Was Pop ever Jazz? Was Jazz ever Popular?? Join Mark Limacher as he takes us on a non-linear stroll through the intersection of popular music and jazz in 1910s America. “We are usually offered a definition of early American Popular Music as being inseparably linked to Jazz, and while that is undeniably true, it didn’t start out that way. What musical artifacts have survived the past century from the decade that saw the world unravel; and what, conversely, has been left behind, forgotten, or overlooked?” Mark Limacher
Mark Limacher is a Composer-Pianist currently based in Calgary. He is a graduate of New School University in New York City, and has studied privately with composers Linda Catlin Smith (Toronto) and Laurence Crane (London, UK). In 2013 he served as apprentice to composer Bunita Marcus in Brooklyn, NY. His compositions focus on small gestures and contemplative textures, his work manifesting most frequently in the guise of solo instruments and chamber ensembles. Progenitor of the playfully sarcastic brand, Quiet-Slow-Boring, his work is often preoccupied with timbre, precarity, aphorisms and miniature forms. As a pianist and keyboard player he has performed with a wide range of artists including Grammy-winning saxophonist Ted Nash, Juno-nominated singer Alex Pangman, and techno artist Corinthian, with whom he recorded an album in 2018, Disappearance Exhibitions. He appears regularly with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Theater Calgary, and the Calgary Creative Arts Ensemble. Other areas of interest include Italian opera, music of the early 20th Century, Psychoanalysis, and contemporary philosophy. In 2016 he co-founded the NCRA award winning radio program Unprocessed with violinist and long-time collaborator, Laura Reid.