Interviews Archive

Grace Ives has just set off on her mammoth North American tour of Girlfriend. The tour left the unbelievably down-to-earth artist packing until 8:30 the night before she left because she was preoccupied with putting cute stickers on her guitar case. “Our Philly show was good,” she says, recounting the first night of the tour, “but I regret wearing high heels on the stage because I couldn’t move around properly.” She’s considering going barefoot for the remainder of the tour.

We sat down with Grace to discuss what she’s been up to over the past three years, how her creative processes have evolved, and her feelings about being on her biggest tour to date.

PAN M 360: So, you took a little break since your last album, Janky Star. Do you feel like your approach to songwriting changed much in that time?

Ives: Yes, it definitely changed, I guess just because I got older? It’s funny, I didn’t “take a break,” I just was working on this. It just took forever. I started well, and then I went at it too hard and destroyed all the songs and had to go backwards a little bit. But yeah, my writing approach is more like a diary style, and a bit less vague. More direct, I think. And I would set myself up properly at a desk as opposed to just writing in my notes app.

PAN M 360: You spent a lot of time in LA during the making of the album. What was your experience like there, being from New York?

Ives: I was meeting with different producers in LA. John and I had two days working together, and we just really hit it off, and then I made almost all of the album in LA and finished it off near Buffalo. I went back and forth a lot, which was good for me because I had noticed in my writing a common theme of being stuck, so living in all of these different neighbourhoods in LA was cool, because now I know LA. New York is home, and it’s nice to be reminded of that and taken back in a very comforting way by my boyfriend, my house and my cats. It’s a touchstone of the love in my life, and then I got to be away and figure out how to love life on my own. I mean my boyfriend and I have been side by side for almost 11 years.

PAN M 360: Wow, you’ve been together ages. What’s the story behind naming the album Girlfriend?

Ives: I guess it’s just a sweet, charming word and a way of describing myself that I don’t fully relate to. It’s a temporary word. It’s young and cozy; it sounds like a phase or a chapter that wont last forever, which is cool.

PAN M 360: I felt the same with Janky Star, but I feel like there’s a very cohesive soundscape and texture across both albums. Do you think about the concept of “world-building” when you’re writing?

Ives: Honestly, I think I just gravitate towards the same things that I like through experimenting and having access to so many instruments. I think that this album makes me feel very at home. But, I can tell that it’s just the beginning of getting closer and closer to my sound and my world and being more comfortable in myself. This album is definitely more dramatic. It’s hard to be dramatic on just a 505, which is what I was working on almost solely before. It was a lot simpler, whereas this one I kind of had access to almost whatever I wanted, which was really cool.

PAN M 360: Your music explores a lot of emotional and personal themes, whereas the production is very fun and pop-esque. How do you find a balance there so that it doesn’t get too heavy?

Ives: Well, the vocal performance determines a lot of the drama. I was trying not to over-enunciate, pop-girl style, but finding the sweet spot between that and mumbling. I think I’m just less shy now. And I have more people in the room who can gas me up or keep me very humble. It’s nice to have people be so honest and helpful.

PAN M 360: Were there any albums or artists (or other media forms) that you had on repeat while making the album?

Ives: I was reading a lot, and I was watching some good movies in LA, too. I watched this movie Wake and Fright. Have you seen it?

PAN M 360: No I haven’t.

Ives: It’s a niche, indie Australian movie. It’s so fucking good. It’s about a teacher who goes on a bender weekend and gets stuck in the town called Yabba, where the thing to do is bet on coin tossing. It’s awesome. I also listened to Tusk by Fleetwood Mac a lot. It’s just really, really good songwriting. Really simple, I love Christie McVie’s songs. I have a lot of playlists, but I want to move away from that being my main way of listening to music. I could be a little more invested in albums as a complete art form.

PAN M 360: Have you watched any performances recently that you took something away from that influenced how you perform?

Ives: I really like the punkness of someone like Kathleen Hanna, who’s just so in love with performing. I love seeing genuine passion. I just saw Mitski, who’s amazing. She’s gotten a bit more stoic, which adds to the emotion, and I remember thinking, “I wanna do that.” I wanna put less pressure on myself to be like dancing or overextending myself if the song is kind of more emotional. You know, like, stop trying to milk it.

PAN M 360: I feel like we could easily talk about all the ways it’s a struggle to be an artist in 2026, but what do you feel is really great about being an artist today?

Ives: I feel like music is still one of the main cultural topics today. Gatekeeping is really big because people love discovering artists that they can actually align themselves with, and there’s kind of something for everyone. We all have phones, and teenagers are always scouring the internet for new stuff. It’s a bit more ‘hubs’ now, rather than like weird websites, but I think people want to find you. It’s really rare that no one cares.

On Tuesday, April 28, 2026, at 5 p.m., OpéraM3F and the Festival de la Voix will present a jazz program at the 9th Grand Hall in the Eaton Centre in downtown Montreal. Jazz pianist Chad Linsley and his quartet (Devon Gillingham on bass, Rich Irwin on drums, and Michael Cartile on trumpet) will share the stage with soprano Kerry-Anne Kutz and mezzo-soprano Kristin Hoff, who is also the artistic director of OpéraM3F. This inspiring collaboration between multi-talented singers (opera, jazz, Broadway, and pop) and jazz musicians is explained here by Chad and Kristin.

INFOS & TICKETS HERE

Questions for Chad Linsley :

PAN M 360 : London Jazz News UK describes your style as discrete and delicate. You are certainly deeply rooted in the modern jazz piano tradition. How would you describe the main influences on your playing?

Chad Linsley : Like many jazz pianists, Oscar Peterson is a huge hero who shows so many possibilities at the keyboard. My father took me to see him play when I was 11 years old at the jazz festival in Saskatoon, SK along with Dave Brubeck, George Shearing, Jay McShann, and Jaki Byard. While attending a high school summer jazz workshop in Regina, I was given an excellent short list of recordings to check out from Herbie Hancock and McCoy Tyner. With so much great music to explore, it was easy to feel overwhelmed by all the recommendations and so more personal and unexpected encounters began to emerge and impact – hearing Bud Powell playing his composition Celia, Bill Evans backing up Tony Bennett, anything by Shirley Horn, Errol Garner playing “The Way You Look Tonight”, Horace Silver’s funky comping with the Jazz Messengers etc.

PAN M 360: Your approach is deeply rooted in New York jazz piano culture. Since Montreal is close to New York City and that New York aesthetic resonates with us, we’ve been familiar with it and appreciated it ever since Oscar Peterson was a young lion in the late 1940s.

Chad Linsley: Absolutely! I was very fortunate to visit there for the first time in 1999 thanks to Iwan Edwards, my large ensemble choral professor at McGill who invited me and some classmates to sing with the St Lawrence Choir at Carnegie Hall with the MSO. For a kid from small town Saskatchewan, this was the adventure of a lifetime! While I was there, I also got to hear and meet Chick Corea at the Blue Note. Though I’ve seen many musicals in London’s West End, I hope to experience a classic Broadway show in NYC someday! My great aunt would dub her vinyl albums of musicals onto cassettes for me so naturally I learned a lot of lyrics to show tunes that way.

PAN M 360 : You’ve performed with jazz singers; I’m familiar with your work with Renee Yoxon, among others. Can you tell us what inspires you when you perform in a piano-and-voice format?

Chad Linsley: Ever since I heard Shirley Horn and the Tony Bennett and Bill Evans albums, I’ve craved this level of feeling or immersion in a song with everything I do. The duo recordings of Alan Broadbent and Irene Kral also come to mind along with great arrangers like Nelson Riddle, Marty Paich, Henry Mancini, Robert Farnon, Clare Fischer, and Vince Mendoza.

PAN M 360 : This time, you’re working with classically trained opera singers. What’s the challenge this time? How will those voices blend with a jazz ensemble?

Chad Linsley: I’ve worked with Kerry-Anne for many years (a fellow Saskatchewanian!) She has such incredible versatility in a variety of musical genres which she shares in common with her husband, Michael Cartile who truly makes the trumpet sing! I’m looking forward to the release of their album next month. Working with Kristin Hoff will be a new experience for me but from what I hear from recordings, her instrument is rich, flexible and she certainly knows how to bring lyrics to life!

PAN M 360 : Is the group performing at this concert your regular ensemble? Do you plan to include improvisations between the vocal pieces? Do you encourage the opera singers to improvise?

I regularly collaborate with drummer Rich Irwin and we played a show with bassist Devon Gillingham backing up Jennifer Gasoi, a fabulous singer-songwriter. The fun and flexibility of this group feels like home. As a trio we will definitely be improvising but you’ll have to come check out this unique combination of musical worlds!

Questions for Kristin Hoff:

PAN M 360 : What inspired you to create this dialogue between opera singing and modern jazz?

Kristin Hoff: When Kerry-Anne and I discussed a collaboration between Festival de la voix and 9e Musique@17h, she was quick to suggest programming Chad Linsley and his band for a jazz show. Selfishly, I was thrilled – I’ve always loved singing jazz. In my early 20s, I was studying vocal jazz more seriously than classical singing, and although my path shifted, I never fully left it behind.

I incorporate jazz repertoire here and there in my programming, and there’s always a bit of nostalgia for me in coming back to it… perhaps feelings about what could have been. It always feels like reconnecting with an earlier part of myself, and it’s such a joy to get to do that alongside some of Montreal’s incredible jazz musicians.

PAN M 360 : There have been some collaborations between jazz and opera singers, such as Brad Mehldau and Renee Fleming. I’m sure you’ve looked into this. What are some examples?

Kristin Hoff: Singers like Eileen Farrell and Anne Sofie von Otter have made beautiful jazz recordings. Both Anne Sofie and Renée Fleming have collaborated with Brad Mehldau. I think those projects work best when there’s a real understanding of both worlds. Someone like Mehldau, who started out as a classical musician, moves so naturally between classical and jazz. You can feel that depth and understanding in those collaborations – it never sounds forced.

PAN M 360 : How operatic voices can fit with a jazz ensemble? What are the challenges?

Kristin Hoff: I can’t really speak for others, but when I sing jazz, I’m not approaching it as an “opera” singer. That may be because, even within classical music, I’ve always been especially drawn to new work and creation. In my work with my opera creation company, Musique 3 Femmes, I’m interested in developing opera that feels current and connected to how we experience music today. Contemporary opera already invites more flexibility than traditional repertoire – it asks for a different vocal approach, and a greater sense of freedom. That’s something I really respond to. Whether I’m singing contemporary opera, musical theatre, or jazz, I’m always looking for that sense of immediacy – something that feels alive in the moment and genuinely connected to the audience.

PAN M 360 : The phrasing, the rhythm, and the melodic scales (often modal) are quite different, so how can you and Kerry-Anne Kutz adapt to those jazz characteristics without compromising your own training and cultural background?

Kristin Hoff: Kerry-Anne and I both come to this with a lot of experience in pop, Broadway, and jazz, alongside our classical work. For me, there’s never felt like a compromise in moving between those worlds. If anything, it feels really natural. I’ve found that my voice responds to that kind of exploration – to following instinct, to letting the palette expand a bit. Singing other styles has only ever served my classical work, and at the same time, my classical training gives me a kind of flexibility and colour that I bring into jazz. It all feeds each other in a way that feels very honest to me.

PAN M 360 : In 2026, there are countless opportunities to experience jazz and classical music—far more than ever before, even when you consider the past century (Gershwin, Ellington, Ravel, Varèse, etc.). What are your thoughts on this?

Kristin Hoff: Love it! Love it! So much stunning music we can share !

Performing Artists

Chad Linsley, pianist, is “discreet and delicate” with “layers of poignance.” – London Jazz News UK & JazzTimes
Devon Gillingham, bassist
Rich Irwin, percussionist
Michael Cartile, trumpet
Kerry-Anne Kutz, soprano
Kristin Hoff, mezzo-soprano and Artistic Director of OpéraM3F at the 9th Grand Hall, has “an appealing clarity and emotional weight.” – New York Times

Program
Juicy Lucy (Horace Silver)
Windmills of Your Mind (Michel Legrand)
Angel Eyes (Matt Dennis/Earl K. Brent)
Wheatland (Oscar Peterson)
Polka Dots and Moonbeams (Jimmy Van Heusen/Johnny Burke)
We Are One Again (Kerry-Anne Kutz)
Et, si tu n’existais pas (Joe Dassin)
Nigerian Marketplace (Oscar Peterson)
On the Sunny Side of the Street (Jimmy McHugh/Dorothy Fields)

The drummer Valérie Lacombe has just released an album titled State of Garden and Shadow (which I discuss more specifically in this review HERE). On April 29, 2026, at the Lion d’Or in Montreal, she will launch this first album, coincidentally, on International Jazz Day. I spoke with the young artist in the following interview.

PanM360: Hello Valérie. What is your musical background?

Valérie Lacombe: I was introduced to music in elementary school, in an arts-education program in music in Laval, specifically at Des Cèdres school.

PanM360: That’s very funny! My wife teaches at that school!

Valérie Lacombe: Oh really? I was there at the end of the 1990s.

PanM360: She arrived a little later.

Valérie Lacombe: I really enjoyed this journey. I learned a lot there. It’s a solid training program. There were excellent professors, including one named Frédéric Brunel. He also played the piano. I took a few private lessons with him, and he introduced me to jazz a bit. At school, I was learning the violin. I played it for a long time, but I stopped because I didn’t see myself having a career as a professional violinist. I went to University, studying anthropology, and at some point, I missed music, so I decided to enrol in a CEGEP course (at Vanier), on the side, telling myself I would do it for fun.

PanM360: And you chose the drums?

Valérie Lacombe: Yes. It attracted me, maybe because my father had one at home. He had played it in his youth, for fun, with friends. It was kept stored in boxes. I wasn’t really allowed to touch them when I was young. They said it made noise. But my curiosity had always been there.

PanM360: But you didn’t know how to play?

Valérie Lacombe: No! 10 days before entering college, I learned that I had to prepare for an audition! I thought they were going to teach me how to play! Eventually, I succeeded, and then I fell in love with the instrument and with jazz. I dropped anthropology, completed my college studies, and got into McGill.

PanM360: A beautiful and unusual journey! Was it intimidating for you to feel that you were starting on an instrument while most others had already mastered theirs for a longer time?

Valérie Lacombe: I put a lot of pressure on myself to succeed, but the feeling I had was to reconnect with the world I knew, the world of music that I had known at École Des Cèdres. I couldn’t believe that music could be my life, that people studied it at school like I had done in elementary school, full-time. I wanted to work hard even if I started later.

I believed a lot in my potential and above all, I was so in love with music that I didn’t feel I had any other choice. I had the feeling that I had been looking for a long time to get involved in a project that resonated with me to this extent. I considered myself really lucky even though it was certainly not easy to prepare for an audition at McGill when I had only been playing for a year and a half.

PanM360: Who did you study with?

Valérie Lacombe: With Jim Doxas.

PanM360: Great musician. Very, very solid.

Valérie Lacombe: Yes, indeed! Then I also studied with André White, Kevin Dean, Dave Lang, Darryl Green. I have now completed my master’s degree.

PanM360: How did you become familiar with the jazz repertoire? Who were your first role models?

Valérie Lacombe: When I started at Vanier, I knew nothing about jazz. An example I often mention when I talk about my first year there is that I wasn’t sure if John Coltrane played the trumpet or the saxophone! Lol. Then someone I met made me a mixtape with their favourite drummers. A playlist that I listened to quite a bit. On that list, there was Soul Station by Hank Mobley. Then, a friend made me listen to Night Train by Oscar Peterson. With Elvin Jones on drums. There, I started copying what the drummers were doing. I was in my rehearsal room and I was trying to “play along.” I was listening to the album and paying attention to what the drummer was playing and trying to reproduce it. I did it a lot with Ed Thigpen. Then with Jimmy Cobb. I feel that they are really the ones who taught me how to find a good feel on the cymbal.

I spent hours and hours and hours and hours on it. There is also Max Roach, whom I studied a lot. More for the language, in his case. He is a drummer who has spent a lot of time crafting a discourse to make all the parts of the drum kit speak.

The hi-hat, the bass drum, the snare, the toms. There is an extremely melodic language when he improvises. I spent a lot of time transcribing his solos.

PanM360: And finally, the album?

Valérie Lacombe: It’s my Master’s project. We have to record an hour of original music.

PanM360: And the musical universe is one without a piano. Why?

Valérie Lacombe: I would say that my main source of inspiration for composition is the one I associate with Elvin Jones’ band. I must also mention André White, who has an influence on the world he creates in his compositions, in this way.

PanM360: Do you feel as much like an accompanist as a composer, or has composing made you want to delve into it even more?

Valérie Lacombe: Mainly, I feel like a musician. I love playing, accompanying musicians who present their own original music because it’s personal. You enter their world. You discover other facets of their musical personality. Then, it was the same feeling I had with myself of sitting down and listening to the sounds I heard, and then creating pieces from that.

PanM360: The album has a common thread, an extra-musical inspiration…

Valérie Lacombe: Yes, I went to pick from an author named Clarice Lispector, in a short novel she wrote called Àgua Viva. More specifically, a quote in there, State of Garden and Shadow.

PanM360: What does it mean?

Valérie Lacombe: When I read this book, it was a significant period of transformation for me because I was about to finish my studies, and I had grown immensely as a musician, but also as a composer.

It’s a book I had read just before starting the composition process, and this quote had really struck me. She is an author who writes in a very vivid manner. Sometimes a sentence will make me think and then travel a lot, and then this sentence, State of Garden and Shadow, it makes me connect with the feeling of taking the time, of taking care of a garden. It takes patience, it takes a lot of work, but there is so much beauty that comes out of it.

It’s just an image that really resonated with what I was experiencing at McGill. From an aesthetic point of view, there is also what attracts me in the sounds I hear, the balance of darkness and beauty.

PanM360: And the three members who complete your quartet, they are all from McGill. Good connections?

Valérie Lacombe: Yes, very good. Musicians that I really like. Camille Thurman, Caoilainn Power, and Ira Coleman. Caoilainn, I’ve been playing with her for a long time. I already had a sextet in the years 2016-2017, and she was part of it. She plays the alto saxophone, and I love her way of playing. Camille Thurman and then Ira Coleman, musicians I admire. For me, it was the ideal band, even when I was writing before I even knew if they would agree to record with me, it was their sound that I imagined.

PanM360: How do you feel about having them with you on your first album?

Valérie Lacombe: It’s a great privilege. I really felt while recording that I was with professionals, and I was touched to know that they wanted to support me in this project. They really understood the aesthetic of the album, the kind of music I was referring to.

PanM360: I find that you do a lot with finesse. I find that you do a lot with finesse. You are capable of power, but there is never any bluster. And you like to draw fine lines, don’t you? Do the classical years, the violin, have an influence?

Valérie Lacombe: I think it indeed forged something very solid.

PanM360: The launch will take place on April 29, the eve of International Jazz Day.

Valérie Lacombe: Yes, I am very happy. Since 2015, we have been celebrating this day in Montreal (it had started a few years earlier elsewhere in the world). It’s a very beautiful occasion.

PanM360: What’s next?

Valérie Lacombe: A bit of a crazy project that will start on May 11 and run until June 5. I will present my project, State of Garden in Shadow, across Canada.

I’ve booked concerts all over Canada. Then, I hire local musicians. I will leave Montreal by car. I will drive to Vancouver.

I would also like to book a tour in Eastern Canada. Then, well, slowly, I’m thinking about the next album.

INFO AND TICKETS FOR THE ALBUM LAUNCH ON APRIL 29, 2026

This Sunday, April 26, at the Sala Rossa, the organization Codes d’accès presents *Constellations corporelles*, a program featuring emerging composers from Quebec who explore “the body and the unusual aspects of staging.”

Gabo Champagne and Rebecca Gray have collaborated on a musical theater piece that pushes the emotional boundaries of the audience and the physical limits of the singer, blending classical singing with performance art.

“Assembly Line Apparitions,” by Nicholas Ma, is a work for cello and electronics. All electronic elements are created from cello recordings, edited to appear as ghostly apparitions during the live performance. This piece is presented in collaboration with the Vivier Interuniversitaire (ViU).

The duo Gabriela Tomé and Christophe Lengelé present Caos Celestial by Archivos for electronics, guitar, and voice, 2024 (25 min), a performance blending electronic music, guitar, visuals, and voice, inspired by the theory of black holes and cosmic forces.

Alexis Blais presents Crowdwork, for violin, viola, and speakers placed on the audience’s laps, inspired by the interactions observed between a performer and their audience.

Alexis explains the ins and outs to us.

PAN M 360: Tell us about your background!

Alexis Blais : After training as a classical pianist, I earned a bachelor’s degree in electroacoustics at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal under Louis Dufort. There, I learned the fundamentals of acousmatics and developed my own edgy, raw compositional style, with pieces such as *Skand* (2021) and *animal_farm* (2022). I then completed a master’s degree in composition and sound design at the University of Montreal with Ana Dall’Ara-Majek. There, I conducted research on types of collaboration in electroacoustic music and began composing mixed-media music, a practice I had not previously pursued. Crowdwork is one of the pieces I composed during this period. I also compose for the stage, creating music for dance and theater productions.

PAN M 360: What are your aesthetic preferences in music?

Alexis Blais : In electroacoustic music, I appreciate works that emphasize the malleability and abstraction of the material, using an organic approach.

PAN M 360: You’ve composed a piece for viola and speakers placed on the audience’s laps, and you say you drew inspiration from the interactions between a comedian and their audience. Can you explain the reasoning behind these choices? What kind of speakers are they? How does the interaction between a comedian and their audience inspire you?

Alexis Blais : Crowdwork was conceived as a reimagining of a classic comedy routine, alternating between moments of monologue and moments of interaction with the audience. Hélios, on the violin, plays the role of the comedian on stage and cracks jokes at his instrument, to which the eight speakers in the audience—which I operate live—respond.

These speakers are old living room speakers I found for a few dollars at a thrift store. They play electroacoustic transformations of studio recordings of Hélios’s instrument, serving as reactions to his jokes. The inspiration for the piece came to me while I was thinking about the audience’s role in contemporary music. I wanted to find a way to integrate the audience into the piece’s narrative. The parallel with stand-up comedy came quite naturally.

In this type of performance, audience participation and their reactions are almost as important as the performer’s role on stage. The audience chuckles, is surprised, takes offense, or walks out, sometimes even influencing the course of the act. I felt there was something truly musical about these interactions, which is why I wanted to set them entirely to music.

PAN M 360: What are your upcoming projects?

Alexis Blais : I am currently working on the presentation of a collaborative acousmatic work titled *Les brasiers mobiles*. It is a semi-narrative piece featuring Amaryllis Tremblay reading texts by Hannah Arendt, drawn from her book *The Nature of Totalitarianism*. I am also working on the composition of a new semi-narrative long-form piece in the same vein, which can be experienced in a concert hall like a film without images.

Publicité panam

PROGRAM

Nicholas Ma, Assembly Line Apparitions, for solo cello and electronics (6’30”). 2025.

Jaeyoung Chong, cello

Gabo Champagne/Rebecca Gray “Funnelleries,” 2025 (25’)

Gabo Champagne, composition

Rebecca Gray, composition and vocals

INTERMISSION

Alexis Blais “Crowdwork” for violin and electronics, 2025 (10’)

Alexis Blais, composition

Hélios Paradis, violin

Gabriela Tomé and Christophe Lengelé “Caos Celestial de Archivos” for electronics, guitar, and voice, 2024 (25’)

Gabriela Tomé, composition and guitar

Christophe Lengelé, composition and electronics

Next Sunday April 26 at Sala Rossa, Codes d’accès promotes Constellations corporelles, this program gathers emerging composers from Quebec who explore « the body and unusual aspects of staging ».

Alexis Blais presents a piece for violin viola and speakers placed on the audience’s lap, inspired by the interactions observed between a comedian and his audience. Gabo Champagne and Rebecca Gray have composed together a piece of musical theater that pushes the emotional limits of the audience, and the physical limits of the singer, by fusing classical singing with performance art.The duo Gabriela Tomé and Christophe Lengelé offer a performance of electronic music, guitar, visuals and voice, inspired by the theory of black holes and cosmic forces.

Nicholas Ma’s “Assembly Line Apparitions” is a work for cello and electronics. All the electronic elements are created from cello recordings, edited to appear as ghostly apparitions beneath the live performance. This piece is presented in collaboration with the Vivier Interuniversitaire (ViU).

Publicité panam

Here is our PAN M 360 conversation with Nicholas Ma, who explains briefly and clearly his creative process for his piece, and tells us about his emerging career.

PAN M 360: Please tell us about your academic and professional background.

Nicholas Ma : I am a composer and pianist currently completing a Master’s degree in Composition at McGill University, where I also completed my undergraduate studies as a double major in Piano Performance and Composition with a minor in Music Theory. My work has been performed by ensembles such as Esprit Orchestra, and I have received multiple Young Composer Awards from the SOCAN Foundation. Alongside my compositional practice, I serve as President of the McGill Association of Student Composers and am on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Composers Orchestra. I have also previously served on the Vivier InterUniversitaire Committee, the NextGen Advisory Council, as Composition Area Representative for the McGill Music Graduate Students’ Society, and as co-founder of the Off-Topic Ensemble.

PAN M 360: What are your aesthetic preferences in composition?

Nicholas Ma : My music often explores the interaction between rhythmic vitality, playfulness, and contemplative rigor. I am particularly interested in situations where energetic or humorous surface materials coexist with deeper structural or expressive foundations. This layering between immediacy and reflection is a fascinating area to engage listeners quickly while sustaining longer-range musical meaning beneath the surface.

PAN M 360: How do you view the interplay between electronic and acoustic instruments in your works?

Nicholas Ma : In my work, electronics can function in several different relationships to acoustic instruments such as mirroring instrumental gestures, blending closely enough to create perceptual illusions about what the live performer is producing, or contrasting sharply with the acoustic sound world. In Assembly Line Apparitions, the electronics consist of a fixed track created entirely from recordings of cellist Jaeyoung Chong, for whom the piece was written, so that he performs alongside transformed versions of his own earlier sounds. This effectively creates an interaction with a recorded “ghost” version of his instrumental past, which is what the “apparitions” in the title refers to.

PAN M 360: Please explain the structure of the piece on the program.

Structurally, this piece mimics a late-night factory shift. The music moves between tightly looped rhythmic cells and more abstract textures. The middle section breaks away from the groove into sustained tones and metallic effects, before returning to a denser, more distorted version of the opening material. The “assembly line” in the title refers to two things: the repetitive, mechanical groove that drives the piece, and the step-by-step process of transforming acoustic recordings into electronic material and then back to acoustic. In this way, the piece itself was constructed like an assembly line: from performance, to editing and transformation, then finally back into performance again.

PAN M 360: What are the challenges of performing this piece?

Nicholas Ma : The piece includes several free-time sections in which the cellist listens to the transformed electronic material and responds to it via improvisation. These passages require the performer to make interpretive decisions about how closely to blend with the electronic track or strongly to differentiate themselves from it. While these passages can be demanding in terms of responsiveness and improvisational judgment, they allow the live performer to participate further in the assembly-line feedback loop that shapes the work.

PAN M 360: What are your upcoming projects?

Nicholas Ma : One of my upcoming projects is a work for saxophone quartet and multimedia electronics on the theme of doomscrolling, combining the fragmentation of attention spans, algorithmic gratification, and cat memes together in order to examine how platform-mediated listening environments are reshaping contemporary attention and musical perception.

7ième Ciel Records has just released Misstape II, an EP featuring singer/rapper Zach Zoya and his fellow producer, beatmaker, and DJ High Klassified. HK’s R&B repertoire provided more than enough solid material to support Zach Zoya’s smooth melodies, sultry lyrics, and sensual voice across seven heartfelt, infectious, and feverish tracks. This is a dish that will soon be served on stage, notably at the Montreal International Jazz Festival. Until then, let’s chat with the two friends and colleagues before they fly off abroad.

Watch this interview!

The finales of the Sylis d’Or 2026, organised annually by Nuits d’Afrique Productions, will take place on Thursday, April 23, at the National, in Montreal, of course. PanM360 met with each of the three competing groups to introduce them to you. In this interview, Zalam Kao.

INFO AND TICKETS FOR THE SYLIS D’OR FINAL

From the Minho to the Euphrates, two rivers separated by thousands of kilometres, one in Portugal and the other in present-day Iraq, more than a millennium of intercultural, religious, and artistic weaving contemplates us. This is somewhat the premise of the album From Minho to Euphrates by the Lebanese-Canadian singer and oud player Lamia Yared, her third after the two previous, very successful ones: Chants des Trois Cours (2019), and Ottoman Lights, praised right here. With her Spanish colleague Efrén López and several excellent artists from around the world, she explores a very rich repertoire made up of 4th-century Syriac chants, 12th-century Cantigas de Santa Maria from the court of Alfonso X, the Muwashahāt of Aleppo, as well as a rare 13th-century composition by Safi al-Din al-Urmawi, one of the great theorists of Middle Eastern music. Christianity coexists with Islam with serenity, Muslim maqams dialogue with hymns to the Virgin Mary. I met Lamia Yared to talk about it.

READ THE ALBUM REVIEW

DETAILS AND TICKETS for the album launch From Minho to Euphrates, on April 24, 2026, at the Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Bon-Secours in Old Montreal

PANM360: Hello Lamia. Tell us about the repertoire of this album. What is it about?

Lamia Yared: It is a repertoire that covers approximately 1500 years of the region’s history, ranging from the Iberian Peninsula to Mesopotamia (Iraq). I wanted to create a dialogue between 4th-century Syriac chants, those sung by the first Christians of the East, with mediaeval Christian chants such as the Cantigas de Santa Maria and from the Muslim repertoire such as the Muwashahat of Aleppo. These traditions have never met, so we were keen to offer choices and bring them all together on the same album. We even go as far as Persian influence because it was strong in Syriac music (the Syrians were invaded by the Persians in the 4th century). We can hear the influence of the maqams. We have gathered a great team, me and the Spanish multi-instrumentalist Efrén López, namely Omran Adrah (qanun), Miriam Encinas Laffitte (viola da gamba), Behnam Masoumi (tombak), and Tammam Ramadan (nay).

PANM360: What are maqams and Muwashahāt?

Lamia Yared: Yes, it’s true that I use a lot of words that are not well-known. The Muwashahāt is a complex vocal form that was developed in Syria in the 18th century, both in the rituals of Sufi brotherhoods and in secular singing. The whole region was influenced by the Hellenistic and Syriac heritage. Both in churches and in Sufi brotherhoods, one could hear the same musical spirit. So it’s part of the sound of the region. And this sound from the region, it’s the maqam school. And what is the maqam school? So it’s this music that has a certain microtonality. It’s not something you play on a piano, obviously. We sing these modes so we can perform something for the deceased or something to celebrate life. These are quarter tones.

PANM360: Was it difficult to bring these traditions together, to ensure the overall coherence?

Lamia Yared: We used microtonality in the Cantigas songs to get closer to the rest and to show their proximity on several levels, including the religious level of course. All these traditions, from the 4th century to the 12th century, then up to the Muwashahāt later, passing through the music of Safi al-Din al-Urmawi, they were all united in these texts, in these approaches, by microtonality. That’s the link.

PANM360: The Cantigas de Santa Maria have been played by Jordi Savall, among others. It is an absolute reference from which you had to stand out…

Lamia Yared: Yes, and it is through the use of microtonality, at least brought to the forefront more evidently, that we did it. Moreover, I use the voice I use when I sing Arabic music and Syriac chants, not the classical mediaeval technique. So it’s a bit more my personal version.

PANM360: What does this music represent for you, personally?

Lamia Yared: You know, I grew up in Quebec, I was six years old when I arrived here. I was born in Lebanon, and I went back there later, between 2009-2013. I then immersed myself in the music I wish I had known much earlier in my life. In truth, I knew them, unconsciously, because before the age of six, I went to mass with my family there. I heard those songs, those melodies. They were ingrained in me. But I had to relearn their language when I returned to Lebanon. It came to touch me deeply. These are the expressions of the early Christians of the East. I really like the archaeology behind all of this, the fact of drawing from something so ancient, and from an oral tradition that has been passed down for a very long time. I find it to be of great sincerity, it’s something, how can I say, very pure. I like to draw from music that doesn’t have a “flashy” aesthetic, and delve into the soul of the piece to find something that resonates with me, that I want to experience and transmit. Each piece of music I play, whether I sing it, be it a Muwashahāt, a cantiga, or a Syriac chant, it lives within me. I feel that I belong to these lands, even though I am here and I live in Montreal. I am conveying something very personal.

PANM360: Will we be able to hear the result in concert?

Lamia Yared: We will launch on April 24, 2026, in the very beautiful Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours Chapel, in Old Montreal. It’s a very appropriate place, steeped in history and spirituality, with magnificent acoustics. I invited Efrén López, and wonderful musicians from here like Marie-Laurence Primeau on the viola da gamba, Didem Bachar on the kanun, and Hamin Honari on percussion. We’ll also do a launch in Australia, because the World Within Worlds label is Australian. We also have a tour planned in November 2026.

PANM360: What impression do you want to leave on listeners and viewers?
Lamia Yared: Bringing together two traditions that flourished at the same time, but never met. We sang in a similar way in both the Christian and Muslim communities. We sang for the Virgin Mary in the Syriac language, in Aramaic, and in the now-extinct Galician language. It is a call for dialogue that is at the base of this approach. There is a way to talk to each other through art. It is also a dialogue with today’s audience, so that they feel something beyond religious history because this type of sacredness is no longer updated, but we can find reasons for ecumenical and secular rapprochement.

Irem Bekter has lived in Quebec for 18 years. Before that, she lived in Argentina, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and Turkey, her native country. Having worked in theater and dance, this multidisciplinary artist now focuses her work on music. Her broad cultural background and independent spirit have led her to release a new album, This Winding Road, on Friday, April 17. Produced by none other than the highly talented Jean Massicotte (Arthur H, Pierre Lapointe, etc.), this album takes us on the winding roads of her long journey, drawing inspiration from each stage: Ottoman melodic segments, Balkan influences, electric jazz, electrotango, dub-reggae, Spanish-language rap, groove, and more. The Montreal launch concert is scheduled for that same Friday (Le Ministère), after which Irem Bekter will perform in Sutton on April 25 (La SAG), in Toronto on April 30 (Drom Taberna), and in Quebec City on May 2 (Morrin Centre). And since it’s never too late to express oneself, Irem Bekter offers a dozen original songs in which she explores childhood, love, friendship, exile, and resilience through laughter, loss, and even forgetting. What’s more, Irem Bekter is also involved in supporting seniors with declining independence—another sign of her great humanity.

VISIONNEZ CETTE INTERVIEW !

Directed by Michel Faubert, a leading expert on the future perfect tense in traditional music, Le Vent du Nord’s new show returns home between two legs of its international tour. The flagship of the trad keb scene will focus primarily on the album *Voisinages*, interspersed with the group’s classics. It will also be an opportunity to discover the talent of André Gagné, a multi-instrumentalist and singer who has found his place within VDN. Dédé is, in fact, part of the conversation that follows; here, he joins Nicolas Boulerice to talk to us about this new show by the fiery quintet, featuring new staging, new set design, new projections, and new lighting. We’re chatting with Le Vent du Nord!

WATCH THIS INTERVIEW!

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How does one become a singer-songwriter capable of churning out hit after hit on FM radio? Let’s take a look at Gabriel Fredette, who has given us radio hits like Triste automne, À deux, À quoi ça sert, Serre-moi dans tes bras, and Je te choisirai, to name just a few. At 24, this former firefighter is undoubtedly one of the stars of Quebec and Francophone popular music, a true specialist in the art of expressing love through song. On the day of the release of his very first album, April 8, we met with him at Éditions Bloc-Notes so he could tell us about himself, just as he does in rhyme on the album Qui je suis, released on the Maison Rose label.

PAN M 360: I heard you started out as a firefighter. Are you still one?

Gabriel Fredette : No, I stopped doing that last August. Because at that time, I was focusing on music.

PAN M 360: Where are you from?

Gabriel Fredette :I’m from Saint-Hyacinthe.

PAN M 360: Were you a firefighter in Saint-Hyacinthe?

Gabriel Fredette : I was a firefighter in Trois-Rivières for a year and a half.

PAN M 360: Back in the day, Saint-Hyacinthe was the Liverpool of Quebec. So many bands from the 1960s flocked to Saint-Hyacinthe!

Gabriel Fredette : My grandfather had a band when he was young, but he never really talked to me about that time.

PAN M 360: So you went to work in Trois-Rivières. Did you start making music there?

Gabriel Fredette : I’ve always played music. I started playing the violin with my grandfather, who introduced me to music, and then my family paid for me to take violin lessons for about three years.

PAN M 360: And after that, you learned to play instruments—we can imagine what happened next.

Gabriel Fredette :That’s right. I play the piano and the guitar. Singing came later. It really took off in 2023, when I competed on La Voix—the recordings aired in 2024. That was my first real professional experience in music… A wonderful experience that taught me a lot.

PAN M 360: You were taught how to make good FM pop. Is that what you’re doing?

Gabriel Fredette : Yes. It’s French-language pop, but it’s also folk. I have some songs that are more folk-oriented and others that are pretty pop. There’s always a guitar—an acoustic guitar.

PAN M 360: Kind of like Ed Sheeran.

Gabriel Fredette : Yes, and Noah Kahan, Lewis Capaldi, and Chance Peña, too.

PAN M 360: I imagine you listened to singers like them when you were a teenager.

Gabriel Fredette : Yes, though I listened to a lot of Céline Dion—my dad is a huge fan. When I was a teenager, I mostly listened to songs in English. And I’d say my love for Quebec music came later. It’s become a cause for me. Quebec teens don’t listen to French-language music; I find that boring, and that’s why I wanted to dive into it 100%, but also by focusing on social media like TikTok and Instagram. It’s easily accessible for young people like me—I’m 24. There are a lot of young people between the ages of 10 and 20 who listen to music. I think it’s fun to bring these young people back to French-language music.

PAN M 360: Who are your influences in French-language music? Who do you admire?

Gabriel Fredette : I’d say Louis-Jean Cormier—one of the artists I listen to, especially for his lyrics. I also listen to Fredz, who is of French origin but lives in Quebec. I’ve also listened to quite a bit of KEB rap, like Koriass, Loud, or Rymz, who’s also from Saint-Hyacinthe. KEB rap lyrics have influenced me too, since I listened to a lot of it, just like people my age. I didn’t listen to much English-language rap, though.

PAN M 360: In any case, you have an innate sense of melody, catchiness, and the dramatic progression of a song!

Gabriel Fredette : Thank you. I want to capture the emotion.

PAN M 360: Your writing focuses on interpersonal relationships, especially romantic ones; there’s a lot of romance and innocence in it.

Gabriel Fredette : That’s not bad. These are personal relationships I’ve actually experienced. Intimate stories, yes.

PAN M 360: You decided to dive right in. You’re definitely not afraid of emotions!

Gabriel Fredette : Absolutely. I’m an open book; I’m capable of being vulnerable.

PAN M 360: That’s clear! You really open up. I don’t know how autobiographical it is, though.

Gabriel Fredette : All these stories are true, I’m telling you. They’re my stories or those of my friends, some of whom also write songs—like my friend Justin Roy. Also, I don’t always write my songs from start to finish; I sometimes collaborate with other artists. We rent cabins together sometimes, and we start writing songs.

PAN M 360: A classmate from your other group, the Middle Class.

Gabriel Fredette : There are four of us in Classe Moyenne (Phil Rxcket, Justin Roy, and Zach Chico)—everyone sings and plays multiple instruments. I get to bring out my violin! On stage, we’re joined by a DJ/producer, and there are lots of visuals. It’s a very different energy from my solo work. Each of us has original songs. The goal was to showcase each artist through this project. It’s pop, folk, and also country. We have all that in common, and we often write together. We also write for other artists.

PAN M 360: How has your work as a lyricist evolved?

Gabriel Fredette : I always try to broaden my horizons. I read other songwriters’ work, and sometimes poetry that I buy at the local bookstore. It’s become a hobby. But what matters most is having new experiences and turning them into songs.

PAN M 360: To be so comfortable expressing your emotions, you must have had really great parents who let you flourish in that way!

Gabriel Fredette : Absolutely. My mother is older than my father; she had already had a family before, and then she started a second family with my father. I get along well with everyone; I grew up in an environment where everyone really loves one another.

PAN M 360: Where are you based today?

Gabriel Fredette : I live with my musician friends in Saint-Mathieu-de-Laprairie, not far from Saint-Constant.

PAN M 360: Do you plan to continue “specializing” in pop-folk love songs?

Gabriel Fredette : Absolutely. I love the team I work with. I love the artistic direction I’m taking, and I also love the work my label, Maison Rose, is doing under Benjamin Nadeau’s leadership, as well as my editor Diane Pinet at Bloc-Notes, not to mention Martin Véronneau at Local 9 for radio tracking.

PAN M 360: Your stage performances seem to be focused more on the band Classe Moyenne, at least for now. At Club Soda this week!

Gabriel Fredette : Yes, we’ll be touring extensively over the next few months. The balance will shift after that. In 2027, my solo tour will take up more of my time, but I’m already performing songs from this new album, and I already have about twenty dates lined up for 2027.

PAN M 360: And who’s your audience? More girls than guys, right?

Gabriel Fredette :Yes. There are definitely a lot more girls.

PAN M 360: I’d say there are about four girls for every guy who comes to see you and is dating one of those four girls.

Gabriel Fredette : That’s right… But the audience is pretty diverse—it ranges from 16 to 40 years old.

PAN M 360: So you’re going to keep going in the same direction, I guess?

Gabriel Fredette : Well, yeah, that’s my niche. I’m in this field and I love what I do. I’m on X.

PAN M 360: This is your first album, but you’ve released several songs before.

Gabriel Fredette : Yes, since appearing on La Voix in 2024, I’ve been releasing singles. I also released a 6-song EP in November 2024 (Forêt Noire) and another 4-song EP last March (Je te choisirai).

PAN M 360: On stage?

Gabriel Fredette : Max Lalanne and Kaven Girouard are with me, and there are also pre-recorded segments to round out my two main acts. It’s more intimate than Classe Moyenne, which is all about the party. On May 9, I’ll be opening for a French artist, Yuston 13, at MTELUS.

PAN M 360: Thank you, and good luck with everything from here on out, young man!