Eliana is thrilled to be joining the Bent River Records team as an associate for the 2019-2020 year! They are looking forward to being involved in many aspects of the team, including but not limited to community outreach, volunteer coordination, distribution, and marketing. Eliana is currently completing their Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance at MacEwan University. Outside of time spent at MacEwan, Eliana is a music educator, multidisciplinary artist and craftsperson, burlesque dancer, and community organizer. They recently started their own project, WARA WARA, which combines sounds of folk and rock to create music and poetry that is raw, vulnerable, and politically charged.

Cam is in his third year of studies in the design program at MacEwan. He has a passion for branding, playing with typography, rock climbing, and has always been intrigued by album cover artwork. It’s always neat to see the choices that artists make; how letterforms interact with images on the page, etc. He’ll use any opportunity he gets to incorporate hand-lettered type into his projects. When a project in his second year typography class turned out to be a competition to design an album cover, he was super excited. And after being selected as the winner of the record cover design competition, Cam took interest in the record label and thought it would be a great opportunity to take a deeper dive into the workings of the music industry. This year he’ll be working as an associate for the label, focusing on graphic design. Can’t wait to see what the future holds!

As a third year design student, Liam is very excited to start working with the Bent River Records team this year! “I am passionate about music and have been drawn to and inspired by album artwork for as long as I can remember, and am ready to see how my interests and inspirations can contribute to the success of Macewan’s label. Beyond design I am a practicing mixed-media printmaker working out of SNAP studios, and successfully held my first solo exhibition titled “Fear of the Void” at the end of August.” —Liam

Shantel Heit will be one of our student interns for the fall term. She will be in charge of running all of our social media platforms and ensuring that all of you know all of the exciting things going on here at Bent River Records.

“I can’t wait to be working alongside and learning from the wonderful team here at Bent River for the fall term. This experience will give me the chance to see how a record label is run and give me the first-hand knowledge that I will need to understand the ins and outs of the music industry.”

—Shantel Heit

Shantel is just beginning her third year into her Bachelor of Music degree. She plans to finish with a General major with a Business of Music minor.  She has moved all the way from Warman, Saskatchewan to be a vocalist in the music program at Macewan. 

Nathalie Parent is our other new practicum student on the Bent River Records team, taking on responsibilities within the realm of digital distribution and recording work.

As a fourth year recording and production major at MacEwan, Nathalie is eager to learn the ins and outs of working for Bent River, furthering her knowledge of the recording arts. 

“Running a studio session and running a record label are two very different things, but they go hand in hand. I can’t wait to be a part of the team and support Bent River’s musicians in their exciting projects, while also learning how to be a professional in a part of the music industry that’s new to me.”

—Nathalie Parent

Nathalie has been working as a freelance producer and engineer for the past year and is a 2019 MusiCounts scholarship recipient in the recording stream. She is also the lead singer of her Edmonton-based band, National Hotel, which can be found on all streaming platforms.

We’ve been busy here at Bent River Records, and are once again stoked to announce that we want to hear your original music! And not only that, we want to help you release an EP produced by renowned producer, Russell Broom, who has worked with Jan Arden and SheDaisy, among many, MANY others! That’s right, ATB Financial presents the Bent River Records 2019 Recording Competition. 

So how does this work? Between September 12th, and October 15th, simply submit your, or your band’s, biography, two recent recordings or demos, links to existing websites and social media, a CV or resume, and one hi-resolution photo. You’ll need a Google account to upload your submissions (it’s quick and free to sign up if you don’t have one). If you have any questions about your submission, please contact BentRiverRecords@MacEwan.ca at least 24 hours before the deadline. Then, your job is done! We’ll choose our winner, who will win the chance to record a three-song EP with Russell. That includes all mixing, mastering, other studio fees, album art, and the manufacture of 150 CD-Rs for your personal use. This one’s on us!

To top it all off, our winner will also receive a time slot to perform at the 2020 Bent River Records Artist Spotlight on Wednesday, April 22, 2020. So what are you waiting for? Send your music our way; we can’t wait to hear from you!

*THE COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED*
Thank you to all of our wonderful applicants! Stay tuned for updates!

Bent River Records is back with a brand-new semester which means brand-new contests, albums, and shows coming your way. We’ve been hard at work all summer planning for the upcoming year and it is going to be jam packed with exciting announcements, so stay tuned! Our artists have been keeping busy writing and performing brand new music all summer and can’t wait to share what they’ve been working on.

Over the summer, Paul, Erin, and Emily went on a trip to Prague for Allan Gilliland’s (Dean of FFAC) concerto recording with an all-star Canadian jazz quartet including PJ Perry, Chris Andrew, Neil Swainson, and Dave Laing, along with conductor Raymond Baril and a Prague recording orchestra. This recording is to be released this academic year, and that’s just one of many projects we’ve been working on.

Stay tuned for an exciting announcement with community partners coming next week! Not to give too much away… but it involves the Bent River Records Artist Spotlight which will be held on April 22, 2020, so mark your calendars!

Jazzfest is in full swing, folks! Have you purchased your tickets yet? From June 21^st until June 30^th, you can check out over 200 insanely talented musicians including some of our own locals! Not only do we have some of the Bent River Records roster with performance dates, but we also have MacEwan students, faculty and alumni who will be performing there as well. Check out the schedule below! 

In addition to all this wonderful news, Jazzworks is offering FREE MASTERCLASSES led by some of the performers of the TD Edmonton International Jazz Fest line-up!

SIGN UP HERE!

THU, JUNE 27 OLEG BUTMAN / NATALIA SMIRNOVA

at Varscona Theatre 3:00pm – 4:30pm

SAT, JUNE 29 ALFREDRO RODRIGUEZ & PEDRITO MARTINEZ 

at Varscona Theatre 3:00pm – 4:30pm

Get out to some shows and have an awesome Jazzfest!