Musicians
MUSICIANS
Jordan Klapman
Jordan is a multi-talented pianist, accompanist, bandleader, popular music lecturer, arranger, composer and music producer. He has over thirty years’ worth of experience performing multiple genres of music including jazz and swing standards, The American Popular Songbook, Broadway, Latin, R&B, Klezmer, and Jewish music of all kinds. He also regularily performs with the Wintergarten Orchestra. He is equally at home in festivals, clubs, concert halls and theatres, and has appeared throughout the Toronto area and internationally, on CBC national television and radio, and JazzFM as a guest co-host with the late Jeff Healey.
In addition to his musical performances, Jordan also teaches music history at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.
His silent film accompaniment draws upon his extensive musical knowledge of the early 20th Century and as such, adds a rich detail to the films he works with, often using original 1920s works as accents. He is also the regular pianist for the Toronto Jewish Film Society, the Toronto Jewish Film Festival, Silent Revue, and the Vintage Film Festival. He made his debut with the Silent Film Festival in 2014 and was a key member of the team of musical accompanists for the 2014 Canadian premiere of the Hitchcock 9. www.jordanklapman.com
His silent film accompaniment draws upon his extensive musical knowledge of the early 20th Century and as such, adds a rich detail to the films he works with, often using original 1920s works as accents. He is also the regular pianist for the Toronto Jewish Film Society, the Toronto Jewish Film Festival, Silent Revue, and the Vintage Film Festival. He made his debut with the Silent Film Festival in 2014 and was a key member of the team of musical accompanists for the 2014 Canadian premiere of the Hitchcock 9. www.jordanklapman.com
William O'Meara
Bill is well known in Toronto as the co-artistic director for the annual Organix Concert Festival, and as staff cathedral organist at St. Michael’s Cathedral. He has worked on hundreds of silent films here in Toronto on behalf of the Toronto Silent Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Cinematheque at Bell Lightbox, Nuit Blanche, the Toronto Film Society, and is a sought-after performer at the National Gallery, Pacific Cinematheque, and at the world’s largest silent film festival, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, in Pordenone, Italy. Bill’s busy freelance career as a soloist and choral and silent film accompanist has taken him to festivals and concert series throughout North and South America, Great Britain, and Europe, for over 35 years. www.williamomeara.com
Tania Gill
Tania Gill is a Toronto-based pianist and composer. Her work is centred in jazz and improvised music, and her performance spans diverse genres. She has performed and recorded with notable musicians, including the Brodie West Quintet, Steve Reich, Anthony Braxton, Deep Dark United, the Woodshed Orchestra, Rebecca Hennessy’s FOG Brass Band, and the Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band. She also leads the Tania Gill Quartet, with Lina Allemano, Rob Clutton, and Nico Dann. Gill has accompanied several silent films for TIFF, for Silent Revue, for the Toronto Silent Film Festival, and with Andrew Downing’s ensemble Melodeon. She teaches at her home and Humber College.
Morgan-Paige Melbourne
Morgan-Paige Melbourne is a Toronto based pianist who has competed and won numerous classes in the Kiwanis Music Festivals, (OMFA – Ontario Music Festival Association), including placing third in the national Canadian Music Competition 2017 for under-23 category. Morgan has performed extensively in Toronto, GTA, Guelph, Bahamas, and recently Montreal and France. She also performed at Koerner Hall during Culture Days celebrations, the 21C Music Festival, Burdock Piano Fest in Toronto, Château d’Orquevaux Artist Residency in Orquevaux, France, the Cinéclub Film Society silent film festivals in Besançon, France, and Montreal, Québec, and Alexina Louie’s award ceremony at the Arts and Letters Club in Toronto. She is the newly appointed board member of the Guelph Symphony Orchestra, and works as a collaborative pianist, assistant choir director, and teacher at Sistema Toronto and The East End Music Project.
Website: https://morganmusic5.wixsite.com/morganpaigepianist
Marilyn Lerner
Genre defying pianist/composer/improviser Marilyn Lerner performs to acclaim internationally, from her native Montreal to Havana, from Jerusalem to Amsterdam and the Ukraine. Her intimate knowledge of the piano, combined with a fearless experimental and passionate spirit, renders her a true original. Lerner’s work spans the worlds of jazz, creative improvisation, Klezmer, and 20th century classical music. Her ground breaking recordings have garnered much recognition, including 3 solo CDs: Miss Overboard, Luminance, Romanian Fantasy, a duo with guitar legend Sonny Greenwich called Special Angel, and most recently, Lerner/Filiano/Grassi, Live at Edgefest, ( 2016, NoBusiness Records), Strange Attractors (2017, Ugly Beauties Trio (Matt Brubeck and Nick Fraser) and Réunion, the Queen Mab Trio (2017, Lori Freedman, Ig Henneman, Microclimat). She regularly accompanies silent film in Toronto at TSFF, Silent Revue and at TIFF.
Laura Sgroi
Laura Sgroi is a composer, improviser, pianist and DJ in Toronto and holds a Doctorate of Music Composition from the University of Toronto. A classically trained musician with a passion for popular and electronic music, Laura’s unique style explores popular music idioms adapted to the sonic and structural complexity of traditional classical ensembles. “My music is a unique blend of classical and electronica – two different genres together as one voice. I hope to bring contemporary classical music to a younger and more diverse audience by combining it with popular electronic styles.”
In 2015, Laura was included in CBC's list of the 30 hottest classical musicians under 30.Laura is the youngest composer featured on the album "Woman Runs with Wolves" (Centrediscs, 2013) by percussionist Beverley Johnston. She is also the youngest composer featured on the 2016 Juno Nominated Album "Spin Cycle" (Centrediscs, 2015) performed by the Afiara String Quartet and DJ Skratch Bastid. One of her pieces on this album, “Dirty Laundry – Heavy Load” was the featured music for the National Ballet’s Sharing Dance 2017 – a signature Canada 150 project.
Laura is currently on faculty at the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Taylor Academy for Young Artists teaching composition and is the composer-in-residence for the Cantabile Chamber Singers.
Laura was thrilled to have her first symphony commissioned and performed by both the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and Symphony Nova Scotia in 2019. She was recently awarded her third Ontario Arts Council Grant for a new composition for two cellos and piano, to be premiered in November, 2020.http://laurasgroimusic.com/
