Shirantha performing with the Chippewa Jazz Band. Submitted photo.
Chippewa Secondary School Music Department hosted its 1st annual Music Alumni Day on Friday.
Shirantha Beddage, a Juno nominated saxophonist, and Jenn Krabbe, a rising opera star, returned to Chippewa Secondary School to give workshops to current music students and to perform in an afternoon concert, said music teacher Marla Sunstrum,
The workshops ran from 9- 2 p.m. in the Theatre and the Music Room while the concert was held soon after in the Chippewa Theatre.
JUNO-nominated and Galaxie Rising Star award-winning musician Shirantha Beddage (D.M.A.) is a saxophonist, composer and educator from Toronto, Canada. An accomplished performer and composer, Shirantha has released two critically-acclaimed albums as leader. His most recent CD, Identity (Addo Records, 2012) was nominated for Traditional Jazz Album of the Year at the 2013 JUNO Awards. Shirantha also earned the 2013 Galaxie Rising Star Award at the Montreal Jazz Festival for compositions from this album. As a composer for film and television, his original compositions have been featured on the FX television series Fargo (2014) starring Billy Bob Thornton and Martin Freeman.
With a stage presence that has been called “joyously uninhibited” (Opera Canada), soprano Jennifer Krabbe is finding success on both the operatic and the concert stage. Originally from Northern Ontario, she is currently based in Toronto where she is studying with soprano Monica Whicher, and pianist Peter Tiefenbach. Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance from the University of Western Ontario, a Masters degree from University of Toronto as well as an Artist Diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Glenn Gould School, from which she graduated in the Spring of 2012.
Left to right: Ray Gauthier, Jennifer Krabbe, Shirantha Beddage - photo credit, Marilyn Sutherland
