Brian Harman (b. 1981) is a Canadian composer, teacher and writer whose music has been described as “three-dimensional, maybe four-dimensional” (Arthur Kaptainis, The Gazette) and “effective and chilling” (Richard Todd, Ottawa Citizen). Harman’s music is frequently inspired by extra-musical elements, such as architecture, human speech, modern dance, technology and concepts of ritual. He has collaborated extensively with artists in other disciplines (performance artist Nina Arsenault, choreographer/dancer Geneviève Bolla, visual artist Danilo Ursini), and has written for a wide variety of media: orchestra, wind ensemble, choir, chamber ensembles, song cycle, opera, solo piano, theatre, modern dance, film and live electronics.

In 2013, worked closely with Georges Aperghis on a new percussion trio at Austria’s Impuls Festival, and was a featured composer in the SOUNDLAB podcast series. His orchestral work Supposed Spaces was selected as part of Canada’s 2013 submission to the ISCM’s World New Music Days, and was a winner in the 2012 SOCAN Foundation awards. In 2011 he was a winner in ISCM’s International Vocal Music Competition, resulting in a commission from Vienna’s Wiener Jeunesse Kammerchor, and received an honourable mention for his work Gregarious Machines in the CLC’s 60th Anniversary Composition Competition. In 2009 he was a finalist in the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra Composition Competition. He toured Canada with the Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal+ as part of their Génération 2008 program, and in 2004 he was a finalist in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s New Creations competition.

Harman’s music has been performed across Canada, the US, England, Austria, and Japan, and by such ensembles as the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra, New Music Concerts, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal+, VivaVoce Montreal, 5-Penny New Music Ensemble, and Codes d’accès. He has also collaborated with various festivals and organizations: he is part of the creative team for Nu:Nord (Montreal/Oslo), was a visiting artist for Cluster Music and Integrated Arts Festival (Winnipeg), and was a guest artist and lecturer for the Montreal Contemporary Music Lab 2012. He has developed youth composition workshops for Conservatory Canada and the Ottawa Chamber Music Society.

Harman received his Doctor of Music (Composition) from McGill University in 2012, where he studied music-architecture relationships in his dissertation. Among his composition teachers are Denys Bouliane, Brian Cherney, Larysa Kuzmenko and Chan Ka Nin. His research focuses on 20th/21st Century Canadian m­usic, especially that of Ana Sokolovic and Claude Vivier. His analysis of Sokolovic’s Géométrie Sentimentale was published in Circuit in February 2013. He has taught extensively as a sessional instructor, teaching assistant and private theory/composition teacher.

Harman is an associate composer with the Canadian Music Centre, and has participated in various international workshops and residencies, including Impuls (Graz, Austria, 2013), Ostrava Days (Czech Republic, 2011), Rencontres de Nouvelle Musique (Domaine Forget, 2007) and the National Arts Centre Composers Programme (Ottawa, 2006). He has received grants for his compositions and research from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the SOCAN Foundation, the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec, and the Fonds de Recherche sur la Société et la Culture.

Current commissions include an extended work for chamber orchestra for the Glenn Gould School New Music Ensemble (Toronto), a flute octet for Ensemble de Flûtes Alizé, an extended work for Montreal’s Ensemble Paramirabo, a multidisciplinary performance art piece with Nina Arsenault and Danilo Ursini, and a large-scale vocal composition-research project spanning several works.

Updated May 2013

Oboist: Blythwood Winds
Singer: Girl A Girl B

These are my original songs and compositions. Thanks for listening!
For more musical offerings please check out
https://soundcloud.com/catandcolin
https://soundcloud.com/catandcolin2

Honoured as a "world class jazz singer" for her "spellbinding voice" and "boldly unique style" (−Everett. R. Davis, All About Jazz), Toronto-born, Brooklyn-based vocalist, poet and composer Lara Solnicki enjoys a busy schedule, with #1 songs on Canadian jazz radio and web charts (Radio Canada, CBC), garnering rave reviews from four continents. She is the recipient of numerous CD recording, composition, international residency and professional development grants and awards from The Canada Council for the Arts, The Chalmers Foundation, The Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council and FACTOR.

Praised for “her spontaneous interpretation of standard and original repertoire, teeming with individualism and vocal mastery." (−Hot House Jazz Guide, New York, Spotlight, February, 2018) for "her outstanding musicianship", "superb vocal technique" (−Thomas Cunniffe, Jazz History Online), and for "the purity of her voice, her understanding of the most subtle nuances in lyrics and melody, and the freshness, intelligence and wit she invests in every interpretation" (−Stanley Péan, Host, Quand le jazz est là- Espace Musique), Lara was a finalist in the Révélations Radio-Canada 2014 competition, jazz artist category. www.larasolnicki.com

 

She has released two CDs; "A Meadow in December" (2010, Independent), and “Whose Shadow?” (2014) joining jazz icon Greg Osby’s US label Inner Circle Music, listed in January 2016 as one of the Best Vocal Jazz releases of 2015 (Jazz History Online). She is preparing for the release of her third album in early 2019 "The One and the Other", a cinematic art song project of her original material, produced and arranged by multi award winning Canadian musician and composer, Jonathan Goldsmith. She has been featured in CD compilations produced by JAZZIZ magazine, and "For Jazz Vocal Fans Only vol. 1" (Japan).

 

A classically trained singer with a four octave range, Lara originally intended a career in opera, receiving a BA from The Glenn Gould School/ Royal Conservatory of Music where she was the recipient of numerous scholarships, studying in the Performance Diploma and Artist Diploma programs. In addition, she has studied with dozens of international educators in the fields of classical music, jazz and creative music. www.larasolnicki.com

Das Fagott Mannschaft (German for 'the bassoon team') is a quartet of classically trained yet slightly unhinged bassoonists whose creativity cannot be contained by your typical symphony orchestra.

Das Fagott Mannschaft has performed for thousands at Yonge-Dundas Square, appeared at the Northern Lights Festival Boréal, and played to standing-room only crowds at pubs, cabarets and burlesque shows in the Greater Toronto Area.

Their covers of great tunes from today and yesteryear have been entertaining audiences in pubs, cabarets and on street corners since 2011, and prove that the bassoon can rock out as well as any hairspray guitarist or disheveled yet unnaturally mellow drummer.

Das Fagott Mannschaft is following