer.
When asked to reflect and comment on the musical and stylistic influences that have shaped both Aftermath’s development and launch, and OurGlassZoo’s artistic trajectory on a whole, Josias considers, and notes, “I have an electronic music background, and I listen to a lot of film soundtracks. Bands such as Sigur Ros have inspired me to write; I’m also influenced by great lyricists and bands that blend genres. Other, more commercial inspirations include Radiohead, Muse, The Killers, M83, KOL, Bon Iver, Young and the Giant, and Nothing But Thieves, among others.”
Garrett Woon, OurGlassZoo.
“I’m a bit more old-school,” Garrett counters. “I like the study of vocal harmonies from The Beatles, or Emitt Rhodes; psychedelic rock like David Bowie and Todd Rundgren, and even some harder guitar influences like Guns N’ Roses or Megadeth. Due to our different musical backgrounds, we bring interesting and oxymoronic ideas to the table. We like to challenge ourselves to create an amalgamation of genres that we like, and find a nice balance to them. The [Creative BC] grant allowed us to experiment more [to this end], because it provided us with more hours in the studio.”
While both Josias and Garrett take pride in OurGlassZoo’s continued evolution, they also acknowledge that the path to success can be a long and sometimes-iterative one. When asked to consider what advice they might offer other musicians and artists considering applying for a grant from Creative BC, or another funder, they reflect, and offer:
“If your vision for your music and your brand is authentic, people will connect with you. You must have a clear understanding as to who you want to be as an artist, and what you want to convey.”
More pragmatically, they also note that ” … the staff at Creative BC are extremely supportive, and will guide you through the process by answering questions, and also offering online sessions about your grant submission. Do take advantage of that. If the application fails for any reason, find out what went wrong to prevent yourself from repeating the situation.”
Both Josias and Garrett also underscore the values of tenacity and persistence in the process of seeking and applying for grants. “When our first application was declined, we were disappointed, because as more time was spent filling out multiple forms, the higher the hopes became. The staff at Creative BC took the time to provide us with relevant feedback on how we can improve our chances, which resulted in two grants in a row – one for production, and this latest one for marketing! Be open to feedback and criticism, as it will help [to] shape your application, and also give you the opportunity to grow: both as an artist, or in a band.”
OurGlassZoo in concert for an ecstatic audience in May 2022.
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All images and artwork courtesy of OurGlassZoo and Tomaz Clelio.
For Francis Relly Quilatan and his colleagues at Burnaby’s Table Tutors DJ Academy, the abrupt onset of the COVID-19 pandemic was nothing short of catastrophic.
As a music business that brings over 25 years of collective experience to bear in service to its mission – improved economic, professional, social-emotional, and community outcomes via DJ and turntable mentoring and instruction – the pandemic’s attendant public health restrictions meant the cessation of nearly all the Academy’s programming as of mid-March 2020. With income depleted, events postponed, and recurring revenues impossible to predict, Table Tutors’ path out of the pandemic felt murky and unclear.
A recent Table Tutors community event.
Now, two years later, the company is beginning to contemplate a brighter future thanks to a recent infusion of operational support from Amplify BC’s Music Company Development program. Designed to provide flexible, responsive, and unrestricted funding to companies battered by the pandemic, this support has represented a lifeline for operations manager Quilatan and his small team. Specifically, it’s ensuring the continuance of meaningful program delivery to participants who would otherwise not have anything approximating such a unique opportunity for learning, growth, and self-directed skills development.
As a music business, Table Tutors provides personalized mentorship and instruction in both individual and group settings for individuals interested in learning more about the crafts of DJing, turntablism, and beat production. Since taking flight in 2016, Table Tutors has also been particularly focused on providing opportunity and access for equity-seeking and historically marginalized groups and demographics: women, people of colour, Indigenous, and LGBTQ2SIA+ individuals, in particular. Table Tutors is also a Serato DJ Certified School. You can sign up here!
Through a mix of facilitated classes, drop-in sessions, after-school activity, youth-focused DJ day camps, collaborative community engagement programs, access to quality recording studio facilities, and other initiatives, the Academy enables individuals from all walks of life to grow skills, meet like-minded peers with similar interests, and incorporate valuable structure, routine, and rhythm into their schedules. Many of the Academy’s participants are also experiencing concomitant systemic life challenges: barriers to accessing other community resources, mental heath issues, and housing precarity, as but a few examples. Participation in the Academy’s intentional mix of structured and self-directed community programming can often represent a crucial bridge and backbone of consistency and stability.
Table Tutors DJing classes in action.
At Table Tutors, this kind of social impact goes hand in hand with a desire to create professional and economic opportunities for participants. The company also offers a mix of drop-in and more formalized individual and group mentorships with established, working-professional DJs and mixers for those interested in progressing professionally in the industry. Alongside an established, permanent faculty of 12, special guest instructors are also engaged from global music destinations as timing and resources allow. Through its Foundations and Life After programs, aspiring DJs at various levels are paired with professionals in a work experience/internship-styled setting, and equipped with the foundational creative, economic, and business skills necessary for success. Each mentor has 10-15 years of experience to offer; participants learn the fundamentals of sound design, beat production, music theory, basic scratching, and industry-standard software and equipment. Participation fees are deliberately kept accessible, and – wherever possible – below-market, to facilitate broad access.
During COVID-19, Table Tutors continued in sustainable mission delivery by providing lessons and instruction online, maintaining limited in-person attendance at its studio and other facilities, and investing in PPE for program participants at no cost to them. The Academy has also presented online showcases of its emerging talent, and fostered new connections with new and existing partners – schools, community centres, and mission-aligned nonprofit organizations – to deepen its community and civic impact. All of this keeps staff engaged, and students of all backgrounds motivated. Funding from Amplify BC is enabling Table Tutors to continue in its sustainable and safe reopening plan – and, in doing so, continue to provide aspiring and established music and sound professionals from all walks of life with a safe place to connect with their communities and themselves.
DJing is a perfect way to connect with audiences from all walks of life!
Table Tutors also takes its role as a community steward seriously. Since inception, the company has forged lasting creative partnerships featuring live performances, mentorship, and training opportunities for the Canucks Autism Network, alongside many women-only music industry events and initiatives. The organization has also become a fixture at many community celebrations and commemorations, deploying resources and expertise in support of Metro Vancouver-based Filipino Independence Day celebrations, various all-ages/sober LGBTQ dance and social events, presentations at local youth and learning facilities and school districts, and – notably – the Burnaby RCMP. Table Tutors also maintains robustly reciprocal advocacy and in-kind partnerships with GlowTronics, Cut and Paste Records, and DJ City, ensuring that the interests and needs of these unique industry professionals are never far from the public eye.
As Francis explains it via the Table Tutors website, “DJing is an art. There is no right or wrong when it comes to creativity. In the same way that an artist might paint a picture without the intention of ever selling it, a DJ can create and play music without ever having to play a gig. If an artist decides to devote more time into their craft to [achieve] heightened professional goals, DJs, too, can also take their craft to that next level, as well. DJ for fun. DJ professionally! DJ … just because!”
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Photos courtesy of TableTutors.com.
