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  • WJO Events 2024/25
    • Program
    • upcoming concerts 2024/25
    • Complete 2024-2025 season
    • St. James Infirmary Blues
    • Guest Artists 2024-25
    • 2024-25 Ticket options
  • St. James Infirmary Blues
  • Education
    • WJEC Summer Jazz Camp
    • Pre-concert performances
    • Canadian Jazz Composers Workshop
    • WJO Honour Jazz
    • Big Band Workshops
    • Play-along charts
    • Jazz Skills Videos
    • Community Jazz Bands
  • Boutique
    • WJO CDS >
      • CD Details - Tidal Currents -East Meets West
      • CD Details - Voices
      • CD Details - Twisting Ways
      • CD Details - Suite 150
      • CD Details - Suite Messiah
      • CD Details - Steppin’ Out
    • Musician CDS >
      • Bjorn Thoroddsen
      • Jeff Presslaff
      • Richard Gillis
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​We plan to hold the next composers workshop on April 30, 2022.
​

Canadian Jazz Composers Workshop - February 12, 2022.

11:00 am CDT - Jeff Presslaff "Randomness is Your Friend; Rolling the Dice in Jazz Composition"
12:00 pm CDT - David Braid "Setting Limits to Enable Musical Creativity and Originality"
1:00 pm CDT - Question and Answer Session & Discussion

There is no charge for this event, and we hope to keep it this way.
Donations toward this project are welcomed and will receive a tax receipt. (https://www.winnipegjazzorchestra.com/donate.html)



To register, please contact Richard Gillis at [email protected].  An email with the link to the event will be sent to you the morning of the workshop. 

This session will be by Zoom and in English.
​Thank you for your participation in the Canadian Jazz Composers Workshops. 
We plan to hold the next composers workshop on April 30, 2022.
​



​Feel free to download and disseminate the poster for this event.
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​​This free virtual event will feature some of Canada's top large jazz ensemble writers
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Jeff Presslaff (http://www.jeffpresslaff.com/epk.php) Pianist, trombonist, and composer/arranger, Jeff Presslaff has become a mainstay of the Winnipeg jazz scene since moving from New York in 1997. Born in Manhattan, educated at Princeton and Wesleyan Universities, he has had a varied career working with many distinguished musicians, including Benny Carter, Bill Barron, Ed Blackwell, Roswell Rudd, Sheila Jordan, Bob Brookmeyer, Howard Levy, Stanley Jordan, Bill Watrous, George Garzone, Steve Nelson, Edgar Meyer, Sim Cain, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Josh Groban and many others.

​In 2004, he was named Jazz Winnipeg's Musician of the Year.
Jeff is featured as a player, writer and/or producer on many recordings. Rhapsodies by Two, an album of keyboard duets with Will Bonness was nominated for a 2013 WCMA Jazz Album of the Year award; Red Goddess, a piano trio album of all original tunes, has been played on over 100 radio stations in N.America, and garnered a 2009 Best Instrumental Jazz nomination from Just Plain Folks, the world's largest music awards.
Jeff has received many commissions for a wide variety of ensembles, including big band, clarinet choir, combined big band/wind ensemble, symphony orchestra plus salsa band, clarinet quartet and many others. His work is frequently supported by awards from the Manitoba Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. He is the composer of the world's only concerto for cello and big band.
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“He gets the harmony just right!” -- Wayne Shorter


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David Braid (http://davidbraid.com/biography.php) Hailed in the Canadian press as "one of his country’s true renaissance men when it comes to music" (The Ottawa Citizen), composer and jazz pianist, David Braid is a nine-time nominee, and three-time winner of Canada's highest music prize (Juno Award). His first classical composition was nominated for Classical Album of the year, and his first film score won two Screen Awards for Best Original Score, and Best Original Song. He is also a recipient of the Ontario Foundation for the Arts’ prestigious prize: ’Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award for Keyboard Artistry’.

David Braid is a Steinway Artist, Composer-in-Residence for both Sinfonia UK Collective and The International Chamber Music Festival Casalmaggiore Italy, and Adjunct Professor at the Danish National Academy of Music.
Concertizing throughout the UK, Scandinavia, Europe, Russia, Central Asia, Japan, Australia and Canada his original music is described as: "brilliant" (Montreal Gazette), "enchanting" (The Age, Australia), "une force poétique" (Le Soleil) and "hauntingly beautiful." (The Globe & Mail)
His arrangements and compositions were an integral part of the Chet Baker-inspired film, "Born to Be Blue" and his jazz score received praise for its "contemporary patina without sacrificing period authenticity" (The Times, UK).
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"Braid’s tone, touch, chord voicings and imagination make him one of the most interesting new pianists I’ve encountered in a long time." – Doug Ramsey, recipient of Jazz Journalists Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award (USA)


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The Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra is Generously Funded by:

Funding assistance provided by the Manitoba government. Aide financière accordée par le gouvernement du Manitoba.
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We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
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Education Sponsors:

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The Play-Along App project is supported by the Government of Canada’s Healthy Communities Initiative.
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We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada.
Nous reconnaissons l'appui financier du gouvernement du Canada. 

Concert Sponsors:
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Hotel Sponsor: 

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Radio Sponsors
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Special Event Supporters
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Supporters
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The Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra welcomes and shares its performance and creation of music - a universal language to all people irrespective of culture, race, sexuality, ability, language and gender.
Music is an agent of hope. A dynamic and valuable device that helps us to heal and to bring us together. The First Peoples of Canada understood this and used music to reunite, resolve and reconcile.  In the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge that WJO activities take place on Treaty Territory – land that was maintained and earnestly cared for by Indigenous peoples before European settlement.  Manitoba is the original lands of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and is the homeland of the Métis Nation.  We acknowledge that Winnipeg benefits daily from Treaty 3 water that comes from Shoal Lake 40.  It is with sincere sentiment that we recognize the mistakes of our recent and distant past.  In working towards a Canada that benefits us all, we commit to seeking a greater understanding of Canada’s diverse cultural relationships through continued work with Indigenous communities; we commit to live in ways that honour and respect the treaties that were made on these territories; and we commit to stewarding the land in harmony for all who will come after us.
- Please refrain from wearing any fragrances or scented products as other patrons are allergic to them.
- Your likeness may be captured at this event. Attending this event implies your permission for your image to be used in marketing or promotional purposes.
- Please do not attend if you do not feel well. Call the box office at 204-632-5299 to arrange to go to another concert.

Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra  / Box 68114, RPO Osborne Village, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3L 2V9
Main: 204-421-9398 / [email protected]     Box Office: 204-632-5299 / [email protected]