Jessica McMann Trio with Afternoon Tea (Classical Series)

The Trail & District Arts Council presents the Jessica McMann Trio, a classical musician who looks to elevate new Indigenous classical music. Performing in The Griff at The Bailey Theatre on Sunday, November 5 at 3:00 pm as part of our Classical series.

The Jessica McMann Trio is the instrumental musical project of Jessica McMann. Jessica works with diverse musicians to share lesser-known repertoire based around themes of ecology, spirituality, and language recovery. Jessica brings engaging and personable dialogue, while sharing information about the pieces allows the audience to connect through music and centering Indigenous voices.

An Alberta-based Cree (Cowessess, SK), multi-disciplinary artist Jessica interweaves land, Indigenous identity, history, and language throughout her dance and music creation/performance practice. A classically trained flutist, she holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Calgary and an MFA in Contemporary Arts from Simon Fraser University. Her work fuses together traditional language and dance with her own contemporary experiences as an Indigenous woman and Two-Spirit person.

Partaking in an artist-in-residence program at the Banff Centre (2019) resulted in the award-winning Indigenous-Classical album “Incandescent Tales” which was released in June of 2021. This album was recorded in collaboration with pianist Beverly McKiver and violinist Karen Shepherd, and produced by Laura Vinson, all Indigenous women. Her second album “Prairie Dusk” will be released October 29th, 2023.

Her musical, composition, and soundscape work focuses on land-based creation and ideas of connection, disconnection, and home. "Too Good; That MAY Be", an immersive soundscape performance was shown at the Urban Shaman Gallery in Winnipeg as part of "The 60's Scoop; A Place Between" in 2017. Her compositions include “Muskwa's Mountain Home” (2021), “Inni “(2018) and soundscapes including “beguiling (the) land” (2020).

Jessica has played and performed at venues and festivals across Canada, as well as toured in Sweden, Netherlands, and Belgium. She has created soundtracks for the ITWE Collective, performed with the Ambrose University Chamber Orchestra and the Foothills Philharmonic Orchestra in Alberta, and was a guest musician for Arcade Fire at the JUNOs. She has performed regularly with Laura Vinson and the Free Spirit as a dancer and musician.

Jessica currently resides in Cochrane, Alberta, where she works for the City of Calgary as Curator of Indigenous Art. She is also co-founder and co-director Wild Mint Arts, an Indigenous arts company and is a Laureate of the Hnatyshyn Foundation REVEAL Indigenous Art Awards (2017).

Jessica McMann has the following awards:

YYC Music Awards Classical Album of the Year 2022

Global Music Awards 2022

Gold Medal: Indigenous Classical & Emerging Artist

Silver Medal: Composition

Jessica McMann has the following nominations:

Western Canadian Music Awards Indigenous Artist of the Year 2022

Jessica is accompanied by:

Holly Bhattacharya was born in Durham, U.K. to two musician parents and she began leaning the violin at the age of four. She was a pupil at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester and later studied at the Royal Northern College of Music under the tutelage of Richard Deakin, Wen Zhou Li, and Christopher Rowland (chamber music). Her college quartet performed regularly throughout the U.K. and won the Hirsch Prize for Chamber Music in 2005. She toured Europe and Kasakhstan as a member of the European

Union Youth Orchestra, with whom she played for four years.

Since graduating from college, Holly has enjoyed a varied career, spanning orchestral, chamber, theatre, and commercial music as well as teaching, coaching, and invigilating for music competitions. She has been a regular player with many of the UK’s top orchestras including the London Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Holly also performed as part of the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival (Maine, USA) and MusicaRiva Festival (Lake Garda, Italy).

Theatre work has included almost eight years of performances with “The Phantom of the Opera” in London’s West End, (U.K.) “Quadraphenia” on tour, “Thursford Christmas Spectacular” and The Independent Opera Co. (Old Vic Theatre, London). She also worked regularly at Glyndebourne Theatre and took part in several education projects and workshops.

Pop work has seen Holly record and perform with the likes of Take That, Jarvis Cocker, Gorillaz, Mike Oldfield, Neneh Cherry, De La Soul, Florence and the Machine and Kylie Minogue.

Chamber music has taken Holly to the International Chamber Festival of Music in Alcala, (Spain) and all around the Mediterranean and Norwegian Fjords as a guest entertainer for SAGA cruises. She has led workshops at Lancing College and BHASVIC, Brighton, as well as regular concerts with Ensemble Reza around the South of England.

Holly taught violin for four years at Brighton College (UK Independent School of the Decade) and was a judge for the music competitions at Hurstpierpoint College, Worth School and St. John’s, Leatherhead. Holly is enjoying making Canada her new home and already has a busy class of violin and piano students. She loves performing and is looking forward to more concerts and collaborations in the future.

Peri Lo is a pianist and vocal coach, working in opera, chamber music, and dance. She has worked with opera companies across Canada including Montreal’s Institut Canadien d’Art Vocal, Toronto’s Opera Atelier, and at the Banff Arts Centre’s Opera in the 21 st Century Program. Since her role as apprentice coach with the Vancouver Opera’s Young Artist Program (’18-19), Perri has music directed and coached singers with West coast companies including Pacific Opera Victoria, City Opera Vancouver, Re:Naissance Opera, Burnaby Lyric Opera, and Sound The Alarm Music Theatre – both in traditional and contemporary repertoire.

She was most recently Principal Coach and Répétiteur with Pacific Opera Victoria’s production of Die Vögel (February 2023) and debuted with Opera Kelowna’s concert series with soprano Melody Courage. Perri is a company pianist for Ballet BC and Arts Umbrella Dance Company, and recently collaborated with dancers and mezzo-soprano Emma Parkinson in performance with Ballet BC’s Momentum Gala.

Enjoy tea and treats served at your table as you get transported by the Jessica McMann Trio’s ethereal melodies.

Learn more about Jessica McMann at www.jessicamcmann.com.

Listen to some of Jessica’s music at https://jessicamcmann.bandcamp.com/track/inni-radio-edit.

2 x 45 min set and intermission.

Single tickets are $30.

Or purchase as part of the Pick Your Own season for $25 and get 20% OFF all Trail Arts Council presentations.

All tickets available online at tickets.trail-arts.com, by phone at 250-368-9669, and in person at the Bailey Box Office at 1501 Cedar Ave., Trail.

The Classical Series is made possible thanks to funding from the BC Arts Council, BC Touring Council, the Government of Canada, and Tourism South Kootenay. We also gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia.The Jessica McMann Trio Tour is sponsored by the Canadian Music Centre BC.

The last show in the Classical Series is Invisible Cities: Janelle Fung and Marina Thibeault on Friday, February 9 at 7:30 pm.

Celebrated concert duo Marina Thibeault (viola) and Janelle Fung (piano) delight audiences across Canada, the United States, and Europe with their elegant, spellbinding performances and engaging presence. Their program “Invisible Cities” uses at its core British composer Charlotte Bray’s Ivor Novello Award-winning work “Invisible Cities”, along with Paul Hindemith Sonata op.11 no:4 Fantaisie and Dmitri Shostakovich The Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 147.

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