ONALEA GILBERTSON IN CONCERT  –  “TORCH SONGS FROM THE GYPSY VAN”

CATHEDRAL CHURCH 218-7 Ave SE    Sat. Feb. 9, 8PM  

Sponsored by UNIQUITIES Architectural Antiques

(Tickets also available at the door one hour prior to performance.)

An intimate evening of original songs – torchy folk, prairie jazz style – featuring brand new songs by Onalea, and special guests David Rhymer, Donovan Seidle, Morag Northey, Doug McKeag, Rebecca Northan, Jeff Gladstone & Kris Demeanor

Tickets $25 Adult I $20 senior/student  available  in advance or at the door one hour prior to performance.

 STARRING: LES PETITS VAGABONDS

Onalea Gilbertson, Vocals/Piano; Jeff Gladstone, Guitar/Bass/vocals; Brent Van Dusen, Percussion and Dave Reid, Trombone/ Euphonium/Tuba

SPECIAL GUESTS: David Rhymer, Piano and Kris Demeanor, Guitar/vocals.

String Quartet: Rebecca Stern, Violin; Jonathan Lewis,  Viola; Morag Northey,  Cello and Trish Reid,  Bass.

ONALEA MEDIA QUOTES 

“Marvelous vocals…” Michael Giltz, The Huffington Post

“…an artist with a beautiful voice…” Celia Wren, The Washington Post

“…enchanting stage presence and a silky voice…”  Time Out New York

ARTIST’S BIOGRAPHIES

ONALEA GILBERTSON  (vocals, piano, original songs)

Onalea creates and performs a unique hybrid of original music and the theatrical.  This past season her projects Requiem For A Lost Girl:  A Chamber Musical About Homelessness & Blanche:  The Bittersweet Life Of A Wild Prairie Dame premiered Off Broadway as special events of The New York Musical Theatre Festival. BLANCHE was a “top show of 2011” in the Huffington Post.

Onalea has performed with the leading theatre companies in Calgary in both plays and musicals over the past several years.  Recently she directed What Brought Us Here  a new work for Calgary Opera.

Selected credits; 7 seasons, ensemble member One Yellow Rabbit; Co-creator/performer symphony shows across Canada/ Hallé Symphony (UK) (Dandi Productions); Bernstein’s Mass (CPO, Hans Graf conducting); Soloist/recording artist Land’s End Chamber Ensemble; Only Love Knows Love  (David Rhymer) and The Gravel Road  (Lead) by Canadian Filmmaker Sandi Somers.

BLANCHE comes to the High Performance Rodeo and Lunchbox theatre January 14-26 2013.   Onalea has created four Cd’s featuring big band/electronica/jazz trio and original music, available at www.onalea.com.

JEFF GLADSTONE – (guitar, original songs)

Jeff began writing music and performing in Calgary, at venues like Citizen Payne, The Mermaid Café and The Black Market Theatre. He was a longtime member of Odiche, a Nigerian folk band, directed by Dr. Onyee Nwankpaa. Since moving west, Jeff has written and arranged music for theatre productions such as Doctor Faustus Pumphouse Theatre; The Big Rock Show Monster Theatre; Volpone United Players and most recently Project Corndog an outdoor show on a working organic farm in Langley, BC. All his theatre compositions use large group casts, at times stomping, breathing, or playing a dozen kazoo’s in unison, and elaborate four-part harmonies. He writes for all instruments, and plays upright bass and guitar. He’s written a play about a legendary jazz guitarist, The Wings of Lenny Breauset to open in 2013. As an actor, Jeff has performed across Western Canada, in shows like Joni Mitchell: River at ATP, Back To You: The Life and Music of Lucille Starr which toured regional theatres in Richmond, Vancouver and Winnipeg, and Onalea Gilbertson’s show Blanche: The Bittersweet Life of a Wild Prairie Dame at the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Jeff appeared in Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story at The Arts Club in Vancouver and since then has worked on other projects with Zachary Stevenson including a touring Buddy tribute band and a three-piece vintage rock band The Prom Kings. Jeff is a Canadian Comedy Award nominated improvisor, and performs in a musical improv group DuoTone,touring this fall. Last summer, Jeff recorded a full-length album featuring some of the finest jazz musicians in Toronto, and produced by Terra Hazelton formerly of Jeff Healey’s Jazz Wizards. The album of Jeff Gladstone originals All it takes will be released in March 2013.

BRENT VAN DUSEN – (percussion)

Brent is a Calgary-based percussionist, composer and educator. Originally from Manitoba, he has a Bachelors Degree from Brandon University, a Masters Degree from the University of Calgary and has been a resident artist at the Banff Centre on numerous occasions. Brent’s recorded output includes 12 CD’s as composer, arranger or producer and over 40 CD’s as a featured percussionist. Career highlights include his experience as the “Facilitator of Fun” in the Whistler Olympic Village, leading daily drum circles during the 2010 Winter Olympics. Brent was honored to perform for the Dalai Lama during his visit to Calgary, also his Saddledome debut! Most recently was the world premiere of What Brought Us Here for the Calgary Opera where he wrote and performed his own percussion part.A short list of performance credits include Onalea Gilbertson, Red Venus Blue Tango, Oscar Lopez, Youssou Seck, Amir Amiri, Sheri D Wilson, Hugh Fraser, the Calgary Philharmonic, One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theatre, Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, Alberta Theatre Projects and almost every choir in town!Brent has been Composer and Music Director for several shows, notably at the National Arts Centre, Alberta Theatre Projects, the Banff Centre Summer Arts Festival, New Works Calgary, Quest Theatre, World Dance Alliance, the Instrumental Society of Calgary, Land’s End Chamber Ensemble and at the Canadian Embassy in Washington DC.He is Alberta’s lead facilitator for the Drum Cafe, an international corporate team building company, has taught at the University of Calgary, the University of Lethbridge, Medicine Hat College and is developing a new course: Introduction to World Music Drumming for the Conservatory at Mount Royal University. Brent is also in demand as a concert percussion clinician, workshop leader and resident artist in Alberta and B.C. school music programs.

DAVE REID – (trombone, euphonium, tuba) 

David Reid is one of Canada’s most versatile low brass musicians, active in a wide variety of musical genres on alto, tenor and bass trombones as well as tuba and euphonium. Following an active youthful period as a pianist and brass band cornetist, he turned his attention to the trombone in 1980, joining the CPO in 1984 where he served for eighteen seasons as Assistant Principal (tenor) Trombonist prior to his appointment as Principal Bass Trombonist in 2002. From 2004 – 06, he took a leave of absence from the CPO, returning to his native city of St. John’s to serve as Professor of Low Brass at Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN).                                His studies in music include the completion of performance diplomas (A.T.C.L. and L.T.C.L) in piano and cornet from Trinity College, London while still in his teens. He later attended MUN, University of Toronto and Indiana University, where he completed a Master’s degree in trombone performance. Principal teachers during this period were Gordon Sweeney, Ed Anderson and Dee Stewart. Since establishing his career in Calgary, he has participated in dozens of recordings in various genres, including many with the CPO, the critically acclaimed album by Albertasaurus Tuba Quartet and sessions on the albums of stylistically diverse artists such as Jann Arden, Steve Pineo, Tim Tamashiro and Heather Blush. As a jazz musician, he has been a regular member of Calgary’s Prime Time Big Band since 2001, a frequent guest performer and clinician at jazz workshops in and around the Calgary area, and when time permits, a club date player in small group settings. For 15 years, he was lead trombonist with the Grandstand Orchestra of the Calgary Stampede.                                                                                      

Recent credits include playing first trombone in the orchestral, big band and rock “horn section” soundtracks for the Emmy-award-winning music featured in the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, a Country Music Television production, Christmas at the Grand (also released on CD), touring productions of Disney’s The Lion King on bass trombone & tuba and Theatre Calgary’s production of Drowsy Chaperone.

Dave is married to CPO bassist, Trish Bereti Reid. Aside from their musical lives and the occasional escapes to ski in the Rockies, they’re kept busy raising their two young children and traveling as often as possible to their waterfront summer homes in Saskatchewan and Newfoundland.

SPECIAL GUESTS

KRIS DEMEANOR   (guitar, vocals, original song) 

Kris ia a Calgary-based songwriter and spoken word artist who delights in exposing the underbelly of western Canadian culture. His work has appeared in Alberta Views and Canadian Geographic. Demeanor—a multi-disciplinary artist—has released six CDs of original music, created award-winning videos, performed for the theatre and has toured Canada, Australia and Europe, both as a solo artist and with his Crack Band.

Kris is also the inaugural Poet Laureate for the City of Calgary and in this role he has become a cultural ambassador for Calgary while raising awareness of local issues through new works.

DAVID RHYMER  (composer/pianist)

A multi-award winning writer and composer, David Rhymer has written,composed or co-created many successful Canadian stage works that havetoured both nationally and internationally.

He began his career in Montreal as a playwright and director, but eventually began to focus more on musical composition. His musicals would not be considered traditional by any stretch. Rather they are strange pastiches integrating text and music in novel ways. They include, a 17th Century erotic droll

called Bawdy, the agit-prop ‘war on terror’ cabaret, Camp X-Ray, the female cross dressing runway musical Trouser Parts and Wreck Beach a musical expose on Vancouver’s infamous clothing optional beach.

Recent musicals include Why Freud Fainted- An Instructive, Amorous And Amusing Evening Including Songs Scenes And Interludes which premiered at Alberta Theatre Projects and garnered four Betty Award nominations that season including Outstanding Musical and Once Upon an Atom Bomb a multi media extravaganza on the 1950’s euphoria surrounding the atomic bomb.

He has also engaged in a considerable body of collaborative work. With One Yellow Rabbit he co-wrote the notorious Ilsa Queen of the Nazi Love Camp and Dream Machine, an impressionistic oratorio on the Beat Generation, which performed to critical and popular acclaim across the country. With Ghost River Theatre, he co- created the award winning musical An Eye for an Eye, the story of fundamentalist preacher, Weibo Ludwig and his one-man war with Alberta’s Oil and Gas Industry that toured to the National Arts Centre and was subsequently made into a CBC radio musical.

His interest and fondness for the animated arts has resulted in a number of ‘puppet musicals’ including Pinocchio and Tooth Fairy with the internationally acclaimed Old Trout Puppet Workshop and most recently Isis- A Shadow Opera with Green Fools Theatre.

In 2007 he was honored with the Greg Bond Memorial Award for Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theatre in Calgary.

His latest musical Crime Does Not Pay based on the notorious golden age comic book will have its premiere at Alberta Theatre Projects in the spring of 2013.

STRING QUARTET:

DONOVAN SEIDLE (string arrangements)                                                                                                                                                                              

Donovan Seidle is a versatile musician: equally comfortable performing in the concertmaster chair or in the soloist spotlight as on the conductor’s podium of a scoring stage; composing, arranging or orchestrating for film, large-scale spectacle shows, or video games.  A native Calgarian, Donovan attended the Mount Royal College Conservatory. He earned a BMus in Performance and Composition at the University of Calgary under the tutelage of Edmond Agopian, and proceeded to a MMus in Performance at Northwestern University in the studio of Roland and Almita Vamos.                                                 Since 2003, he has served as Assistant Concertmaster of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and participates regularly in chamber ensembles and projects outside of the orchestra. He works as Artistic Director of the Kensington Sinfonia, and plays regularly with the Bell’Arte String Quartet, also collaborating in jazz, bluegrass and celtic sessions around the city, and summer festivals around the world. In 2009 he took part as one of the members of the inaugural Youtube Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, headed by Michael Tilson Thomas.               Aside from performing, Donovan is a freelance composer/arranger who writes for various media. He has produced soundtracks for television and film, live theatre, orchestra shows, and the concert stage; and spent his 09/10 sabbatical from the Philharmonic as Associate Music Director for the Emmy Award-winning ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Since then, he has written for such production shows as the 2011 Pan-Arabian Games in Qatar, and the Guinness Record-breaking projection show at the 2011 Moscow City Day.                                       Donovan has performed across Canada, the United States, Holland, Belgium, England, Scotland, Germany, Poland, Croatia, Herzegovina, Bosnia, Macedonia, Japan, Switzerland and Italy.

REBECCA STERN (violin)

Violinist Rebecca Stern is a relatively new addition to the Calgary area.  A native of Boise, Idaho, Rebecca earned music degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Miami before joining the New World Symphony in Miami.  She went on to become a member of the Fort Worth Symphony in Texas for 17 years.  Along with her orchestral schedule she has remained an active soloist, chamber musician and recitalist.

Rebecca and her husband, Stephen Nold, are thrilled to have recently relocated to Calgary.  Rebecca in a member of the Bach Society orchestra and enjoys periodic opportunities to join the Calgary Philharmonic and Red Deer Symphonies.  In addition to musical endeavors, she is pursuing a second career in massage therapy, loves volunteering with Hospice Calgary and spends as much time as possible with Stephen, exploring the nearby mountains on bicycles and skis.

JONATHAN LEWIS – (string quartet violist, violin, accordion)

Jonathan Lewis is a composer, musician, and music producer from Calgary, Canada.  He has written new music for numerous theatrical productions, both for classics like Our Town and Death of a Salesman as well as for many new works by companies such as One Yellow Rabbit and The Old Trout Puppet Workshop.  His music has also been featured in many film and television soundtracks, as well as original scores for four short films.  As a musician, Jonathan performs on violin, viola, electric violin, Greek baglama, mandolin, piano, clarinet, and accordion.  His style ranges from classical to jazz manouche, and to genres beyond including klezmer, greek rembetika and dimotika, and western swing.  Not just a busy freelancer, he is also a member of several ensembles including gypsy rockers The Plaid Tongued Devils, greek ensemble The Rembetika Hipsters, and gypsy jazz cats The Fedora Club.  Samples of Jonathan’s music can be heard at http://members.shaw.ca/moxamstudios/

MORAG NORTHEY  (composition/arrangement/cellist)      

Morag has been cellist in Les Miserables (Mirvish Productions), The Phantom of the Opera (Live Ent.), West Side Story, Anne of Green Gables, Beauty and the Beast, the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, (Theatre Calgary), Jeremy de Bergerac (Forte Music Theatre Guild), collaborated as composer, songwriter, singer, cellist, or sound designer: “Why Freud Fainted” David Rhymer (Alberta Theatre Projects), Blanche Onalea Gilbertson, and Queen Lear, Eugene Stickland (UrbanCurvz), Wizard of Oz  (Alberta Theatre Projects) and Next To Normal (Theatre Calgary) were performed on her six-string electric cello. After releasing This is the Life (Red Venus Blue Tango) she opened for East Village Opera Company, closed Dalai Lama’s “Now” tour, and performed at the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games as Solo Artist, and with RVBT.  Morag’s vocal, cello Together Calgary series will run again Feb-April, St. Marys’ Cathedral, and add her new Out of Emptiness Ensemble. Morag teaches cello at Mount Royal Conservatory and the Red Road Cello Studio.  Moragnorthey.com.

PATRICIA BERETI REID (orchestra bass)

A native of Regina, Patricia Bereti Reid studied music at the University of Michigan and at Indiana University between 1983 and 1988, spending summers during these years on a fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival as Principal Bass of the festival’s highest ranked orchestra. She was awarded the prestigious Performer’s Certificate for outstanding performance on the double bass at I.U. before winning the post of Principal Bass in the Thunder Bay Symphony, a position which she held for two years. Also active as a soloist, she has been a member of the bass section of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra since 1990, and has performed as an orchestral and chamber musician across Canada, the U.S. and Europe.  Trish took a sabbatical for two seasons from 2004 to 2006 to teach Double Bass at Memorial University of Newfoundland. During this time she also performed as guest soloist with the Newfoundland Symphony, performed a solo recital in the University faculty series, and appeared in many chamber recitals. It must also be mentioned that Trish and her husband, Dave Reid, (CPO Bass Trombonist and MUN faculty member during this time) had their second child, Sophie, while in Newfoundland. Trish and Dave returned home in the Fall of 2006 with their two children Sam, and Sophie and their beloved cats, Beast and Belle, to resume their careers in the CPO.