BU Music faculty welcome guests for evening of electronic folk

A pair of Brandon University (BU) School of Music faculty members are collaborating with visiting musicians Tommy Crane and Thom Gill for an evening of genre-bending electronic folk this week.

The Brandon Chamber Players present Dance Music For All Occasions, by Tommy Crane on Saturday, Jan. 27 at 7:30 p.m., in BU’s Kinsmen Rehearsal Hall. The performance will feature Crane (drums, percussion, synthesizer, electronics) and Gill (guitar synthesizer, vocals) along with School of Music faculty members Leanne Zacharias (cello) and Marika Galea (bass), as well as BU music student Anil Ramgotra (percussion).

“It’s a pleasure to present my dear friend Tommy Crane’s music this month,” said Galea, who curated the performance. “The show title, ‘Dance Music For All Occasions,’ is a nod to his father, the late Nolan Crane, who led a dance band in St. Louis, Missouri in the early 1960s and featured the tagline on his business card. Although the electronic aspect of this performance is in great contrast to the music his father was making, the repertoire we will perform celebrates and meditates on life — as both Cranes have done through their drumming careers.”

Tickets are $40 for general admission and $20 for students, and can be reserved at BrandonChamberPlayers.ca/contact-us, by calling the School of Music office at 204-727-9631 or are available at the door. The Kinsmen Rehearsal Hall is located inside the School of Music (Queen Elizabeth II Music Building), with access from 19th street between Princess and Lorne Aves. The space is wheelchair accessible through the main (south) doors to the School of Music, and the north door to the hall.

About the performers:

Tommy Crane is a fixture on both the Montreal and New York creative music scenes. He has performed and recorded with Aaron Parks’ Little Big, Melissa Aldana, Joe Chambers, FYEAR, Half Waif, Joe Chambers, La Force, Richard Reed Parry, Unessential Oils, and Martha Wainwright. His debut solo effort, We’re All Improvisers Now, covers a broad spectrum of sonic territory. Cascading walls of ambient synthesizers prevail – and yet each cut still maintains the feeling of a solo musician exploring their inner self. Dance Music For All Occasions, Tommy’s forthcoming sophomore album, is titled as a nod to his father, the late Nolan Crane. The elder Crane was also a drummer who lead a dance band in St. Louis, Missouri in the early 1960s. Also accompanying Tommy are Thom Gill on guitar and keyboard, Leanne Zacharias on cello and Marika Galea on bass.

Thom Gill (he/him) is a freelance music person based in Toronto for the last twenty years, working closely with Martha Wainwright, Sam Amidon, KNOWER, Owen Pallett, Queer Songbook Orchestra, Bernice, Beverly Glenn Copeland, Toronto Dance Theatre, Fievel is Glauque and many more. He recently traveled to Japan with Sam Wilkes, co-wrote songs and played on Chaka Khan’s last record, and played a piece by Pauline Oliveros inside Toronto City Hall Council Chambers. Coming up this year Thom can be heard on new releases by Sam Wilkes, Jeremy Dutcher, and Joseph Shabason, among others; and on Tanya Tagaq and Jean Martin’s score for Caroline Monnet’s film Bootlegger. You can also catch him on tour this year with Aline Homzy, Jeremy Dutcher, and Ariel Engle’s La Force.

Cellist Leanne Zacharias is an interdisciplinary artist who creates unique sound environments in both tiny and large- scale public works within museums, art galleries, chimneys, stairwells, rowboats, canoes, skating trails and other unlikely sites. Her work has been presented by the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, LandMarks2017, the International Cello Festival of Canada, Austin’s New Music Coop, Winnipeg Design Festival, Iceland’s Nes Residency, Open Ears Festival, SappyFest (NB), Sound Symposium (NFLD) and FastForwardAustin. From the National Arts Centre to the Andy Warhol Museum to Yukon Arts Centre, she performs across genres including with the Australian Art Orchestra, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, and songwriters John K. Samson, the Mountain Goats and her long-time collaborator, Christine Fellows. On faculty at Brandon University’s School of Music, she adjudicates across Canada and has lectured at Parsons School of Design in New York, the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s 10x20x20 series, and Banff’s Research In Culture workshop. She co-directs Wheat City Nuit Blanche, A Wild Studio (Canadian National Parks) and Hybrid Intensive (San Francisco).

Marika Galea is an award-winning performer, composer and writer from Toronto. Best known as a bassist, her work explores the space between improvised jazz, narrative songwriting, and hypnotic soundscapes. She has supported artists across jazz, pop, rock, indie, hip hop, new music and experimental genres including Terence Blanchard, Cyrus Chestnut, Vincent Herring, Ralph Peterson Jr., Rachel Therrien, Jason Palmer, L’Orchestre national du jazz de Montréal, Basia Bulat, Tim Kingsbury (Arcade Fire), Aerialists, Jake Clemons (E Street Band), U.S. Girls and Laura Niquay. Her collaborations have garnered nominations and wins for JUNO, Golden Globe, Academy, Polaris, Iris, RIDM and HotDocs Awards. In 2017, she earned a spot as one of CBC Music’s 35 best Canadian jazz artists under 35. She has taught at McGill University, McGill Conservatory, Berklee College of Music, and is currently an Assistant Professor at Brandon University. She has been invited to speak at the McGill Executive Institute, Malta Jazz Festival, Monterey Next Generation Jazz Festival, Prince Edward County Jazz Festival, McGill University School of Continuing Studies and University of Manitoba. She recognizes support for her work from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings.

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