Music News Digest: East Coast Music Association Parts Ways with CEO, Winter Festival News & More
Also featured this week: Margaret Atwood and Jake Heggie's Songs For Murdered Sisters makes its U.S. symphonic debut, Rose Cousins delivers a moving tribute to Koady Chaisson of PEI’s The East Pointers.
Katie Tupper
Festivals News
The long-running Hillside Festival in Guelph, Ontario is an annual summer highlight, but there's also a smaller sister festival, Hillside Inside, which takes place at different venues in downtown Guelph every winter. This year's event runs Jan. 31 to Feb. 2, and is headlined by two noted singer-songwriters, Logan Staats and Katie Tupper.
Staats won CTV's The Launch contest in 2018, and the Indigenous roots artist has since earned critical acclaim, while Tupper has won multiple Western Canadian Music Awards, including BreakOut Artist of the Year in 2023. Other acts appearing include freewheeling Hamilton rockers Golden Feather, roots duo The Vaudevillian and bluegrass combo Shane Cook & The Woodchippers. Workshop events and a community gathering will also be featured. Info and tickets here.
– The Markham Jazz Festival hosts their AGM on Sunday, January 12, at 1 p.m., via Zoom. To participate, send an email to contactus@markhamjazzfestival.com and use the subject line: “I would like to join the TDMJF AGM”.
– Given the struggles of many festivals across the country, it is pleasing to note the launch of a new one. Unreal City is Vancouver’s new music festival, focusing upon the city’s underground rock music culture for two days of shows, Jan. 10 and 11, at the Russian Hall. A varied lineup of rock-based bands includes Dead Soft, La Lune, Worrywart, Superkrystal, Tall Mary, NMA, Hausplants and more. Artist info here and tickets here.
– Celebrating female and gender-diverse musicians, the Our Music Festival launched in Toronto in 2024, and returns this winter, to The Great Hall on March 7. Folk festival favourite Sarah MacDougall is the first headliner announced, with more TBA. Early bird tickets are now on sale here, until Jan. 31.
Industry News
– On Monday (Jan. 6), the East Coast Music Association (ECMA) issued a press release stating that "the board has conducted a thorough review of our leadership and operations, leading to the decision to part ways with CEO Blanche Israël." The change has been made ahead of the East Coast Music Awards show in St. John’s, Newfoundland this spring.
The Canadian Press reports on the "clash over the future of the East Coast Music Awards" that led to the decision. In an online petition launched late 2024, some members called for “transparency and stability” amid changes that affected the awards and its associated festival, citing a lack of clarity and consultation around applications and other "significant modifications." Former ECMA CEO Andy McLean has been installed as interim managing director as the search for a new CEO begins.
– FACTOR’s Company Envelope program, which funds music companies, has just opened to new applications for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. Prepare your submission for deadline of Jan 23, 2025. Learn more here.
– The world’s largest gathering of the folk music industry, Folk Alliance International will be held on February 19-23, 2025 in Montreal. Music Managers Forum (MMF) Canada advises that its members are eligible for a $100 discount off the cost of registration. More info here.
– Songs for Murdered Sisters, a song cycle created by leading opera and art song composer Jake Heggie and literary superstar Margaret Atwood, made its symphonic debut last year in Ottawa, performed by the National Arts Centre Orchestra and Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins. It now gets its American orchestral premiere with performances at Philadelphia’s Marian Anderson Hall on Jan. 9 and 11, and at New York’s Carnegie Hall on Jan. 15. It will be performed by Hopkins and the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Montreal’s multiple Grammy-winning Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
The work has previously been released as both a film and a Juno-nominated digital album. In partnership with co-commissioner Houston Grand Opera, the chamber version premiered in March 2022 at Rothko Chapel in Houston. The song cycle was inspired by Hopkins’s mission to combat violence against women.
– The Art of Managing Your Career program is returning to Creative Manitoba with the support of Manitoba Music. Designed for emerging creatives, it covers everything from how you present yourself as an artist, your goals, brand development and self-promotion, financial management and the grant application process. The deadline to apply here is Jan. 10.
Artists News
– Grammy-nominated producer Benjamin David, known professionally as Mild Minds, releases his sophomore album, GEMINI, on Feb. 21, via Ninja Tune. He has just released a new advance single, "I Need U," featuring a haunting vocal sample from acclaimed Canadian soul vocalist Tanika Charles.
– Acclaimed multi-Juno Award-winning folk singer-songwriter Rose Cousins delivers a new album, Conditions of Love - Vol 1, on March 14. This week, she premiered a music video for new single “K’s Waltz,” an ode to her late friend and colleague, Koady Chaisson, a fellow East Coast roots music star who co-founded PEI’s The East Pointers. “The loss has been gut-wrenching,” shares Cousins in a press release. “It’s hard to process and harder to accept that he’s gone. It’s also incredible to feel his presence still having a profound influence on the world he made."
– Eclectic rock singer-songwriter Gus Englehorn releases his sophomore album, The Hornbrook, via Secret City Records on Jan. 31. It will be launched at a hometown album release show at L'Escogriffe, Montréal, on Feb. 6, followed by gigs at Pantoum, Québec (Feb. 7), Toronto's Baby G (Feb. 15) and at SXSW in Austin in March. Of note: The album is co-produced by Mark Lawson (Arcade Fire, Timbre Timbre, Colin Stetson) and mixed by Paul Leary from the legendary American band Butthole Surfers. A new single and video, "Metal Detector," came out this week.
– Young Vancouver-based, Juno-nominated indie artist young friend (aka Drew Tarves) has earned a Juno nomination (in the Video of the Year category) even before releasing a debut full-length album. Work on that is now underway with producer David Marinelli (FINNEAS), and a new single, "soft light," has just come out.
