MacEwan to showcase end-of-year concerts
Trying to make a living as a musician has never been easy, but changes to music distribution over the past 20 years — specifically streaming and downloading — have made it harder than ever.
“It’s a dynamic industry. The old days are gone,” says veteran musician, teacher and academic Bill Richards.
“There are a lot of opportunities out there, but few people are making money. It really is a Wild West out there for musicians. In many cases, they are basically giving their work away.”
To Richards’ credit as chair of the department of music at MacEwan University, there have never been such good opportunities for learning the popular side of music performance in Edmonton.
Since the institution’s expansion to a four-year program in recent years, learning to play well is just one facet of a larger experience that includes historical foundations and pragmatic angles like how to market yourself.
About 280 students are involved in the many sides of the music department.
Recently, the government gave final approval to make MacEwan the first university in Canada to offer an undergraduate program in the recording arts, set to start in the 2019-20 academic year.
As a complement to all that, MacEwan’s Bent River Records label exists to further student efforts. Programs in music therapy and songwriting are also under consideration.
“We just went through a quality council review from the Government of Alberta that happens every seven years and they encouraged us to re-brand the program because it covers so much territory. But they called us a cutting-edge post-secondary curriculum and real leaders on the North American scene.”
For the rest of us listening in, there’s the music itself, happening live in four special end-of-year concert offerings over the next month, all in the lovely Triffo Theatre, part of MacEwan’s new downtown Arts building, Allard Hall (11110 104 St.).
It starts at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, April 7, with the Showcase Bands Concert, featuring two separate 14-piece ensembles (four alternating vocalists, five rhythm players and horns), the groups that Richards oversees in his role as an associate professor.
Expect an eclectic array of rock, funk, soul and pop with covers of Adele and Beyoncé, Heart and Stevie Wonder, Justin Timberlake and Snarky Puppy, among others.
“People have this expectation of contemporary popular music from the Showcase bands, but there’s quite a bit of classic pop in there, too,” Richards says.
Featured professional guest soloists for the show include two distinguished alumni: reedman Jeremiah McDade and champion fiddler Daniel Gervais, who is set to bow on a rendition of Belleville Rendezvous, the award-winning piece from The Triplets of Belleville film. A new commissioned work by MacEwan student composer Sauvé MacBean will complete the program.
Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m., there’s a date with MacEwan’s Percussion Ensemble, 40 players hitting every imaginable percussive device, from multiple marimbas to hand-drumming congas and djembes, to trap sets and gongs, even a soloist on glass bottles.
Brian Thurgood, head of the percussion department (and percussionist with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra) explains that most pieces will feature up to 16 players at once, though everyone from first- to fourth-year students gets involved for the finale. Eclectic grooves will delve into soca, reggae, ragtime and Afro-Cuban traditions, among other sounds, but one of his faves is a piece called Cop Drama that spoofs themes from 1970s’ television cop shows.
Jazz takes the focus in the MacEwan University Big Band concert at 7:30 p.m., Monday, April 9, with Raymond Baril or Jerrold Dubyk heading up bands in another wide-ranging set of material. Swing, Latin, funk and contemporary jazz styles take in some of the greatest arranger-composers in jazz history.
All three concerts involve festival seating, with tickets at $15, $10 for seniors or $5 for students, available from the MacEwan box office (780-497-4470, or online).
Finally, at 6 p.m., Tuesday, April 17, Bent River Records holds its first annual artist spotlight.
As MacEwan’s section head for recording Paul Johnston explains, the university is not trying to compete with other recording studios or labels, but as an offshoot of teaching the recording arts, they are featuring artists associated with the university.
One of the albums in the label’s first year was already released last October, singer Mallory Chipman’s far-reaching jazz tribute to Leonard Cohen, Rags and Feathers. MacEwan faculty members Tom Van Seters (piano) and Chandelle Rimmer (vocals) collaborate for the first time on another forthcoming release, Stillness Falls. And finally, Montreal jazz pianist Joshua Rager will be performing tunes from his new album Jondo.
All three albums will be featured in separate sets.
As an offshoot of the label, a competition was held for the best cover art among students in MacEwan’s graphic arts program, and two winning entries will be unveiled.
Tickets for the Bent River event at the Triffo Theatre are free, but you must reserve tickets in advance through the MacEwan box office (780-497-4470).
Bent River also held its first regular competition for unsigned acts. Out of 108 individual artists or groups who entered, the winner is the band Nature Of. They recorded in February under the expert ears of producer Marcus Paquin (Arcade Fire) and MacEwan’s own Juno Award-winning producer, Johnston.
Johnston, a bassist, leads a trio with Chris Andrew and Jamie Cooper April 10, and again with Andrew and Montreal drummer David Lang on May 31, both at the Yardbird Suite.