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ONJM 2024-2025 season closes with young clarinet rising star Virginia MacDonald, performing Jean-Nicolas Trottier’s Starbirth Suite, a world premiere written for the Toronto jazzwoman.
Juno Award-winning clarinetist is clearly a clarinet virtuoso of her generation. Known for her great skills, for her fluidity, her tone and her excellent phrasing as an improviser, she became an attractive soloist for ambitious projects as this Starbirth Suite, a title that perfectly fits with her actual status.
Virginia MacDonald is actually very active as a bandleader, sidewoman or composer. She plays around the world and proudly represents Canada’s new jazz scene.
Let’s have a look on her eloquent biography, taken from her own website:
In 2020, Virginia was selected as the first-prize winner of the International Clarinetist Corona Competition; judges included Anat Cohen, Victor Goines, Ken Peplowski, and Doreen Ketchens. She was recently chosen as one of three finalists for the Toronto Art Foundation’s 2024 Breakthrough Jazz Artist Award. Some of her other accolades include receiving a Stingray Rising Star Award in 2019, and being named as one of three finalists for the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Emerging Jazz Artist Award in 2021. In 2023, she was selected to headline the International Clarinet Association’s 50th anniversary celebration at ClarinetFest in Denver, Colorado.
Virginia has recorded and performed with esteemed artists including Kirk Lightsey, Geoffrey Keezer, Ira Coleman, Michael Dease, Dick Oatts, Joe Magnarelli, Harold Mabern, Bruce Barth, Derrick Gardner, Rodney Whitaker, Xavier Davis, Quincy Davis, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Bill Cunliffe, Randy Napoleon, Jon Gordon, (her father) Kirk MacDonald, Pat Labarbera, Neil Swainson, Terry Clarke.
Virginia is a member of the Canadian Jazz Collective, a seven-piece ensemble of award-winning and established Canadian jazz musicians. She appeared on the Canadian Jazz Collective’s debut album “Septology”, which was nominated for a Juno Award for Jazz Album of the Year in 2024.
Virginia was featured on Caity Gyorgy’s 2022 Juno Award-winning album “Now Pronouncing” and her 2023 Juno Award-winning follow-up “Featuring”. She has been a recent and frequent collaborator of Grammy Award-winning trombonist Michael Dease and appeared on his 2023 album “The Other Shoe: The Music of Gregg Hill” and his 2024 release “Found in Space: The Music of Gregg Hill”. Her composition “Up High, Down Low” was featured on Michael Dease’s 2023 release “Swing Low”. Virginia has appeared on twenty-plus albums as a sidewoman.
Virginia’s debut album is set to be released in 2025 on Cellar Live. She will feature original compositions for her quartet including jazz veterans such as the American Geoffrey Keezer on piano or (also American) Ira Coleman on bass, along with voices of her generation, NYC drummer Curtis Nowosad and French vocalist Laura Anglade.
Because of all that, our PAN M 360 collaborator Mona Boulay asked her a few questions before coming to Montreal – Saturday April 19th, 8PM, Place des Arts Cinquième Salle.
PAN M 360: Starbirth is a piece written by Jean-Nicolas Trottier especially for you. How did this artistic encounter come about, and how were you involved (if at all) in the creative process of this work?
Virginia MacDonald: Before connecting with Jean-Nicolas, I was actually introduced to Jacques Laurin by a mutual friend & colleague, the wonderful Cuban pianist Rafael Zaldivar. We talked about the possibility of collaborating at some point, and this project was born out of that conversation. When Jean-Nicolas first proposed the idea of writing a suite for me, I was incredibly honoured and on board. I was familiar with his writing, and his mentor Joe Sullivan has worked quite extensively with my father Kirk MacDonald, so there is a cool connection there. I wanted him to have free rein to conceptualize the music, so I gave very minimal guidance on a couple of small technical details. I’m so happy with how the suite has turned out, and I can’t wait to present it.
PAN M 360: The clarinet is an instrument that was important in the early stages of Jazz and neglected in the modern Jazz world after the Second World War. There were few exceptions (Eric Dolphy, etc.) but more recently, many clarinetists have since brought it back. What inspirations led you down the jazz clarinet path?
Virginia MacDonald: The clarinet has had a very interesting role in the lineage of this music. It was such an integral instrument within the realm of early jazz, but for what could be any number of reasons (inadequate microphone technology, the saxophone being the louder instrument of the two and allowing for easier projection over a loud rhythm section, etc.) it fell out of favour from the bebop era and onwards.
I started playing the clarinet when I was seven years old – my father is a jazz saxophonist, and I always joke that I didn’t want to play the same instrument as him but really, when I saw the clarinet for the first time my eyes lit up and I fell in love with it. It wasn’t until I was older and into my high school years that I realized the lineage of the instrument within this music kind of came to a halt at a certain point. There were of course notable exceptions. My favourite clarinetist, Jimmy Giuffre, utilized the instrument in a way that I believe was incredibly ahead of his time. And I could look to modern players like Anat Cohen and Paquito D’Rivera for inspiration. But for the most part, I turned to musicians who played saxophone or trumpet – pianists or singers, and tried to emulate what they were doing in my own way. I really felt that the clarinet was sort of an unsung instrument, and that people just needed to give it a chance, and hear it in a more modern context to understand what it could be capable of.
PAN M 360 : After appearing on numerous albums by other artists, you’re preparing to release your own album in 2025. Are you more excited about releasing your own project than collaborating with others?
Virginia MacDonald: Throughout my career I’ve had the opportunity to work extensively as a sideperson, and I’ve been lucky enough to perform with musicians who have been personal heroes and inspirations of mine. I don’t think that I would have the knowledge and experience that I have today if I had only focused on my own projects. You learn a lot by working with other musicians, and trying to perform and play their music to the fullest capability. But there is also a great freedom and sense of fulfillment involved with writing your own music, and seeing it come to fruition. I feel like I’ve come to a point where I really enjoy the balance of being able to take part in others’ projects, while focusing on my own music simultaneously.
PAN M 360: How did you go about composing this forthcoming album?
Virginia MacDonald: This album is a medley of music that I’ve written over the past ten years or so, and I really feel like it reflects where I’ve been at various moments of time over the last decade. I’m very lucky that some of my favourite musicians in the world agreed to collaborate with me on this project, including Geoffrey Keezer on piano, Ira Coleman on bass, Curtis Nowosad on drums, and Laura Anglade on vocals. To me, creating this music is always a joint effort and I’m very of “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” mindset.
PAN M 360: You’ve had the chance to perform in Canada, the U.S. and Europe. Is there a venue, a stage or a festival that has had the biggest impact on you?
Virginia MacDonald: As of now, I spend over half of the year on the road and I’m constantly travelling from city to city. It doesn’t lose it’s novelty if you can keep that sense of curiosity and wonder. I love going to new places, and I try to make the most of wherever I am. Performing in India was incredibly special to me…I don’t know, I love it all.
PAN M 360: As well as being an incredible musician, you also give master classes and workshops. How do these two aspects of your career (musician and teacher) co-exist?
Virginia MacDonald: They’re very intertwined. I owe so much to my mentors, and I was (and still am) very lucky to have had some great ones. There is no doubt that being a musician is not an easy or straightforward path. We all need guidance, no matter what stage we’re at. “Music Education” at its highest level is reciprocal – you receive what you give and you give what you receive, if you’re open to both of those possibilities. There’s something to learn from younger musicians and the spirit and vitality they possess, and there’s much to learn from our elders and their tenacity, life experience, and wisdom. I love teaching because I feel like the pursuit of learning and being better at whatever we do is so exciting and infinite..and so integral to just being a human. It’s so exciting to share that feeling, both as a student of the music and on the other side as a mentor.
ARTISTS
DIRECTION Jean-Nicolas Trottier
GUEST ARTIST Virginia MacDonald, clarinet
SAXOPHONES Jean-Pierre Zanella, Samuel Blais, André Leroux, Frank Lozano, Alexandre Côté
TROMPETTES Jocelyn Couture, Aron Doyle, David Carbonneau, Bill Mahar
TROMBONES David Grott, Édouard Touchette, David Martin, Jean-Sébastien Vachon
PIANO Marianne Trudel
COUNTERBASS Rémi-Jean Leblanc
DRUMS Kevin Warren
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