Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
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      • CD Details - Connections -East Meets West
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  • WJO Events 2025-26
    • Complete 2025-2026 season
    • Serie Estivale De Concerts Au CCFM
    • St. James Infirmary Blues
    • 2025-26 Ticket options
  • 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
  • Recordings
    • WJO CDS >
      • CD Details - Connections -East Meets West
      • 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
  • Support us
    • DONATE
    • Sponsorships
    • Volunteer
    • Board member application
    • Our advertisers
  • About us
    • Contact Us
    • Who We Are
    • Board of Directors
    • News
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WJO DISCOGRAPHY


WJO CDs $20 plus $5 shipping and handling in Canada.
(Contact the Box Office regarding international shipping - shipping outside Canada is $15-$20 or more, plus the cost of the CD. )

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CONNECTIONS - EAST MEETS WEST - WJO; 2025

The Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra’s eighth album release features new works by Canadian composers Fred Stride and Jean-Nicolas Trottier.  A key goal of the WJO is fostering connections between jazz performers and composers across Canada. Several years ago, the WJO approached Montreal-based Trottier to propose a collaborative commission. Without hesitation, he suggested Fred Stride, whom he had met in 2011 when Stride was presenting masterclasses at the University of Montreal. The collaboration resulted in the stunning nine-movement suite featured on this album. Fred and Jean-Nicolas are prolific jazz composers and we are thrilled to bring them together on this project.

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TIDAL CURRENTS - EAST MEETS WEST - WJO; 2024
 
The Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra's seventh release features a commission between two of Canada’s most compelling writers for Big Band Jazz:
Jill Townsend and Christine Jensen. The music born of this meeting reflects on the places that meant the most to them, especially the bodies of water that surrounded them both in their youth up until the present. 
They have blended their compositions into one suite with the WJO: Tidal Currents: East meets West. Both composers are featured as guest artists, with
Jill Townsend as conductor and Christine Jensen as soprano saxophone soloist.
​CD DETAILS
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VOICES - A MUSICAL HERITAGE - WJO; 2022

VOICES - A MUSICAL HERITAGE is the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra’s sixth release since their inception in 1997. This album is a collection of commissions from eight jazz composers meant to reflect some of Manitoba’s musical heritage: First Nations, Métis, Ukrainian, Jewish, Chilean, Brazilian, Nigerian and Icelandic.
CD DETAILS
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TWISTING WAYS - WJO; 2021

​TWISTING WAYS comprises two original songs with texts by Lee Tsang and music by David Braid (The Hand) and Philippe Côté (Hope Shadow). The Hand is sung from the perspective of a central character (expressed in the form of a nightingale) who is guided by the Hand, a mysterious force. Hope Shadow is a companion piece to The Hand; it takes the opposite subject position and is sung from the mysterious force’s omniscient perspective. 
​​See the CTV Interview about Twisting Ways with David Braid and Philippe Cote here.
CD DETAILS
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SUITE MESSIAH

Suite 150 - A Big Band Portrait - WJO

In commemoration of Canada’s 150th anniversary, the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra commissioned eleven Canadian big band jazz composers to write music reflecting some aspect of Canada or being Canadian.
The completed eleven-movement suite was recorded at the premiere by the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra at the Winnipeg Art Gallery on November 19, 2017.  CD DETAILS
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Details

SUITE MESSIAH

Suite Messiah - WJO

This is WJO's third full album and features Juno-nominated singer Erin Propp on vocals, all arrangements by WJO's own talented musicians (Richard Gillis, Jeff Presslaff and Richard Boughton) and the title work, Suite Messiah, is WJO's own big band arrangement of three movements from Handel's Messiah. The other tunes on the album are big band arrangements of well-known and some lesser-known festive tunes.  CD DETAILS
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SUITE MESSIAH

Steppin’ Out - WJO

Celebrating 10 Years!
On their second release, the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra (WJO) has decided to tackle the Great American Songbook. Throughout the CD the playing is tight, agile and full of energy… after 11 years the WJO shows no signs of slowing down and, as this recording proves, they have matured into a solid and confident big band 
(Michael Wolch, Winnipeg Free Press).  CD DETAILS_
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SUITE MESSIAH

Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra 
(self-titled album)

The Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra (WJO) is a professional concert big band based in the Canadian city of Winnipeg, Manitoba. They hold a frequently sold-out six-concert series annually as well as recordings, broadcasts and outdoor park concerts. The band features several top-level composer/arrangers whose work is heard on their self-titled debut album. CD DETAILS
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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.
Logo of the Winnipeg Arts Council
Logo of the Winnipeg Foundation
Logo of the Manitoba Arts Council
Logo for FACTOR: The Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings
Logo of the Canada Council for the Arts
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Logo for the SOCAN Foundation

Education Sponsors:

Logo of Long & McQuade Musical Instruments
Logo of Jazz Winnipeg
Logo of the Desautels Faculty of Music, U of M
Logo of the Manitoba Band Association
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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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Logo of the Assiniboine Credit Union

Hotel Sponsor: 

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Radio Sponsors
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logo of Nostalgia Radio, 93.7 CJNU

Special Event Supporters
Logo of Neil Bardal Funeral Centre
Logo of Frontera Wines

Supporters
Logo of Jonathan's Farm Food Share
Logo of McNally Robison Booksellers

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]