Faces of Music & Sound

Stefan Schneider

Percussion, Canada
Career Development Residency

A graduate of McGill’s jazz performance program, Stefan Schneider works as a freelance drummer in Montreal, playing a wide variety of music in several ensembles – including the eclectic Bell Orchestre, who joined Stef in Banff for a one-month residency. While The Banff Centre had a profound impact on the members of the ensemble, the reverse is true as well! The Orchestre developed an eager and enthusiastic following for their unique style, which combines jazz and chamber music with hip hop and electronica in a moving synthesis they describe as a sound that “sails through the wide-open spaces of the soul.”

For the group – whose unique instrumentation includes violin, trumpet, French horn, bass, percussion, and electroacoustics – being in Banff was an opportunity to focus on their work as an ensemble, both by having their own studio to rehearse together in at any hour – day or night – and by being together in the same place for an entire month.

Before leaving Banff to attend Birmingham’s electroacoustic music festival, Stef said: “During the past six weeks, I have really been able to refuel my artistic inspiration and aspirations.” He sums up his Banff Centre experience with this: “I have been told by other artists who have done previous residencies that it would be a life highlight. They were right.”

Listen to a clip of the Bell Orchestre performing their own As seen through windows during their 2005 Banff residency.

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