We have some of the Lower Mainland's most gifted musicians playing at our event on July 1st, 2011. View their bios below:
Stef Lang
Stef Lang hails from Ladysmith, BC on Vancouver Island. At 17, she relocated to Vancouver to pursue her music career. Now, 22, Stef has signed a publishing deal with Nettwerk One/H-Songs and released two EPs ("Birth", "Blood and Bravery") prior to her full-length debut album "The Underdog" released May 2010.
Her first single "Mr. Immature" took the #5 spot on the Billboard Chart
for Canadian Emerging Artist. Stef's follow up single, "Slave2Love"
was dubbed the #1 most added song on Canadian Radio. During the
success of “Mr. Immature”, Stef booked a Canadian tour to promote
her new album and for the majority of 2010, she toured extensively
throughout the country, simultaneously doing on air performances
and interviews at local hit radio stations along the way.
Stef has showcased at The Canadian Music Cafe for TIFF (2009),
NXNE Music Festival (2010) and for Island Def Jam's CEO, L.A.
Reid. She was also recently featured at CMJ Music Festival in New
York.
With a coveted S.L Feldman Showcase at Canadian Music Week
in Toronto, 2 nominations and a live performance at the Canadian
Radio Music Awards (CHR and HOT AC) - Stef Lang is a name to
keep your eyes and ears on.
Sarabjit (Sunny) Matharu's interest in Tabla was formed at the early age of 4. In 1990, Sunny began to train professionally with Sri Satwant Singh and continues to receive guidance from him today. In early 2010, Sunny went to Mumbai, India to receive further talim (training) from Pt. Yogesh Samsi.
Sunny's tabla-playing style conforms most closely to the Punjab Gharana, however Sunny has also been influenced by other styles and has received guidance from Pt. Sharda Sahai (Benares), Sri Sukhwinder Singh Namdhari (Benares), as well as Sri Subhojyoti Guha (Farukhabad).
Sunny feels fortunate to have accompanied musicians from around the world who are well versed in the art of Indian classical music as well as other musical styles. These include artistes such as Professor Narinder Narula, Shoba Joshi, Dr. Vinay Bhide, Professor Rajinder Singh, Pt. Satish Vyas, Smt. Meera Bhagvat, Ustad Irshad Khan, Pt. Shivnath & Deobrat Mishra, Sri Anupam Shubakar, Sri Arnab Chakarbarty, Pt. Suman Ghosh, Shweta Jhaveri, Sri Anindya banerjee, Pt. Debiprasad Chaterjee, Sri Josh Feinberg, Sri Mohan Singh, Sri Arijit Mahalanabis, and the group Lehera.
Anupam Shobhakar
Anupam Shobhakar, is a professional sarod player. Anupam was born, in the east Indian state of Calcutta, but he was raised in India's financial capital city of Bombay, where he continues to reside. Though Anupam's parents are not musicians, Anupam's grandfather, Shri Bhavani Shankar Shovakar, was an accomplished sarodist trained in India's classical tradition by Jitendranath Banerjee, father of the legendary sarodist Nikhil Banerjee. Anupam has been practicing his craft since the tender age of 8, and he currently studies under renowned sarod guru Ustad Aashish Khan.
Anupam has recorded two albums of his own compositions; "Mysterious Awakening," (HMV 2004) and "Wine of the Mystic" (Times Music 2006). "Dream Theory," was released in 2008 by Times Music.
Anupam has toured internationally, at major music festivals such as Canada's Vancouver Folk Festival, MTV's Independence Rock Festival, in India, Oman's Muscat Festival, and Italy's Roma Rock. Anupam has also dedicated his talents to charitable events such as YWCA India's Concert for Peace, raising money for the survivors of the Gujarat earthquake.
Anupam has also collaborated with several musicians from all over the globe, including Alessandro Gandola, Ivan Tucakov, Gordon Gridna, and Healther Schmid to name a few.
Paul Bray's 'Sambata' Brazilian Percussion Ensemble, with Navaro
Navaro Franco
Navaro Franco has devoted her life to studying tribal music, dance and Earth based traditions. She has studied with renowned teachers here and in Africa, beginning in 1982, and has been teaching and performing rhythm and dance since1990. Navaro has presented in community, corporate, and educational settings for over 20 years. She is a drummer and dancer who loves to share the spirit and medicine in rhythm and movement. Her synthesis of many traditional forms and their essence is shared to build community and support wholeness.
Paul Bray is a dynamic and charismatic multi-talented percussionist working as a musical educator and performer in Vancouver. Drawing on a strong classical background, Paul has devoted his attention to the study of African influenced music, specializing in Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian folkloric musical styles.
He has studied extensively in Cuba, and has developed a strong command of Brazilian percussion. In Vancouver, he has collaborated with Afro-Bahia Dance Productions and Yasse Afro-Arts in addition to working as a studio musician and directing Sambata, Vancouver’s 20 piece Escola de Samba. In addition, Paul has performed as a guest artist with both Jesse Cook and Tibetan multi-instrumentalist Nawang Kechog.
Currently, Paul is the percussion instructor at the Sarah McLachlan Music Outreach – an Arts Umbrella youth program, and is guest instructor with the Britannia World Rhythms Ensemble. In the performing arena Paul is a member of Tambor Iroko, led by Jack Duncan, Candela, and a regular club percussionist, collaborating with local DJ’s in Vancouver.
The flare and passion of traditional Eastern European melodies with swingin' jazz harmonies... and a little egyptian percussion for good measure...
Lache Cercel and his Roma Swing Ensemble represent the latest chapter in an important movement in Canadian World Music – elite musicians from around the world who settle in Canada and create music that incorporates their own traditions with influences they find surrounding them here.
Before leaving his homeland, Lache Cercel was one of Romania’s premier musicians. From a musical family, he trained at the Academy of Arts in Bucharest, became a soloist with the Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra and, in 1986, was awarded the “Artist of the People” Citation by the Romanian government.
Since settling in Canada in 1998, he has furthered his musical studies at Vancouver Community College and collaborated with musicians from a diverse range of backgrounds. Among them are renowned Egyptian percussionist Adel Awad, noted Vancouver jazz vocalist Laura Crema and Latin music virtuoso Sal Ferreras. Cercel’s music is firmly rooted in Roma tradition, styled with Doina Klezmer, Middle Eastern and European sounds, and held together with jazz improvisation. He calls his fusion Roma Jazz or Roma Swing. In the tradition of Django Reinhardt and Stephen Grappelli, Cercel lays classical and improvisational jazz alongside traditional renderings, which makes for a phenomenal sound.
Michael Waters has grown a strong west coast following through performances in churches and theatres over the last five years. After 33 years playing guitar as a spiritual practice, Michael’s 2004 encounter with the medicine traditions of the Amazon triggered a complete shift in his approach to music. He decided at that point to begin performing publicly. He combines soaring guitar virtuosity and a new genre known as acoustic psychedelic chill.
Critics have struggled to slot Bocephus King into a specific genre, attaching such inspired labels as pop-folk, roots-rock and carnival burlesque to their unique sound. Bocephus King’s new album "All Children Believe in Heaven" is set to be released in Holland (Sonic Rendezvous), Belgium (Sonic), Italy (IRD) and Canada this summer. Bocephus King's debut album, "Small Good Thing" was an immediate success, reaching top-ten lists from Canada to Italy. "Blue Sickness", another stellar album followed the same route. In Canada, the first single from "Blue Sickness", "Mess of Love”, was placed on heavy rotation on MuchMoreMusic, two other songs were added to the soundtrack of Da Vinci's Inquest and another to the feature film "Rupert's Land". A further single "Eight and a Half", enjoyed a similar triumph on MuchMoreMusic and in addition reached No. 1 on the Bravo Countdown.
