The Jessica McMann Trio: Prairie Dusk - CAPITOL THEATRE

Adult $28 30 and Under $25.50

Jessica McMann is an Alberta -based Cree (Cowessess, SK), multi-disciplinary artist. She 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.

Her upcoming album release is on October 29th. Her new album evokes the sounds and stories of the prairies and includes commissioned work as well as new originals. "Prairie Dusk" will be available on all platforms. This is a follow-up album to her award winning first album "Incandescent Tales" which was released in June of 2021. This Indigenous classical album won the 2022 YYC Music Classical Album of the Year and Gold Medals in the Global Music Awards. A WCMA 2022 and 2023 Nominee, she is working on a new alt-pop recording to be released summer for 2024.

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).

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.

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, MikeOldfield, 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.

Perri 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.

Show Length: 75 min. No intermission.

This show is made possible thanks to the support of our sponsors Prestige Lakeside Resorts, The Bridge FM, Yum Son Night Owl Hospitality, Nelson District Credit Union, Kootenay Co-op, Nelson Star and Hall Printing and our funders Creative BC, Canadian Heritage, and the Government of Canada. We also gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the City of Nelson and the Province of British Columbia.