Photo by Festival international de la chanson de Granby

Festival international de la chanson de Granby: Register now!

Story by Marie-Michèle Bouchard | Friday February 14th, 2020

SOCAN members in the entire Canadian Francophonie, take note: you can register now for the 52nd edition of the Festival international de la chanson de Granby (FICG), which will be held Aug. 10-29, 2020. Once again this year, SOCAN will be a partner of this major event.

The main competitive segment, the Grand Concours Hydro-Québec, is a key platform for emerging performers and singer-songwriters. Not only will the 24 selected participants share more than $100,000 in prizes, they’ll also benefit from intensive training sessions hosted by seasoned music-industry professionals.

Among those, SOCAN will present a training workshop on repertoire, vocal techniques, interpretation, lyric writing, stage presence, and arrangements. The trainers will work with each participant to help them fine-tune their material. Information workshops on the various aspects of the art and craft of songwriting will be offered to the semi-finalists.

The FICG music showcases have become must-see arena for industry professionals, and provide ideal venues for Francophone artists from all over Canada to really shine. More than 200 music-business professionals from around the world, including several dozens of European programmers, attend the event – which means that it offers exceptional visibility for our attending members.

For the first time this year, SOCAN will award one of the showcase participants a creative stay at the Paris SOCAN House, where they can work on their material, and make new contacts in France.

The registration period is open until April 1, 2020, at 4:00 p.m. ET.

Details are available at www.ficg.qc.ca.

Photo by Brad Ardley

Video Interview: Voodoo Highway Screen Composers Brian Pickett, Graeme Cornies

Story by Howard Druckman | Friday February 14th, 2020

In an exclusive interview with SOCAN, screen composers Brian Pickett and Graeme Cornies, co-founding members of the hugely successful, multiple-award-winning screen composing company Voodoo Highway, discuss how they first started writing music for animated childrens’ programs; the runaway, worldwide successes of two shows they’ve scored, and for which they’ve written songs, Daniel Tiger’s Neighbourhood – based on the Neighborhood of Make-Believe from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood – and Paw Patrol; and one of their shows winning a 2019 Emmy Award. The business is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and is rebranding as the Voodoo Highway Music Group.

SOCAN Foundation announces participants for 2020 development program

Story by Howard Druckman, with files from / avec la participation de Charlie Andrews, Meryl Gosch. | Thursday February 13th, 2020

The SOCAN Foundation has announced the participants for the second edition of the TD Incubator for Creative Entrepreneurship. The incubator is an exciting new program that provides emerging music creators with seed funding, mentorship, and the opportunity to participate in a progressive webinar series that will hone their skills of entrepreneurship, while providing them with the tools and resources needed to turn their talent into a sustainable career. The incubator is made possible with the generous support of TD.

“The program is designed to identify, celebrate, and support the next generation of music creators that have demonstrated extraordinary potential,” said Charlie Wall-Andrews, Executive Director of the SOCAN Foundation.

After reviewing nearly 1,000 submissions, the Foundation was pleased to announce that the following music creators have been accepted into the 2020 edition of the program:

  • Idman Abdulkadir (Ontario)
  • Caitlin Canning (British Columbia)
  • Charmie Deller (Ontario)
  • Elsa Gebremichael (Ontario)
  • Emily Gifford (Ontario)
  • Babette Hayward (Nova Scotia)
  • Mikey Jose (British Columbia)
  • Jacky Leung (Ontario)
  • Charles Lowe (Quebec)
  • Manuela Wuthrich (Alberta)
  • Muhammad Mneina (Manitoba)
  • Madison Olds (British Columbia)
  • Prisca Pange-Ibinimion (Alberta)
  • Nicholas Ramsahoye (Ontario)
  • Lara Rawadi (Quebec)
  • Claire Ridgely (Quebec)
  • Michael Simard (Quebec)
  • Scott  Spicker (British Columbia)
  • Teddy Thomason (Nova Scotia)
  • Mariah Wheeler (Ontario)

Click here to meet the participants.

Each participant in the program will receive:

  • A cash grant of up to $3,000, intended to defray start-up costs (such as those spent on marketing, business development, branding, etc.);
  • Mentorship by an industry professional; and
  • Access to an exclusive webinar series led by industry professionals and experts, to fuel the entrepreneurial spirit of the participants.

Five of the participants who demonstrate the greatest potential, and most significantly benefit from the program, will be invited to Toronto to complete a three-day residency, during which they’ll have studio time at the Slaight Studio, an opportunity to showcase their work, and an additional mentorship opportunity with an established songwriter chosen by the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame (CSHF). The residency portion of the program is established by the CSHF with the support of SOCAN Foundation, Slaight Music, and Kobalt Publishing.