With a voice that is both youthful and mature, soulful yet playful, jazz artist Shannon Butcher has just released Words We Both Could Say. The alb...

From 1966 to 1969, the Cultural Revolution swept China. Encouraged by Mao’s Chinese Communist Party, young people reacted against their elders and against history, casting aside tradition. For a while, socialist teenage wisdom prevailed. Anything old was gone; any dissenters were sent to labour camps or imprisoned. Or worse. One of these supposed dissenters was Alec Hou, a violinist, concertmaster, and leader of three orchestras, including the Shanghai Ballet Orchestra. His mistake, accor...

Hybrid soul is how Montreal-born Julie Crochetière describes her music, but the quirky descriptor is also telling of the artist herself. “[My music] draws from the live sound of classic soul, the melody and colours of jazz and heart beat of rhythm and blues and the lyrical content of French chansons,” says Julie of her work. Her latest album, A Better Place, follows this unconventional mixture with success. Mainly through word of mouth, Julie has been building a fan base with lit...

Merle Gobin is a busy woman. Colleagues from the Canadian Opera Company use the terms “hectic” and “in and out” in every correspondence we have. Yet when I sit down with the president of the Canadian Opera Volunteer Committee [COVC], she is relaxed, gracious and above all, articulate. As I stare at her warm, easy smile, I am searching for the signs of a demanding life in performance, the strain of parenthood, or the stress of boardroom leadership. The signs aren’t there. She confirms t...