User:Musicandtime/sandbox

= Sonia Johnson (Musicien) =

Sonia Johnson Juno Award winning Canadian singer-songwriter specializing in jazz and popular music.

Biography
Born April 7th 1974 in Saint-Alexis-des-Monts, Mauricie (Canada), Sonia Johnson was first formed in classical singing, in 1994 she obtained a DEC from École de musique Vincent-d'Indy in Montreal. She will learn the rudiments of jazz with doublebassist Michel Donat o and then continue her journey as a self-taught learner, exploring as a soloist, backing vocalist or in musicals like Hair – Petite Boutique des horreurs (Little Shop of Horrors).

Sonia Johnson produced her first CD, Don’t explain, in 2005 with financial support from the Fondation du maire de Montréal pour la jeunesse the Montreal Mayor’s Foundation for Youth and created Les Productions Sonia Johnson. The artist garnered critical acclaim for her first release. The jazz singer gets recognized in her artistic sector and begins new collaborations including Con-tra-dic-tion project with Frédéric Alarie, who is a finalist at the Festival en chanson de Petite Vallée (2008).

They were later joined by pianist Luc Beaugrand and drummer Camil Belisle, they record Le

Carré de nos amours that was rewarded with a Juno prize for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year 2012. Then the album Triades, a collective with singers Annie Poulin and Charles Biddle Jr. got a nomination in 2014 in the same category. She also obtained nominations for these two albums at the ADISQ, gala in Quebec.

In 2017, the singer presented with guitarist Stephen Johnson, a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald,

Dialogues Ella & Joe. The following year, Sonia Johnson received a Master’s degree in jazz interpretation and composition from the Université de Montréal. She is a soloist appreciated by various musicians, including Lorraine Desmarais, Vincent Rehel or Joe Sullivan, who chose her to defend major musical projects. The Orchestre national de jazz de Montréal highlighted her original arrangements for 18 musicians and put her in the highlights for a concert tribute to Michel Legrand at Festival de Lanaudière.

During her career, she shared the stage with famous Canadian artists such as Vic Vogel, Karen Young, Diane Tell, Jean-Pierre Ferland et Ray Anderson. She also collaborates as a composer or lyricist with Toronto jazz artists Laila Biali and Steven Taetz and the projects Les Malcommodes invitent (Félix Stüssi) and Jazz brésilien by Rodrigo Simoes (Bronze Medal – Global Music Awards and nomination for Best Jazz vocal album 18th Independent Music Awards). In youth musical creation, she collaborates in writing songs for Kalimba, Bill Bestiole and Daniel Coutu.

In 2019, Sonia Johnson revealed Chrysalis, an international critically-acclaimed album. She recorded Gilles Vigneault’s Le grand cerf-volant for an album by the klezmer music group, Oktopus. Next November she is launching Airs Givrés a miniature album on the theme of winter, and finishes writing a project entitled Family Portraits to be recorded in spring 2022.