Scott Nolan is a songwriter, poet, multi instrumentalist from Winnipeg, Manitoba Treaty One Territory. His songs have been recorded by Hayes Carll, Mary Gauthier, Watermelon Slim, and Corin Raymond among others. He has recently produced albums for William Prince, Lynne Hanson, and Watermelon Slim.
In January 2015 he started writing poetry, approximately three weeks after his 40th birthday. The plan was to replace smoking cigarettes with walking eight to ten kilometres a day. He is a songwriter by trade and often discovered melodies and rhythms in the shuffling of his feet. He spends most of his time thinking about words, music, and language. Nolan found myself writing short poems based on people and places in his neighbourhood, trying to capture a bit of what was happening around him.
An older cousin of his discovered a gift and passion for poetry while serving time in Folsom State Prison. He was an early influence on him, sending books and letters from prison and encouraging the younger Nolan to read and write as often as possible. This relationship was the subject of a documentary last year called Visiting Day, produced for the CBC by filmmaker Charles Konowal. He was invited to perform and host writing workshops in the very same prison library his cousin wrote to him from all those years ago.
The late Winnipeg poet Patrick O’Connell was also a dear friend and mentor. Patrick is one of his favourite contemporary Canadian poets. His was a lyrical style that had a strong impact on his early songwriting. One of the many benefits of working in the arts community in Winnipeg is the quality of work of his peers. It’s consistently encouraging and inspiring. After more than a decade of relentless touring, he decided to take a year or so away from the road to collaborate, produce records, and enjoy his life in Winnipeg. A play was produced through Manitoba Theatre Projects based on the nine albums he has released since 2003. The play, I Dream of Diesel, enjoyed a two week run of sold-out shows and critical praise from both the community and critics
Glenn Buhr is a composer, pianist/guitarist, music curator and producer, songwriter and band leader. He became well known in Canada in the mid-80’s when the Toronto and Montreal Symphony Orchestras first championed his work, and in the mid-90’s as front man – with conductor Bramwell Tovey – of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s New Music Festival. He was Composer-in-Residence with the WSO and curator of the New Music Festival from 1990 to 1996.
Buhr has received commissions from many important performers and ensembles including the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Penderecki String Quartet, the Detroit Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, the Verdi String Quartet, pianist Janina Fialkowska, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Children’s Chorus and the Esprit Orchestra. His music has been performed all over the world by such diverse ensembles as the London Sinfonia, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, pianist Louis Lortie, soprano Tracy Dahl and many others. His 3rd Symphony (a choral symphony) was premiered by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in February 2008 with pop singer Sarah Slean as soloist.
Buhr performed as soloist at the premiere of his jazz-oriented Piano Concerto no. 2 with the Esprit Orchestra in March 2006. The work was remounted by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in February 2008, again with the composer at the piano. He’s toured Canada twice as a jazz artist (pianist/composer), and he released his 3rd jazz CD in March 2007 on the Marquis label. He works with novelist/playwright/lyricist Margaret Sweatman as musical director of their group The Broken Songs Band; that ensemble released its second CD in the fall of 2010. Sweatman and Buhr won a Genie Award for their song When Wintertime from the film Seven Times Lucky.
In 2003, his full length ballet Beauty and the Beast was premiered by the Birmingham Royal Ballet in Birmingham, England. The work has since toured the UK three times for a total of more than 125 performances. The ballet has also toured to Hong Kong (2005), Japan (2008) and to mainland China in 2009. He has also composed a number of scores for film and theatre and has collaborated on several other dance projects. Glenn Buhr’s work and his performances are featured regularly on the CBC. His book Our Native Song – a collection of essays on music – was published in May 2013.
Dr. Buhr is Professor of Music Composition and Improvisation in the Contemporary Music Program at Wilfrid Laurier University. In 1998 he was awarded the University Research Professor Fellowship at Wilfrid Laurier University; it was the first time that the award was given to a creative artist. He is also the founding Artistic Director of the Music in the Ruins Festival at the St. Norbert Arts Centre in Manitoba and the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony’s New Orchestra Series. He was the Artistic Director of NUMUS Concerts in Kitchener-Waterloo from 2009 to 2013.
Scott & Glenn will be joined on stage by Paul Balcain, Gilles Fournier, Joanna Miller, and the Penderecki String Quartet