Bringing it all together: Queer as Funk wants a space for everyone

Fostering fun and community to live audiences – by bringing funk, motown and soul along the way – Queer as Funk, a queer-led inclusive band, is set to bring a good funky time to the TD Community Plaza for the Coquitlam Summer Concert Series on Friday, Sept. 2. “It’s that sort of mission of building…

Whale songs mingle with soulful harmonies

Separation, both animal and human, from the natural world needs to be healed through musical connection, says Leah Abramson, singer-songwriter/composer of Songs For a Lost Pod. Using orca vocalizations as rhythmic beats, Abramson explores themes of interspecies communication, intergenerational trauma, and sorrow for a polluted planet. The show is imbued with compassion for orcas, who have…

Music to sustain perseverance and triumph

Pianist Ian Parker brings his classical talent, and a handful of musical friends, to the Kay Meek Centre for a Ukraine benefit concert on May 29. The performance features an assortment of classical music pieces from Bach, Saint-Saens, Brahms and Schumann, that were either composed or arranged for a more intimate chamber group. The net…

Carving a bold musical space

Music is engaging storytelling for Anishinaabek MC and singer-songwriter Leonard Sumner, who performs a mix of roots, country, and hip-hop. Sumner brings to the Chan Centre on March 5 his people’s tradition of storytelling by speaking truth to his experience, and encouraging others to do the same. “It’s super important to see Anishinaabek people telling…

When classical rigour meets improvisation

Cellist and composer Peggy Lee will be featured in two upcoming performances this month. On Nov. 1, Coastal Jazz will be re-airing a performance by the Peggy Lee Band from this year’s TD International Jazz Festival, and on Nov. 19, Handmade Blade, featuring Peggy Lee, trumpeter JP Carter and guitarist Aram Bajakian, will be performing…

A mix of history and intercultural compositions

Released on September 10 by Moshe Denburg’s band, Tzimmes, The Road Never Travelled is their first album to come about in more than 25 years. Comprised of music recorded by the band over the past three decades, The Road Never Travelled is not just a mix of what Jewish music has to offer, but Denburg’s own experience with Jewish…

The Pat Chessell Band – An eclectic mix of Celtic Maritime tunes

The Pat Chessell Band brings its blend of Celtic and Maritime music to the Glades Gardens in South Surrey on July 10, 2021. Employing a mix of upbeat jigs and pensive balladry, the band’s performances are comprised of mostly original material, both inspired by and supplemented with classics and Celtic favourites. “Sometimes people tell me…

Vox.Infold – music as a 4D experience of space and dimension

Co-presented by the Coastal Jazz Festival, the Indian Summer Festival and Lobe Studio, Vox.Infold is a special music project that transforms enchanting vocals into an immersive sound experience with the latest sound technology. “It is called 4D spatial sound. The studio [at Lobe] is equipped with speakers in the ceiling and under the floor. The…

DJ O Show: pushing boundaries and subverting expectations, DJ style

Orene Askew, known professionally as DJ O Show, is an Afro-Indigenous two-spirit DJ from North Vancouver’s Squamish Nation Reserves. As she wraps up her four-year term on said Nation’s band council as well, Askew says that she’s excited to get back to DJing full-time, performing a diverse array of live music, as social gathering restrictions…

The Myrtle Sisters: singing, dancing and a good porch

The Myrtle Sisters, East Vancouver-based performing artists Candice Roberts, Nayana Fielkov and Kat Single-Dain, are performing their online comical interdisciplinary show Out of Time from May 14–29. Out of Time reveals their yearning. The sisters are travelling through time and their time machine, a framework for their songs and dances, breaks. They travel from 1921 to 2021, collecting…

Opera Transcriptions : a spiritual adventure

“Life and death. Those are the ultimate mysteries. We think about death not as an end in itself, but we imagine how that transforms us as energy,” says Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, Vancouver-based contemporary pianist. Music on Main celebrates its 15th season with music and conversation through its Listening. Together. free online festival from May 14…

Wheel Voice: Tune in !

Looking beyond a disability and experiencing the joy of music, Wheel Voices: Tune In! weaves personal stories rooted in the disability experience with passionate anthemic scenes, and a hilarious comedic take on revenge fantasy. “I wouldn’t call it a musical,” says Caitriona Murphy, Wheel Voices: Tune In!’s musical director. “It’s about music: How music affects…