An intimate, and local, musical environment

St. Vital

The audience hushes in curiosity. A single note blossoms into the air. Music performances may end, but the memory remains.

Glenn Buhr, renowned Canadian composer, conductor and pianist, has spent much of his life studying, writing and performing music of all kinds. For decades, his work, mostly rooted in classical and jazz traditions, has been consistently unique and he has created pieces for orchestras and chamber ensembles, as well as scores for film and ballet companies.

Buhr co-founded the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s New Music Festival with Bramwell Tovey, and was artistic director from 1992 to ’96. He taught at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo and was director of new music at the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra from 2002 to 2005.

More recently, he has performed with The Broken Songs Band, which features his wife, writer and spoken-word artist, Margaret Sweatman, and The Buhr Quartet, a roots-jazz amalgam which recently entertained at Times Change(d) High and Lonesome Club.

His most recent initiative has DreamPlay Small Concerts, which is currently presenting a seven-show season at the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s Muriel Richardson Auditorium.

“I like to create programs that grow out of the artists who live near me and with whom I’ve become friends,” Buhr said.

“I’m encouraging artists to communicate their work to the people that live close to them, developing a thriving cultural village in which we support each other, while attending events in person.”

Local artists such as dancer/choreographer Jolene Bailie, poet Duncan Mercredi, singer-songwriter Scott Nolan, and button accordionist and composer Jim Hiscott have all taken the stage.

The fourth concert in the DreamPlay series is coming up on Thursday, Feb. 5. It’s billed as GenZ WPG and will feature emerging artists Sam Fournier (guitar, vocals) and Anne-Marie Williot (accordion, vocals). They will be accompanied by Buhr on piano and guitar, bassist Gilles Fournier (Sam’s father) and trombonist Ian Cherry (Ann-Marie’s partner).

Sam, a St. Vital resident, is clearly following in his father’s fingertips. He took up bass in his teens and is now in his final year of jazz studies at the University of Manitoba.

Williot, a trilingual multi-instrumentalist from Quebec, says it was a combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and music that brought her and Cherry together.

“In order to keep our music present, we began a series of sidewalk performances that were featured on CBC,” she said.

For tickets and more information, visit dreamplay.ca