Annabelle Chvostek
Encyclopedia
Annabelle Chvostek is a Canadian singer-songwriter based in Montreal
. She is known for her rich singing voice, compelling lyrics and genre-spanning musicality, as well as her Juno
-nominated work with harmony trio The Wailin' Jennys
.
, she is the daughter of Canadian television producer Milan Chvostek
(The Nature of Things
) and journalist Isobel Warren
. A musical prodigy, her first gig was with the Canadian Opera Company
when she was seven. She got her start in music singing with the Canadian Children's Opera Chorus
and performing on television specials with Anne Murray
and Tommy Hunter
. She played violin
with her dad and joined in on her mother's repertoire of Canadian folk songs. At 14 she started dabbling in audio production and multitrack composition with a four track tape recorder and a house full of musical instruments and objects to make noise with. At 16 she began writing and performing songs accompanied by guitar. She moved to Montréal in 1995 to study Interdisciplinary Fine Arts at Concordia University
, and in 1997 released her first recording, 1am to 5am. She launched her singer-songwriter career there with opening sets for Dar Williams
, Penny Lang, Veda Hille
, Kinnie Starr
and Tegan and Sara
, and started touring Canada sharing the stage with Rae Spoon
, Po' Girl
, Bob Snider
and many more. After joining The Wailin' Jennys in November 2004, she toured throughout North America, the UK and Australia, including the 2006 Edmonton Folk Music Festival
, featuring a surprise mainstage set with Bruce Cockburn
. There were multiple appearances on A Prairie Home Companion
, including a PBS broadcast on Great Performances
, live at Tanglewood
alongside Garrison Keillor
and Meryl Streep
, and a collaboration with Keillor and Bonnie Raitt
.
Chvostek's thirst for new horizons has led her to undertake numerous collaborative projects in music, dance and new media. She has created songs in collaboration with the bands Millipede and Lake of Stew, and with electroacoustic composer Ned Bouhalassa
. Her multi-disciplinary performance in 2004 with Anna Friz, The Automated Prayer Machine, toured Europe and Canada. She has produced soundscores for choreographers in Montréal and New York, including five works for choreographer Aviva Geismar/Drastic Action.
Her self-produced her first full length CD Full Stop in 2000, won wide attention, including a number 7 spot on the national campus radio
charts. That year, she also collaborated with Ned Bouhalassa
to produce Bija
, an experimental electro-acoustic project. She was a finalist the CBC big break awards, and released Water
in 2003 with support from the Canada Council
. In 2005 she created a stripped down solo EP
called Burned My Ass
which won wide attention, hit #1 in the roots category on the national campus radio charts, and helped land her a job with Juno
-winning folk
/roots
harmony trio The Wailin' Jennys
, with whom she sang alto and played guitar, mandolin and violin. The songs she contributed to the band's repertoire include "The Devil's Paintbrush Road", "Swallow", "Apocalypse Lullaby", and "Firecracker", all of which appear on the Wailin' Jennys' June 2006 release, Firecracker
, produced by David Travers-Smith. She left the Jennys in 2007 to return to composition and solo performance.
In 2008 Annabelle Chvostek released "Resilience
" produced by Roma Baran
(Laurie Anderson
) and Vivian Stoll (Isis
). It received rave reviews and was nominated for "Contemporary Album of the Year" at the Canadian Folk Music Awards.
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
. She is known for her rich singing voice, compelling lyrics and genre-spanning musicality, as well as her Juno
Juno Award
The Juno Awards are presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music...
-nominated work with harmony trio The Wailin' Jennys
The Wailin' Jennys
The Wailin' Jennys are a Juno Award-winning Canadian folk trio from Winnipeg, Manitoba, and New York, and they consist of soprano Ruth Moody, mezzo Nicky Mehta and alto Heather Masse. In previous years, the Jennys have also toured with fiddler and mandolinist Jeremy Penner, who is from Ruth's...
.
Life and career
Born in TorontoToronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, she is the daughter of Canadian television producer Milan Chvostek
Milan Chvostek
Milan Chvostek is a former producer/director at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He worked on A Case for the Court, The Lively Arts, This Hour Has Seven Days, Science Magazine and the CBC's flagship show The Nature of Things, a science documentary television show that has aired in nearly...
(The Nature of Things
The Nature of Things
The Nature of Things is a Canadian television series of documentary programs. It debuted on the CBC on November 6, 1960. Many of the programs document nature and the effect that humans have on it. The program was one of the first to explore environmental issues, such as clear-cut logging...
) and journalist Isobel Warren
Isobel Warren
Isobel Warren is a Canadian author and journalist. Her journalism background is in newspapers and magazines, radio and television. She was founder of Hands Magazine, at that time Canada's only national craft publication, and served as its editor throughout the 1980s...
. A musical prodigy, her first gig was with the Canadian Opera Company
Canadian Opera Company
The Canadian Opera Company is an opera company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest opera company in Canada and the third largest producer of opera in North America. The COC performs in its own opera house, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.-History:For 40 years until...
when she was seven. She got her start in music singing with the Canadian Children's Opera Chorus
Canadian Children's Opera Chorus
The Canadian Children's Opera Company was founded in 1968 by Ruby Mercer and Lloyd Bradshaw. The Chorus consists of five divisions of approximately 240 boys and girls aged 6 to 19. The Principal Chorus has over 80 choristers, and they participate as the children's chorus in productions by the...
and performing on television specials with Anne Murray
Anne Murray
Morna Anne Murray CC, ONS is a Canadian singer in pop, country and adult contemporary styles whose albums have sold over 54 million copies....
and Tommy Hunter
Tommy Hunter
Thomas James "Tommy" Hunter, CM, O.Ont is a Canadian country music performer, known as "Canada's Country Gentleman".-Career:...
. She played violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
with her dad and joined in on her mother's repertoire of Canadian folk songs. At 14 she started dabbling in audio production and multitrack composition with a four track tape recorder and a house full of musical instruments and objects to make noise with. At 16 she began writing and performing songs accompanied by guitar. She moved to Montréal in 1995 to study Interdisciplinary Fine Arts at Concordia University
Concordia University
Concordia University is a comprehensive Canadian public university located in Montreal, Quebec, one of the two universities in the city where English is the primary language of instruction...
, and in 1997 released her first recording, 1am to 5am. She launched her singer-songwriter career there with opening sets for Dar Williams
Dar Williams
Dar Williams is an American singer-songwriter specializing in pop folk.She is a frequent performer at folk festivals and has toured with such artists as Mary Chapin Carpenter, Patty Griffin, Ani DiFranco, The Nields, Shawn Colvin, Girlyman, Joan Baez, and Catie Curtis.-Biography:Williams was born...
, Penny Lang, Veda Hille
Veda Hille
Veda Hille is a Canadian singer-songwriter.- Biography :Veda Hille was born in 1968 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She started playing piano when she was 6 at her own insistence. Her family moved around a lot, from the city to the country and back again...
, Kinnie Starr
Kinnie Starr
Alida Kinnie Starr Pierre is a Canadian singer-songwriter from Calgary, Alberta. Her music, which blends hip hop and alternative rock, has been described as "hip hop aggro groove". Her songs have been included on the soundtracks for the TV series The L Word and the movie Thirteen...
and Tegan and Sara
Tegan and Sara
Tegan and Sara are a Canadian indie band composed of identical twin sisters Tegan Rain Quin and Sara Keirsten Quin . Both Tegan and Sara play guitar and keyboard and write songs.-History:...
, and started touring Canada sharing the stage with Rae Spoon
Rae Spoon
Rae Spoon is a Canadian transgender folk/indie singer/songwriter from Calgary, Alberta.His breakthrough album, 2008's Superioryouareinferior, was recorded in Calgary and introduced some electronic music elements into his style.-Biography:...
, Po' Girl
Po' Girl
Po' Girl is a Canadian group whose style derives from folk, country and jazz. The style of music they perform is called "urban roots."The band evolved from a series of jam sessions, in 2000, between Trish Klein of The Be Good Tanyas and Allison Russell, then of Fear of Drinking...
, Bob Snider
Bob Snider
Bob Snider is a singer/songwriter from Toronto via Nova Scotia, Canada.A folk musician, Snider plays almost exclusively songs he has written himself, although notable exception was at the Bear River Reunion, where he played a cover of an old blues tune....
and many more. After joining The Wailin' Jennys in November 2004, she toured throughout North America, the UK and Australia, including the 2006 Edmonton Folk Music Festival
Edmonton Folk Music Festival
The Edmonton Folk Music Festival is an annual four-day outdoor music event held the second weekend of August in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, established in 1980 by Don Whalen. The festival continues to draw many people from around the world as both spectators and performers. The current producer of...
, featuring a surprise mainstage set with Bruce Cockburn
Bruce Cockburn
Bruce Douglas Cockburn OC is a Canadian folk/rock guitarist and singer-songwriter. His most recent album was released in March 2011. He has written songs in styles ranging from folk to jazz-influenced rock to rock and roll.-Biography:...
. There were multiple appearances on A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion is a live radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor. The show runs on Saturdays from 5 to 7 p.m. Central Time, and usually originates from the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota, although it is frequently taken on the road...
, including a PBS broadcast on Great Performances
Great Performances
Great Performances, a television series devoted to the performing arts, has been telecast on Public Broadcasting Service public television since 1972...
, live at Tanglewood
Tanglewood
Tanglewood is an estate and music venue in Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It is the home of the annual summer Tanglewood Music Festival and the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, and has been the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home since 1937. It was the venue of the Berkshire Festival.- History...
alongside Garrison Keillor
Garrison Keillor
Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio personality. He is known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio...
and Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
, and a collaboration with Keillor and Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
.
Chvostek's thirst for new horizons has led her to undertake numerous collaborative projects in music, dance and new media. She has created songs in collaboration with the bands Millipede and Lake of Stew, and with electroacoustic composer Ned Bouhalassa
Ned Bouhalassa
Ned Bouhalassa is a composer of film scores, television scores, and electroacoustic music. Bouhalassa is a Canadian citizen, and has been residing in Montreal since 1967....
. Her multi-disciplinary performance in 2004 with Anna Friz, The Automated Prayer Machine, toured Europe and Canada. She has produced soundscores for choreographers in Montréal and New York, including five works for choreographer Aviva Geismar/Drastic Action.
Her self-produced her first full length CD Full Stop in 2000, won wide attention, including a number 7 spot on the national campus radio
Campus radio
Campus radio is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively by students, or may include programmers from the wider community in which the radio station is based...
charts. That year, she also collaborated with Ned Bouhalassa
Ned Bouhalassa
Ned Bouhalassa is a composer of film scores, television scores, and electroacoustic music. Bouhalassa is a Canadian citizen, and has been residing in Montreal since 1967....
to produce Bija
Bija (album)
Bija is a limited-release down tempo electro-pop song project, created in 2000 by Annabelle Chvostek in collaboration with electro-acoustic producer Ned Bouhalassa.-Track listing:#"'Thanatology'" – 4:41#"'Silence & Love'" – 5:13...
, an experimental electro-acoustic project. She was a finalist the CBC big break awards, and released Water
Water (Annabelle Chvostek album)
-Track listing:#"Voyons Donc"#"Madonna Loves Me"#"The Great Divide"#"In the Movie"#"Sirens"#"Water"#"Holy"#"Blood Love Stone"#"Melt"#"Gamble"#"129"#"Weeping Willow"#"Mrs. Brown Says"-External links:* from * from CD Baby...
in 2003 with support from the Canada Council
Canada Council
The Canada Council for the Arts, commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown Corporation established in 1957 to act as an arts council of the government of Canada, created to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts. It funds Canadian artists and...
. In 2005 she created a stripped down solo EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
called Burned My Ass
Burned My Ass
Burned My Ass is an album released in 2004 by Annabelle Chvostek.The initial track, "Devil's Paintbrush Road", was re-worked by The Wailin' Jennys for the album Firecracker.-Track listing:# "Devil's Paintbrush Road"# "Moya Hlava"...
which won wide attention, hit #1 in the roots category on the national campus radio charts, and helped land her a job with Juno
Juno Award
The Juno Awards are presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music...
-winning folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
/roots
Traditional music
Traditional music is the term increasingly used for folk music that is not contemporary folk music. More on this is at the terminology section of the World music article...
harmony trio The Wailin' Jennys
The Wailin' Jennys
The Wailin' Jennys are a Juno Award-winning Canadian folk trio from Winnipeg, Manitoba, and New York, and they consist of soprano Ruth Moody, mezzo Nicky Mehta and alto Heather Masse. In previous years, the Jennys have also toured with fiddler and mandolinist Jeremy Penner, who is from Ruth's...
, with whom she sang alto and played guitar, mandolin and violin. The songs she contributed to the band's repertoire include "The Devil's Paintbrush Road", "Swallow", "Apocalypse Lullaby", and "Firecracker", all of which appear on the Wailin' Jennys' June 2006 release, Firecracker
Firecracker (The Wailin' Jennys)
Firecracker is the third album by The Wailin' Jennys.The album was rated the #2 folk album of 2006 in North America by total airplay, and the #1 Canadian album...
, produced by David Travers-Smith. She left the Jennys in 2007 to return to composition and solo performance.
In 2008 Annabelle Chvostek released "Resilience
Resilience (Annabelle Chvostek album)
Resilience is an album released in 2008 by Annabelle Chvostek. The album was recorded with producers Roma Baran and Vivian Stoll...
" produced by Roma Baran
Roma Baran
Roma Baran is a Canadian record producer, best known for her work with Laurie Anderson, Rosalie Sorrels, Annabelle Chvostek and Kate & Anna McGarrigle. Much of her production work is done as a duo with partner Vivian Stoll....
(Laurie Anderson
Laurie Anderson
Laura Phillips "Laurie" Anderson is an American experimental performance artist, composer and musician who plays violin and keyboards and sings in a variety of experimental music and art rock styles. Initially trained as a sculptor, Anderson did her first performance-art piece in the late 1960s...
) and Vivian Stoll (Isis
Isis
Isis or in original more likely Aset is a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the matron of nature and magic...
). It received rave reviews and was nominated for "Contemporary Album of the Year" at the Canadian Folk Music Awards.
Discography
- 1am to 5am (cassette tape; 1997)
- Full Stop (2000)
- WaterWater (Annabelle Chvostek album)-Track listing:#"Voyons Donc"#"Madonna Loves Me"#"The Great Divide"#"In the Movie"#"Sirens"#"Water"#"Holy"#"Blood Love Stone"#"Melt"#"Gamble"#"129"#"Weeping Willow"#"Mrs. Brown Says"-External links:* from * from CD Baby...
(2003) - Burned My AssBurned My AssBurned My Ass is an album released in 2004 by Annabelle Chvostek.The initial track, "Devil's Paintbrush Road", was re-worked by The Wailin' Jennys for the album Firecracker.-Track listing:# "Devil's Paintbrush Road"# "Moya Hlava"...
(2004) - What is Indie? (compilation) (2006)
- Firecracker (The Wailin' Jennys)Firecracker (The Wailin' Jennys)Firecracker is the third album by The Wailin' Jennys.The album was rated the #2 folk album of 2006 in North America by total airplay, and the #1 Canadian album...
(2006) - ResilienceResilience (Annabelle Chvostek album)Resilience is an album released in 2008 by Annabelle Chvostek. The album was recorded with producers Roma Baran and Vivian Stoll...
(2008)