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This page is predominantly live recordings - please check out studio recordings here:
https://bekahsimms.bandcamp.com/
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Composer Bekah Simms hails from St. John's, Newfoundland and is currently based in Glasgow after nine years living and working in Toronto. Her varied musical output has been heralded as “cacophonous, jarring, oppressive — and totally engrossing!” (CBC Music), “tough, even gutsy...with a sure sense of original and vibrant colours” (Vancouver Sun), and lauded for its "sheer range of ingenious material, expressive range and sonic complexity" (The Journal of Music.) Propelled equally by fascination and terror toward the universe, her work is often filtered through the personal lens of her anxiety, resulting in nervous, messy, and frequently heavy electroacoustic musical landscapes. Recent interests in just intonation and virtual instruments have resulted in increasingly lush and strange harmonic environments.

Bekah's music has been widely performed across North America and Europe. She has worked with some of the top interpreters of contemporary music internationally, including Crash Ensemble - with whom she is currently an artist-in-residence - Riot Ensemble, Eighth Blackbird, and l’Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal. Bekah has also been the recipient of over 35 awards, competitive selections, nominations, and prizes, including the 2019 Barlow Prize and the 2023 JUNO Award for Classical Composition of the Year. The resulting work from the Barlow Prize, "metamold," was nominated for the 2022 Gaudeamus Award. Works from her debut album “impurity chains” were nominated in both 2019 and 2020 for the JUNO Award for Classical Composition of the Year. Her music has thrice been included in the Canadian Section's official submission to World Music Days (2016, 2019, & 2021), and in 2016 the CBC included her among their annual 30 hot classical musicians under 30.

Bekah is a Lecturer at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, following previous academic positions at the University of Toronto and University of Western Ontario.  Her principal teachers during academic studies were Gary Kulesha and Andrew Staniland, alongside significant private study with Clara Iannotta and Martin Bédard.

actor | director | songwriter | newfoundlander | boston conservatory graduate

Dr. Patrick Boyle is a fearless sonic explorer driven by discovery. Curiosity is his compass. His frontiers are in performance (trumpet and guitar), improvisation, composition and education. Patrick is Associate Professor of Jazz Studies at the University of Victoria 

https://patrickboyle.bandcamp.com/
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Originally from Newfoundland, Canada, he appears on over 50 commercial releases and 3 acclaimed solo albums. CBC Radio has called him a “trumpet personality” and “one of Canada’s top jazz musicians.” He has cultivated the rare ability to synthesize a range of influence – including jazz, rock, trad, Balkan, and South Indian music – which all come together into a rhythmically compelling musical voice. In 2009, Patrick performed at Carnegie Hall with tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain. 
 
A provocative and prolific composer, Patrick writes for theatre, film and the concert stage. Among his many commissions is the score for the theatrical adaptation of the Wayne Johnston novel Colony of Unrequited Dreams which premiered at the National Arts Centre in January 2017. Patrick’s music is central to two films for the National Film Board: 54 Hours (2014) and Song for Cuba (2014). The CBC commissioned Patrick to compose and record Well Enough Alone (2010), a multi-movement suite acknowledging the 60th anniversary of Newfoundland's confederation with Canada. 

Career highlights include performances every major jazz festival across Canada, the Newport Folk Festival, Rochester International Jazz Festival, Mariposa Folk Festival, Sound Symposium, SXSW, Folk Alliance International, and an Australian tour with guitarist/composer Duane Andrews. Patrick concerts and compositions have been performed on numerous CBC radio broadcasts, including The Signal, Canada Live, The Performance Hour, Deep Roots, and a feature episode of Sessions in the Old Town for CBC-TV with host Tom Power. His latest release, After Forgetting (2017), is a new vinyl release with Bill Brennan (piano), Mike Downes (bass), and Mike Billard (drums) and produced by Glen Tilley. Previous solo albums include Rock Music with Curtis Andrews (2010); Still No Word (2008 ECMA Nominee); Hold Out (2005 ECMA Nominee).

Patrick balances a life in performance with dedicated scholarship and active community engagement. He holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts (2012) from the University of Toronto, a Masters Degree in Ethnomusicology (2002) from York University and a Bachelors Degree in Performance from Memorial University (2000). His innovative research investigates how improvisation, particularly collective improvisation in organizations, can help negotiate situations of tension and anxiety. Patrick has been awarded grants to study, record, and tour from the NL Arts Council, FACTOR, and Canada Council including work at the Banff Jazz Workshop and Hrvatska Matica Iseljenika (Croatian Folkloric Academy of Music) in Brac, Croatia. Patrick writes for Canadian Musician magazine. He is also a sought after clinician/adjudicator throughout North America.

Current projects include intensive work performing live music for silent film under the banner of Active-Vision; a intimate trio with pianist George McFetridge and bassist James Young; Deep in the Groove with organist Dr. Tony Genge; Carnatic explorations with Curtis Andrews; a book and online project documenting the history of jazz music in Newfoundland; an album of trad music for trumpet; and ever-evolving collaborations with Neil Conway, The Discounts, and Mark Bragg. 

An in-demand sideman, his versatility is integral to several collaborations. Select performance and recording credits include Great Big Sea, Mickey Dolenz, Mike Murley, Hey! Rosetta, Fred Penner, and many more. Twice, MusicNL recognized Patrick as Side Musician of the Year. Patrick led the rap and roll group Trimmed Naval Beef and in his heart, he still does.

Followers of Brad Bonnell