Additional Information
Sarah Rossy has cherished this project for eight years. Putting the pieces of the puzzle together, financing, finding support, refining the production, recruiting performers, arranging, producing, recording, mixing, and presenting the material for Lucid on the stage of the Ministère, on a Thursday, September 25th, in front of her extended community, her family, and her close friends.
Sarah Rossy is not ordinary.
A trained pianist and singer, passionate about modern classical and modern jazz, in tune with the orchestral pop of her time, the Montrealer performed most of the tracks from Lucid, an album released the same evening, surrounded by 10 musicians and choristers, among the most competent of their generation in Montreal.
Like her colleague and friend Thanya Iyer, who was also a backing singer for this magical evening, Sarah Rossy offers an ambitious, rich and invigorating chamber pop. She chooses her colors: contemporary jazz, free improvisation, prog, avant-pop, synth-pop, vocalizations from the Levant (given her Lebanese origins), Great American Songbook, soft noise, all melted into a melting pot of virtuosity and orchestral cohesion. Superb integration!
It’s hard to predict what will become of this hot recording project, so skillfully transcribed on stage. A singing teacher and artist, she happily pursues her two careers simultaneously and tries to take her art further.
PAN M 360: Such an ambitious project at the beginning of a career takes a long time to complete. If we go back to the origins of its production?
Sarah Rossy: Part of the album was produced in a more traditional way, in 2017. Over the following years, we really reworked it, we also did a lot of digital production. These many layers of studio time took us a lot of hours!
PAN M 360: So you worked on this album for several years, then you took it further with a director accomplice.
Sarah Rossy: At the end of the process, in 2023, I decided I really wanted to finish the album. So I went to New York, where I have a good friend there, guitarist Jack Broza, who became the co-producer of the album. We worked together in his small studio for four days, and we went over all the layers of this music together: vocals, guitar, percussion, electronics, etc. I can’t even count them!
PAN M 360: A whole community of musicians has supported you on this long journey. Tell us about it!
Sarah Rossy: Yes, the album features some of the musicians from the original lineup I had when I started working on it: Frédéric-Alexandre Michaud (violin), Victor De Coninck (viola), Natalie Yergatian (drums, percussion) and Jonathan Arsenault (bass). These are all musicians I met through McGill University (Schulich School of Music), incredible humans from all over Canada – Gaspé, Ottawa, Acadia, Vancouver, etc. A pan-Canadian group, in a way. Each one was involved with incredible influences. I really chose those I worked with based on their personality and their heart. And then this group stopped until Jack Broza (guitar, bass, co-production) helped me finally conclude.
PAN M 360: Listening to your music, we quickly understand that you have a background in jazz and modern classical music. This doesn’t stop you from making songs close to chamber pop, from being in tune with the times. So, how does an educated musician create songs that are somewhere between cutting-edge music and pop?
Sarah Rossy: That’s a really good question. I think this album was really challenging because the songs I wrote were pop songs. When I was studying at the time, I felt a lot of judgment about what I was creating. You know, the academic way can be very cerebral, it’s less from the heart.
PAN M 360: Yes, musicians who try to master the past perfectly do not necessarily create something new.
Sarah Rossy: Exactly. But I’ve been really grateful to have incredible mentors who have shown me this open-mindedness, despite being in an academic space. People like John Hollenbeck and Christine Jensen. I’m so grateful! Because they’ve shown me that, yes, you don’t have to recreate what’s already happened—which I also love doing, by the way. And yes, you can have your own voice. Having mentors has been key.
PAN M 360: Finding the balance between the emotion of a song and the depth of the composition is indeed not easy in this context. How do you achieve this balance?
Sarah Rossy: In this particular case, it took a lot of thought, concentration, a powerful connection to my heart and not just my brain.
PAN M 360: As a singer, did you receive a classical education?
Sarah Rossy: I never studied classical singing. I started out as a pianist. And I started singing while I was studying piano.
PAN M 360: And you became a teacher.
Sarah Rossy: I teach music, mostly voice, sometimes jazz history, sometimes. This semester, I’m teaching four voice classes. Sometimes I teach music history, music appreciation, music literature…
PAN M 360: How did you want to transcribe this recording for this concert at the Ministère?
Sarah Rossy: I decided to mirror the process of this album. It was a long, collaborative effort, so I invited the original lineup, partnering with my most recent collaborators – Tommy Crane (drums), Claire Devlin (saxophone), Thanya Iyer (vocals), Ruiqi Wang (vocals) and Corey Gulkin (vocals).
PAN M 360: Extended Family!
Sarah Rossy: It’s incredible! It’s a huge circle of sharing and creative support. So 10 people on stage. We worked hard all week to adapt the material. We left space in the songs to breathe better and improvise. The intention behind all of this is the expression of our love and dedication to music. I’m so grateful that these wonderful artists made the trip for me, for this evening.
PAN M 360: And here we are at the top of something.
Sarah Rossy: It’s like a ceremony. So far, this album is the main legacy of my career.
PAN M 360: This means you are ready for the next steps!
Sarah Rossy: I hope so, yes. It’s my baby!
PAN M 360: What makes you proud?
Sarah Rossy: To have followed through with my ideas, without compromise. And to have been part of this extraordinary community of artists, all so important to me. So I think I honored the process by bringing them together on stage.
