Canada Watch Exclusive
Canadian Jazz Great Renee Rosnes Weighs in on, Among Other Things, Her Upcoming Village Vanguard Stand and the Possibilities Inherent to 176 Keys
Pianist and composer Renee Rosnes, one of Canada’s great gifts to modern jazz, has a busy New York schedule this summer, including a week-long stand for the Renee Rosnes Quartet at the venerable Village Vanguard and a special “piano jam” tribute to Canadian jazz legend Oscar Peterson (part of the 92nd Street Y’s Jazz in July series, which is helmed by Ms. Rosnes’ husband, the brilliant American jazz pianist Bill Charlap).
The laundry list of jazz greats – Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, James Moody, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Hutcherson, Joshua Redman, JJ Johnson, Joe Lovano, Little Jimmy Scott, Jon Faddis, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, and Nancy Wilson, to name a few – with whom Ms. Rosnes has played in various configurations is staggering. A four-time Juno award-winner, she is also a notable jazz composer and has been the sole pianist in the remarkable octet, SFJAZZ Collective, since the group was formed in 2004.
Together with Mr. Charlap – with whom she is recording a “two piano” album in the fall – Ms. Rosnes makes up one half of what might be the most accomplished “power couple” in jazz-piano history.
She spoke with Canada Watch last month.
Canada Watch (CW): You. Ingrid Jensen. Pat Collins. Phil Dwyer. Seamus Blake. Diana Krall. Is there something in the water in BC?
Renee Rosnes (RR): It’s true, there are a multitude of jazz musicians that come from out west…you can add to the list Don Thompson, Ed Bickert, Brad Turner, Hugh Fraser, Oliver Gannon, and Terry Clarke. I don’t know about the water, but I do know that when I was a student, there seemed to be a very high quality of music education in the BC school curriculum. I imagine all the players you mention took part in band programs during their school years, and I’m sure that experience played a factor in their future success. When I was in my late teens, there was also a thriving club scene in Vancouver. It wasn’t unusual for Freddie Hubbard, Ella Fitzgerald, or Oscar Peterson to come through town for a week-long engagement, so there were plenty of opportunities to see and hear great music live. That, in itself, was an education. I was also fortunate enough to have parents who loved music, and felt it was important to give their daughters lessons.
CW: It sounds to me like you had a fairly all-encompassing music education – as opposed to standard-issue “piano lessons” – as a child. Is that true? What was involved?
RR: I began classical piano lessons at age three. My two older sisters were already studying, and word has it I was anxious to climb up on the piano bench too. I studied through the Royal Conservatory of Music, and took the exams (including music theory and history) that came around each year. I also began violin lessons at age five, and have fond memories of Saturday afternoons spent rehearsing with the Vancouver Youth Orchestra. For several years, I also attended the summer residential music school, Courtenay Youth Music Camp [now named “Comox Valley Youth Music Center”], on Vancouver Island. It wasn’t until I entered Grade 8 that I was introduced to jazz.
CW: I’m always fascinated by tales of that one, special teacher that successful musicians often seem to meet along the way, teachers that hear the potential and shepherd future greats onto a path. You had one of those, I understand…a high school teacher?
RR: I certainly did – a very talented and passionate teacher named Bob Rebagliati in North Vancouver. When I entered Junior High School, “Reb,” as we all called him, recruited me for the “Stage Band.” Aside from the classical music my parents listened to, I was only familiar with the pop music of the day: Elton John, Earth, Wind & Fire, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, etc. Reb had a sizeable record collection in his office, and he lent me Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, and Herbie Hancock albums to study and listen to. I was very intrigued. He encouraged me to transcribe some piano solos, and I delved into the task without any understanding of the art of improvisation. I am fortunate to have perfect pitch, and could copy complex lines and harmonies on the piano, long before I technically understood their function. My ear enabled me to grasp a lot of vocabulary in a short amount of time, and, because Reb introduced me to such a range of styles, I also recognized early on that jazz had an important history. To fully comprehend the music, I knew I had to understand that history and study the innovations of all the great musicians.
Reb inspired so many of his students toward a career in music – his impact is really quite remarkable. A listing of just a few would include: pianist Laila Biali [Keyboardist of the Year, National Jazz Awards 2005], composer Darcy James Argue [BMI Charlie Parker Composition Prize/Manny Albam Commission], Vancouver session saxophonist Tom Colclough, bassist Brandi Disterheft [2008 Juno Award winner], bassist Norm Fisher [with Bryan Adams], and clarinetist Kimball Sykes [National Arts Orchestra].
CW: Are you still learning?
RR: Every time I put on a Wayne Shorter, Cedar Walton, or perhaps a Miles Davis CD that I’ve listened to maybe hundreds of times, I’m still hearing something new. That’s one of the great things about being a creative person. The work is never finished, and the process of learning and continually striving for excellence is a gift. I’ve been a member of tenor saxophonist James Moody’s quartet for 20 years. “Moody” recently celebrated his 84th birthday a few months ago, and he still practices every day. He’s fascinated by what some of the younger saxophonists – such as Chris Potter, Mark Turner, and Walt Weiskopf – are working on, and, at his age, it’s fantastic that he’s still interested in learning new concepts and ways to improvise.
CW: Do you still have a practice regimen?
RR: When I’m not on the road, I practice and write every day, but I don’t have an actual regimen. Basically, I’m working on my music every opportunity I get. With touring and being a mother, my time is limited and there are never enough hours in the day.
CW: You’ve got a lot going on, harmonically and percussively, with your left hand. Is it a jazz pianist’s left hand that establishes their stylistic fingerprint – makes them identifiable, unique – do you think?
RR: A pianist’s left hand certainly contributes to his or her individual style, but it’s the whole package that crafts a distinctive voice. Touch, time feel, harmonic sensibility, the melodic line, technique, and phrasing are just some of the qualities that make an instrumentalist sound unique.
CW: When you add a second piano and another pair of hands, as you plan on doing for your upcoming duet release with your husband [American jazz pianist Bill Charlap], the possibilities seem endless. Are you planning an album of standards, or will some of your own compositions be represented? What is it like to play together?
RR: Bill and I really enjoy playing two pianos. We enjoy an easy rhythmic and harmonic connection and have a lot of the same musical instincts. With 176 keys at our disposal, there is the potential for a muddy mess, so we are always thinking in terms of orchestration and clarity of thought. We’re looking forward to getting into the studio to record in September. The repertoire will be drawn from a variety of sources: the American Popular Songbook, select jazz compositions, and my own tunes.
CW: Would you ever write specifically for two pianos?
RR: Yes. Bill and I are both arranging for the duo, and I am working on some pieces for the two pianos.
CW: Have you ever considered where the jazz canon would be without the Great American Songbook?
RR: Along with the blues, original jazz compositions, and other open forms, the American Popular Songbook is a major cornerstone of jazz repertoire. The song form was a direct influence on many jazz compositions and it’s hard to imagine one existing without the other. For example, how would bebop have progressed without the rhythm changes form and chord progression, which was based on George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm,” or Tadd Dameron’s “Hot House,” which was based on Cole Porter’s “What Is This Thing Called Love?” It’s like asking what classical music would sound without Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart.
CW: The Canadian Consulate General in New York was grateful that you were available and keen to participate in a tribute to Oscar Peterson at Carnegie Hall that it was involved in putting together in July of 2007. Can you comment on that evening and what it meant to the musicians involved to toast Oscar, on that stage especially?
RR: Oscar Peterson was a genius. His complete command of the instrument and ability to make the piano sound like an entire orchestra was awe-inspiring. He remains a major inspiration to me, and it was a joy to be able to take part in the Carnegie Hall Tribute in 2007. Even though Mr. Peterson was too ill to attend, I was touched by the presence of his wife and his youngest daughter. Oscar Peterson’s contributions to the world of jazz piano are immeasurable. There is no one like him, and there never will be. Among my favorite recordings of his is a gorgeous solo reading of “Little Girl Blue” from My Favorite Instrument. [MPS]
CW: Bill [Charlap] is also the Artistic Director of the Jazz in July series at the 92nd Street Y. One of the evenings he’s programming this summer is a July 23 “piano jam” Tribute to Oscar Peterson in which you’ll be participating. Tell us about the plan for that evening.
RR: July 23rd is going to be a wonderful night with four pianists taking the stage at different times throughout the concert. Besides Bill and myself, the evening will feature pianists Mulgrew Miller and Eric Scott Reed, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, Toronto-born/New York-based tenor saxophonist Grant Stewart, and guitarist Randy Napoleon. We’ll be performing new arrangements from Peterson’s “Canadiana Suite” as well as other compositions of his and of course, several standards that he loved to play as well.
CW: You’re going back into the Village Vanguard with your quartet on June 16th through 21st. What’s on tap for the set list?
RR: My quartet includes tenor saxophonist Rich Perry and long-time friends, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis Nash. We’ll be playing some older compositions, some new tunes, some jazz classics, as well as songs from the standard songbook. We’ll also play a few selections from my latest trio recording Black Narcissus [M&I Records Japan], which is a tribute to the great tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, and features both Peter and Lewis.
CW: When you’ve played with musicians frequently over the years – as you have with Peter and Lewis – you must develop a shared vocabulary or a kind of inter-ensemble telepathy that makes it easier to nestle into the pocket?
RR: Certainly. I’ve been playing with both Peter and Lewis for about 20 years now, and, besides being good friends, we have a great deal of mutual respect for each other. They are such brilliant musicians: they constantly inspire me. We have trust in each other, and that enables us to relax and immerse ourselves in the music-making.
CW: You’re one of the busiest jazz pianists out there: tell me about what has become a major focus for you – the SFJAZZ Collective. How did that come to be?
RR: The SFJAZZ Collective was the brainchild of Randall Kline, the director of the San Francisco Jazz Festival, and tenor saxophonist Joshua Redman. I am one of the founding members of the band, having played with the group since it’s inception in 2004. Over the years the octet has featured such players as Nicholas Payton, Joe Lovano, Dave Douglas, Brian Blade, Robin Eubanks, and Bobby Hutcherson, to name a few. Each of the members is commissioned to compose a new work for the group, and every year, the band performs new arrangements of the music of a modern jazz composer. In six years, the SFJAZZ Collective has presented music by Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk, Wayne Shorter, and, in 2009, McCoy Tyner. We get together for a one-to-two week rehearsal period and then go out on tour. This year, I was glad to be performing with the band for the first time in Canada. Aside from numerous US dates, the band performed in Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, and Vancouver. It’s been a joy to have the opportunity to compose and arrange for such an incredible group of musicians.
The Renee Rosnes Quartet will be performing June 16 – 21 (9 & 11 pm sets) at the Village Vanguard.
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Live From New York…Canadian TV Legend Lorne Michaels Honored at the Museum of the Moving Image
Lorne Michaels, the Canadian creator and Executive Producer of Saturday Night Live, was honored at New York’s Museum of the Moving Image annual black-tie benefit on May 11. Stanley S. Hubbard, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc., was also honored. The event, which took place this year at the St. Regis Hotel, is an annual celebration paying tribute to two leaders in the entertainment industry whose vision and innovations have dramatically influenced the moving image.
Mr. Michaels created NBC’s Saturday Night Live (SNL) in 1975, and it is now the longest-running and highest-rated weekly late-night program in television. Over the last 34 years, SNL has won numerous Emmy Awards, has been honored with the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award, and was cited as “truly a national institution.” Mr. Michaels also serves as Executive Producer of NBC’s two-time Emmy Award-winning series 30 Rock, starring former SNL mainstay Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, and Tracy Morgan; Late Night with Conan O’Brien; and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Mr. Michaels has personally won 12 Emmys as a writer and producer. He has also produced numerous motion pictures, including, most recently, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s hit comedy Baby Mama, as well as Mean Girls, Wayne’s World, and Tommy Boy. In 2004, he received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Mr. Michaels was one of Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” in 2008.
“Lorne Michaels created one of the most successful and innovative programs in television history,” said Herbert Schlosser, the Museum’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees. “Over the course of its three decades, SNL has nurtured incredible talent and captured the imagination of a nation. The current broadcast season has been one of the program’s most successful since its inception. We honor Lorne for his dedication and lasting influence on American culture.”
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A New “Anne-imated” Series is Released in Japan
Kon’nichiwa [Hello] Anne: Before Green Gables, the 26th series in Japan’s Nippon Animation World Masterpiece Theater anime series, was launched this spring in Japan. The third production of the series staple’s recent resurrection (which began in 2007 with Les Misérable: Shojo Cosette), it will span a total of 39 episodes.
The new series, which as yet has no scheduled air date in the US, is an adaptation of Canadian author Budge Wilson’s prequel novel Before Green Gables, which was translated into Japanese as Kon’nichiwa Anne by Akiko Usagawa. It chronicles the early years of main character Anne Shirley – introduced in Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery’s beloved 1908 novel Anne of Green Gables – as she loses both her parents and is adopted by Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert.
The Japanese series – produced in 2008 and having received its premiere in April – marks the 100th anniversary of the original novel’s release and the 30th anniversary of its highly popular anime adaptation, Akage no Anne, also produced by Nippon Animation and one of the first pioneering World Masterpiece Theater series.
While developing the series, Nippon Animation’s staff undertook research by visiting the north shore of Prince Edward Island, the location of the novel’s fictional central town, Avonlea. The team visited historical houses preserved from the era in which the novel is set and took photographs, with core staff members and character designer and chief animation director Takayo Nishimura basing the characters, props, and settings on their visit and resulting photos.
Kon‘niciwa Anne is only the most recent cartoon incarnation inspired by Ms. Montgomery’s novel. Anne of Green Gables: The Animated Series is a half-hour animated television show produced by Canada’s Sullivan Entertainment and created by Canadian writer-director-producer Kevin Sullivan. The series, which debuted in 2000, was developed for PBS, with each episode containing an educational aspect.
An issue or problem was woven into each episode for one or more of the show’s characters to face and resolve. In conjunction with these problems, PBS “Ready-to-Learn” educational guides were created for teachers in America to use in classrooms. The educational objectives of Anne of Green Gables: The Animated Series aimed at supporting a child’s development of his/her identity, reinforced through lateral thinking and the use of a child’s magnitude to absorb daily challenges.
It is expected that Kon’niciwa Anne will eventually air in North America: Canada Watch will announce those dates as soon as they are available.
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Bruce Cockburn, Slice o Life: Bruce Cockburn Live Solo
Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn has been combining literate, poetic songwriting, gruff, hearfelt singing, and virtuosic guitar-playing for over 40 years. When he returns to New York’s Town Hall on June 18 as part of a double-bill with jazz singer Madeleine Peyroux, he will undoubtedly be promoting his excellent new solo live album, Slice o Life, a career-spanning retrospective that is as good a place to start as any of his studio albums for people approaching Mr. Cockburn’s impressive songbook for the first time.
It’s all here: the whimsical break-out hit “Wondering Where the Lions Are” upheld by an audible audience sing-along; the anti-clear-cut anthem “If a Tree Falls,” still angry after all these years; the elegiac “Pacing the Cage,” from the underrated 1996 album Charity of Night; even a bluesy take on the 1973 gem “Mama Just Wants to Barrelhouse All Night Long.”
For diehards, the album offers a nostalgic look back at the long and winding road that has brought this remarkably consistent (aesthetically and politically) artist from 1970’s self-titled debut to his most recent studio release, 2006’s Life Short Call Now. The album also includes one new song, the moody, superlative “The City is Hungry,” and three worthy tracks recorded during soundchecks. Throughout, Mr. Cockburn’s ease with an audience is on display, and his between-song banter reveals him to be as engaging a spoken-word storyteller as he is a musical one.
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Canada’s Alice Munro Wins the 2009 Man Booker International Prize
Canadian short story writer Alice Munro, who was hailed in a 2004 New York Times Book Review article as having “a strong claim to being the best fiction writer now working in North America,” has won the 2009 Man Booker International Prize, it was announced late last month.
The every-two-years “International” prize, as distinct from the annual Man Booker Prize, which awards a prize for the best fictional book of the year, “recognizes one writer for their [lifetime] achievement in fiction,” according to the Man Booker website. The prize awards £60,000 to Ms. Munro who published her first collection of stories, The Dance of the Happy Shades, 41 years ago and is poised to release her newest collection – Too Much Happiness – in the fall.
The judging panel for the Man Booker International Prize 2009 included Jane Smiley (writer), Amit Chaudhuri (writer, academic and musician), and Andrey Kurkov (writer, film script writer, and essayist). The panel made the following comment on the winner:
“Alice Munro is mostly known as a short story writer, and yet she brings as much depth, wisdom, and precision to every story as most novelists bring to a lifetime of novels. To read Alice Munro is to learn something every time that you never thought of before.”
But it’s the aforementioned 2004 Times review, written by Jonathan Franzen (author of The Corrections), that offers the most complete assessment of Ms. Munro’s work. In comparing it to Chekhov – even assaying the adjective “Munrovian” – Mr. Franzen got at the core of Ms. Munro’s talent. “More than any writer since Chekhov,” Mr. Franzen wrote, “Munro strives for and achieves, in each of her stories, a gestaltlike completeness in the representation of a life.”
Ms. Munro, 77, will receive the prize of £60,000 and a trophy at an award ceremony on Thursday, June 25, at Trinity College, Dublin.
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Canadian Bass John Relyea Wins the Met’s Prestigious Beverly Sills Award
Canadian Bass John Relyea has been named the recipient of the fourth annual Beverly Sills Artist Award for young American singers at the Metropolitan Opera.The prestigious $50,000 award – the largest of its kind in the United States – is designated for extraordinarily gifted singers between the ages of 25 and 40 who have already appeared in featured solo roles with the Met. It was established in 2006 by an endowment gift from Agnes Varis, a managing director on the Met board, and her husband, Karl Leichtman, in honor of Beverly Sills.
Mr. Relyea recently starred at the company as Alidoro in Rossini’s La Cenerentola, the same role in which he made his auspicious Met debut in 2000. The opera was shown last month as the season’s final Live in HD transmission (a popular program which sees live Met performances transmitted to “big screens” in movie theaters around the world). His Met repertoire also includes Mozart’s Figaro, Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, and Colline in La Bohème. His performances as Basilio in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Banquo in Macbeth, and, notably, Méphistophélès in Canadian stage director Robert Lepage’s La Damnation de Faust were all part of the Live in HD series. Mr. Relyea is the fourth winner of the Beverly Sills Award, following baritone Nathan Gunn, mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, and tenor Matthew Polenzani.
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Canadian-Produced Film Wins Coveted Tribeca Film Festival Award
The Canadian-produced documentary Partly Private: The Long Journey to a Short Cut, helmed by Jerusalem native and New York-based director Danae Elon and produced by Paul Cadieux, an award-winning Canadian film and television producer, won the Best New York Documentary award at last month’s Tribeca Film Festival.
The film, a witty take on male circumcision and how we in the western world generally feel about it, was described by the Festival jury as “a film that explores the relevance of tradition in today’s world.” The jury added: “We are reminded that the exploration of one small subject through documentary film is capable of shedding light on a larger world. There were moments in this film that brought the whole world back to New York – they were uniquely New York moments. It explored themes of politics, culture, aestheticism, desirability, sexuality, and sensuality.”
Both comic and informative, Partly Private questions how the ancient rite of circumcision became a normal medical practice in North America and other parts of the world. The film goes beyond the questions of right or wrong and takes us into a contemporary universe of purported paganism, tribal, and family heritage. From New York to Jerusalem to Italy to Turkey, we follow the filmmaker’s personal journey where she is forced to ask: to circumcise or not to circumcise? Partly Private is a story about the bondage of loyalties that drive our lives and the necessary compromise that leads a family to stay together.
Paul Cadieux is a former winner of the Genie Award (Canada’s Academy equivalent) for Best Motion Picture for the 2003 animated feature Les Triplettes de Belleville.
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A scene from The Blue Dragon/Le Dragon Bleu.
First 20 Projects for 2010 Cultural Olympiad Announced
A broken bottle of maple syrup in luggage arriving from Canada; the elegant, dramatic strokes of Chinese calligraphy; the romantic Old World sails of a junk gliding past the hulking steel of a modern ocean-going vessel.
These seemingly disparate visuals are magically weaved together by Quebecois theatre visionary Robert Lepage in his latest stage offering The Blue Dragon/Le Dragon Bleu to illustrate the ongoing cultural clash between East and West and the dramatic changes in the lives of three people – two French-Canadian, one Chinese – thrust together in the rapidly changing world of modern-day Shanghai.
The play, performed in both French and English, is among the first 20 visual arts, dance, theatrical, circus, and musical projects announced last month as part of the third and final edition of the Cultural Olympiad festivals.
The Canadian and international projects, which include an extended version of Joni Mitchell’s ballet The Fiddle and The Drum, a massive hand-painted mural on a downtown Vancouver landmark by Taipei-based artist Michael Lin, and a rare live performance of a monumental Mahler masterpiece by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, will start on January 22, 2010 and run throughout the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, concluding on March 21. The extensive program will include more than 600 ticketed and free performances and exhibitions in 50 venues in Metro Vancouver and British Columbia’s Sea to Sky corridor. Tickets are available now.
Mr. Lepage’s The Blue Dragon/Le Dragon Bleu, presented in partnership with Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts, is the long-awaited sequel to Mr. Lepage’s epic series The Dragons’ Trilogy, which toured the world to critical acclaim for its rich story, use of multimedia elements and innovative stagecraft.
All those elements are present once again, along with the themes of cultural heritage and identity, as Mr. Lepage picks up the story of Quebec expat artist Pierre Lamontagne, the trilogy’s main character, who is middle-aged, unhappy, and running an art gallery in China. He’s involved in an unstable relationship with a much younger woman named Xiao Ling, who’s wrestling with a potentially life-altering choice. At the same time, Pierre must also deal with the sudden arrival of an old lover – Claire Forêt – from back home. Claire, a Montreal ad executive, is in China to tap into its booming economy and find new meaning in her life by adopting a baby.
Film clips, an innovative two-tiered stage, and a snowstorm add to the dazzling visual feast Mr. Lepage has concocted in The Blue Dragon/Le Dragon Bleu, which was co-commissioned by the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad.
The struggle with cultural identity and alienation is also poignantly explored in several other projects showcased by Cultural Olympiad 2010, including Where the Blood Mixes, written by emerging Canadian playwright Kevin Loring. The Playhouse Theatre Company production digs into the long buried and painful past of the Aboriginal residential school system and celebrates its survivors who struggled to cling to their culture, language, and families in the face of staggering abuse and racism at church-run, government-funded schools.
Alienation is also a prominent theme in the Globe Theatre’s production of Elephant Wake, a story of two Saskatchewan towns – a defunct francophone village and a neighboring prosperous English township. Writer and performer Joey Tremblay shows the impact of the dying village through the eyes of a man angry about his own marginalized existence as he fights to keep his family and Prairie town relevant in a sea of sameness.
For more information and tickets to all Cultural Olympiad 2010 events, please click here.
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The Listener’s Craig Olejnik.
Canada’s The Listener Premieres on NBC
The Listener, is the latest original Canadian dramatic series to air on a major US network in primetime. The Space/CTV production debuts in Canada on Wednesday, June 3 and receives its NBC premiere on Thursday, June 4 at 10 pm ET. CTV’s original drama Flashpoint is currently on the primetime roster of another US major network, CBS.
The Listener centers on Toby Logan (Craig Olejnik), a 25-year-old paramedic who has a big secret – he’s a telepath. Until now, Toby kept his ability hidden, exploring its possibilities only with his long-time mentor and confidant, Dr. Ray Mercer (Colm Feore). The Listener follows Toby as he tries to help people in crisis and, in the process, unravel the truth about his past. While his professional life is in check, Toby’s personal life could use its own rescue, and, with the help of Detective Charlie Marks (Lisa Marcos) and his Emergency Room doctor/ex-girlfriend Olivia Fawcett (Mylne Dinh-Robic), Toby realizes his gift can help others.
The Listener was developed by award-winning Shaftesbury Films, CTV, and Space (a “boutique” Canadian channel), and produced in association with Fox International Channels and NBC. The executive producers include: International Emmy Award winner Christina Jennings and Scott Garvie for Shaftesbury Films; Michael Amo (Blessed Stranger: After Flight 111); Tom Chehak (ReGenesis) and Clement Virgo (Poor Boy’s Game, which received its New York debut at the 2008 Canadian Front festival, an ongoing series hosted by the Museum of Modern Art in collaboration with the Consulate General of Canada in New York).
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