Vancouver bassist has played with others and continues against all odds to remain part of a shrinking culture in this stupid city!

Born in Brest in 1990, Maëla first obtained her Musical Diploma at the Music Conservatory of Brest in 2007 and then perfected with Olivier Derbesse at the Jacques Ibert Conservatory (CMA19) in Paris. She graduated with distinction from the Royal Conservatory of Brussels in 2014 (class of Ronald van Spaendonck). She also obtained a bachelor as an orchestra musician for the CFMO, Orchestre Ostinato. In parallel, she studied the bass clarinet at the CRR of Paris with Jean-Marc Volta and also made several Master classes with French clarinetists such as Jacques Di Donato and Bruno Martinez. 

Passionate about chamber music, she plays in various formations at many events or festivals : Origami Festival (Beursschouwburg, Brussels), Courant d’air Festival (Brussels), Préludes à l’orchestre de Paris (salle Pleyel), Festival Les Harmonies (Billiers), Concerts at The Campus International of Paris, Tout sauf Debussy (CRR Paris)… She had the opportunity to play and frequently collaborate with concertists such as Sulliman Alltmayer, Patrick Langot, Frédéric Lagarde, Carmen and Ana Mainer…

Very implicated in the contemporary repertoire, she participated to the creation of Tocatina by Sina Fallahzadeh, Heptagramme by M. Lysight, Umbrales by Alex Nante, D’un Vanneur de Blé aux Vents by Suzanne Giraud… and is invited to play in different formations such as the ensemble Alternance , the ensemble Écoute, directed by Fernando Palomeque, the collective Parallèle 21, directed by Benoit Menut… In 2020, Maëla recorded her first contemporary album : Reflections for solo clarinet, with works by Michel Lysight, Sina Fallahzadeh, François Meïmoun, Igor Stravinsky, Jörg Widmann, Luciano Berio and Edison Denisov.

She deals with the symphonic repertoire in various formations: the Ensemble entre Sable et ciel, conducted by Joël Doussard and Marc Schuster, the Ostinato Orchestra (conducted by Jean-Luc Tingaud, Inaki Encina, Anthony Hermus, Kaspar Zehnder…), the Orchestre National de Lyon (Leonard Slatkin), the Paul Kuentz Orchestra, the Ensemble International Musike, conducted by Jean-Bernard Pommier, the Orchestre de Laureats du CNSMDP etc… and played with concertists such a Ophélie Gaillard, Gilles Apap, Henri Demarquette…

Curious about all musical worlds, she studied improvisation and jazz with great personalities of Parisian Jazz. 

She had the chance to teach clarinet and chamber music at the Conservatories of Houilles, Saint Leu La Forêt, Argenteuil, Taverny, at the Paris City Hall… She was part of the DEMOS project at the Philharmonie de Paris between 2016 and 2020. She conducted the orchestras at the music school of Saint-Leu-La-Forêt and orchestra at college at the Paris City Hall and in Taverny. She was also assistant conductor of the Orchestre de la Sirene de Paris between 2014 and 2016.

In the years since his first album, 2004's Last Call, Nashville singer-songwriter Stephen Simmons has wandered the wide landscape of American roots music, from contemplative country and finger-picked folk to rugged and ragged blues-rock.

 On his 12th album, Hunch, released October 24, 2025, he hints at the thread that ties 20 years of ideas together.

"It makes me feel better when I tap into the truth" he sings in the closing track on Hunch, "Someone Like You," a ballad brimming with Rhodes chimes and gentle longing.

Tapping into the truth doesn't only mean one thing, and the 10 tracks on Hunch show the breadth of what it means to mine what feels real, from connection and disconnection to wonder, sorrow, reflection and confusion.

"It's not therapy, but it's therapeutic," Simmons says. "People talk about when you first start writing, sometimes it's almost like clearing your throat. You're not really at the thing yet, and sometimes you write for a while before you get in some kind of flow. And then something starts coming together. And when you feel it, you know it's true — and you didn't know yet how you were gonna say it 'til it comes out. It's gratifying."

Hunch's predecessor, 2020's Family Album, explored the truth of where Simmons comes from in deep detail, with 18 songs about family and hidden history captured inside his grandmother's empty house in Woodbury, Tennessee.

Released amid the pandemic, it originated and unintentionally stayed close to home, as Simmons and so many of his contemporaries got stuck introducing and supporting new music virtually, smartphone sets streaming from living room to living room.

Hunch is the post-pandemic door flung wide open, carrying Simmons back to the road and miles away from Tennessee. He's in a Dresden sushi bar, wondering how and why love sparks. He's in a rented car in Amsterdam, tracing what takes us toward wrong turns. He's gazing at the moon.

But wherever Hunch travels, the narratives always seem to pull Simmons back home.

Mid-tempo country cut "Grandpa's Jacket" considers how we crave ties to where we came from, even while we chase adventure. The album's title track, while just as imbued with truth, comes at life decisions with a wink and a bluesy lurch. Everyone had ideas for where that kid from Woodbury might go. But, "Uncle Glen had the best plan of the bunch," Simmons sings, "strummin' on the guitar and live your life on a hunch."

"That's the only one that's a little cheeky," Simmons says. "It's tongue-in-cheek. It's a blues-rock song. Then everything else goes a completely different direction. I don't know why, it just kinda felt like a pivot."

 To render the full pivot, Simmons turned to folks who've been part of his musical story tracing almost back to when he first left Woodbury.

 Goffrey Moore (Jonatha Brooke, Maia Sharp) produced Hunch in his Madison, Tennessee, studio, and he and Simmons invited contributions from lap and pedal steel player Paul Niehaus, singer/pianist Molly Jewell, bassists Dave Jacques and Billy Mercer, and drummers Matthew Crouse and Bryan Owings.

 All accomplished players who've collaborated with country and Americana greats from John Prine to Patty Griffin, they've all played with Simmons on various songs and stages over decades.

These well- and long-established personal and musical connections allowed Moore and Simmons to experiment in comfort, letting songs go where they seemed to want to. The songwriter's initial intent was to hole up in Moore's century-old cabin to capture a stripped-down set. But as the recording progressed and friends came in, Hunch took a more dynamic and textured turn.

 "It was a different way to do it for me," Simmons says. "It kinda lent itself to, like, 'OK, well, maybe we'll go big on this one.' And then all of a sudden, it presents itself."

 Call it following intuition. Call it living on a hunch.

I look around me, and I experience the world in melody.

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