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St. John’s Kitchen is a soup kitchen in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. I spent some time with this community pre-COVID. One person in particular was gracious enough to spend a great deal of time with me to share how this special, unique space offers community and belonging to some of the…

Take Me Home took me back to interviews from my first masters degree when I was researching how migrant women used food to transition to a new country. The women I spoke with recounted incredible journeys of strength and perseverance as they uprooted their families to come to Canada for…

It used to be that when immigrants came to Ontario, Canada, they would move to the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) for some time to establish themselves before moving anywhere else. But that’s not the case anymore. Kitchener-Waterloo has become a “secondary gateway” region for new Canadians. That means our diversity…

This song is a continuation of my project celebrating cultural diversity through music. This time, instead of focusing solely on one cultural group, I thought it would be interesting to play around with blending sounds from different cultural groups (Turkish, Indian, Iranian, and West African) into one piece that shows…

I remembered seeing a Facebook post a month or so earlier that kept coming to the top of my mind when I had a moment to clear my thoughts. It was a photo of a bench in downtown Kitchener. I could recall it clear as day – someone has inscribed…

On February 23, 2020, Ahmaud Marquez Arbery, an unarmed 25-year-old African-American man, was shot while jogging in Georgia, U.S.A. by three white residents. I watched the news about the incident and the aftermath in horror. The “stand your ground” laws were cited as the defence for this fatal shooting: Arbery…

This song was the third song written for this album. After taking some time to work on grant applications and working out the logistics of this community album, I began making more connections in the community and exploring conversations happening in the media. One person I spoke to was Aleksandra…

Inspired by the topic of climate change, Earth Lullaby is a song about sustainability from an intercultural perspective. This song features a Middle Eastern melody and Turkish flamenco guitar line combined with Western influences (grand piano), a North American Indigenous hand drum, and a lyrical message about the dangers of…

Embrace NOT erase, don’t hate appreciate You won’t solve any problems with unfounded hate Injustice, entitlement; they get in the way Why can’t we work for peace and equality? CHORUS We are all human, diverse in many good ways No matter opinion of how you are raised Respect everyone’s individuality…

The title track of this album is intended to set the stage for the stories that follow. You hear different voices from different walks of life. And some of the instruments could be categorized as items picked up on the way, including pots that sound like singing bowls to open…

As we approached the completion of the recording for the Songs of Kitchener album, we realized there was one thing missing…album art!  I contacted with the amazing folks I worked with at the City of Kitchener throughout my residency and they connected me with the Kitchener Public Library. We had…

Once Upon a Time was the very last song created as part of my time as the City of Kitchener Artist in Residence. And, of course, being the last one, we had to end it on a twist! Every other song we created was done in a 1.5 hour workshop…

A couple months into my residency and I had a steady groove going. I had several workshops scheduled and the process (after a few tweaks) was going well. Workshops were taking place in schools, community centres, libraries…you name it. I even started booking workshops for the summer in outdoor settings…

May 6, 2020 was my very first event as part of my tenure as the City of Kitchener Artist in Residence. It was Music Monday and two groups of elementary students at Trillium Public School in Kitchener eagerly awaited a junk music, songwriting workshop. I’ll admit…I was a bit nervous.…

My expansion into corporate music-making services was inspired by a study from Cornell University that noted marketers and corporate head offices routinely use music to “mindlessly” influence customers in places of business (e.g., supermarkets, gyms, hair salons) but paid little attention to the potential influence of music on workplace behaviour.…

When I introduce myself as a community musician, I often receive the looks that read, “What exactly is community music?” Even though I recently graduated from the Masters of Arts in Community Music program at Wilfrid Laurier University, I couldn’t answer that question. There really isn’t a universally accepted definition.…

Who says music can’t be put on display in a museum? In the fall, I went into a meeting with the wonderful folks at Kitchener’s THEMUSEUM to talk about how I could bring junk music into their programming. I discovered that the upcoming exhibition was all about climate change. So,…