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Chelsea McBride

woodwinds + vocals + composer/arranger

About Me

Driven by an endless need for expressing herself creatively, composer and multi-instrumentalist Chelsea McBride has burst onto the Toronto jazz scene. McBride has been named one of Canada’s top 35 jazz musicians under 35 by the CBC and was the inaugural recipient of the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Emerging Jazz Artist Award. She successfully completed an 11-city cross-Canada tour with her big band, Chelsea McBride’s Socialist Night School, in the summer of 2018, and has performed at JazzYYC, the Halifax Jazz Festival, and the TD Toronto Jazz Festival among others. She’s also performed with Sarah Slean, and studied with acclaimed musicians David Occhipinti, Darcy James Argue and Mike Allen.

Born and raised in Vancouver B.C., Chelsea was surrounded and fascinated by music. She started playing piano at the age of 3, and saxophone throughout elementary school. By the end of high school she had already performed in competitions at provincial and national levels. In 2014, she graduated from the Humber Bachelor of Music program in Toronto, ON, and has since been making waves with her mature sound and multilayered approach to composition. Whether it’s her big band (Chelsea McBride’s Socialist Night School), her pop-jazz sextet (Chelsea and the Cityscape) or her jazz trio (Chelsea McBride Group), Chelsea is a diverse musician who refuses to stay in one creative box. Aside from her own projects, she also regularly performs with other local acts including the Supersonic Hearts Band, Shrinehouse, and Skirt Check.

Chelsea can be heard across Canada playing several shows per month. She has released three albums with Chelsea and the Cityscape and three with her Socialist Night School.

My Jazz Story

It's safe to say that for many musicians, they choose the music. They find it, and they fall in love with it, and it becomes the thing that they chase for their whole lives. But I think, for me, the music found me, and chose me. First it was '70s music, Motown, soul, the best of the radio. Then, arguably, Christmas music and country music, tied for second. And I kept chasing this thing, because I didn't know what it was—in the agreement and dissonance of timbres and pitches and sounds, something always begged to be figured out, a mystery unraveled. But it's never just been me searching; it's always been something, some random twist of fate, a new song in a supermarket or on the radio or on a friend's phone, that's kept me going. Because every time I look, I find the new song I needed. Or the old one; sometimes, it doesn't matter. And when I'm making music, the thing that keeps me moving is that I can make the song I need—old, new, in between. If I'm playing, if I'm writing, I can write my own answers, my own story. You'd think this would be obvious, but I needed the kick in the butt: I needed the music to find me so I could learn that I can tell my own story, however I want to. Seven tattoos and five records later, I think I'm off to a decent start.