“Rufus Wainwright, as well as K.D. Lang are among the Canadians making essential and beautiful music. Add the name Jeffery Straker to that list” – Chicago Free Press, Gregg Shapiro (Jan ‘09) “Cycling through (his) record I could not help but wonder why he’s not already a star in this country. Over time, he’s evolved into a fine songwriter with great lyrical sensibilities. Straker is very much an artist to watch” – Canadian Musician Magazine (Feb ’09)
Singer-songwriter-pianist Jeffery Straker performs over 100 shows per year across Canada. He recently recorded for CBC radio’s ‘Canada Live’, had a music video rise to the top 10 (#6) on Canada’s Much More Music and in May 2010 toured his music with the Regina Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players.
His album ‘Step Right Up’ was the #5 selling album in his home-land of Saskatchewan in August 2010, ahead of both Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga. He’s sure neither of them cared. But he is sure that he, in fact, did. He has just launched a new album, ‘under the soles of my shoes’ in June 2011 and is touring Canada in support of it.
Tour stops include shows ranging from intimate house concerts to a show with the full Regina Symphony Orchestra (Oct 1, 2011) and many in between. Canadian Musician Magazine recently said, “Very much an artist to watch”. The Chicago Free Press has written “: “Rufus Wainwright, as well as k.d. lang are among the Canadians making essential and beautiful music. Add the name Jeffery Straker to that list”.
Originally from small town Saskatchewan, the classically trained pianist was raised by a church organist mother and auctioneer father. He swears he was born under the piano on the family farm. All this might explain his ability to share songs with audiences.
Jeffery has been invited to showcase at Canadian Music Week, NXNE, the Western Canadian Music Awards (Multiple times), as well as JunoFest. His songwriting has seen him become a national top 10 finalist in the Canadian Radiostar Songwriting Competition and a top 20 finalist in the global 2009 Unisong Competition. In September 2010 he was honored to be short-listed for the Sask. Lieutenant Governor’s Arts Award.
Not at all sure if he would actually win it, he was delighted to attend the gala as he was sure the cake would be amazing. It was. In addition to launching his new album in 2011, Jeffery performed a concert with the full Regina Symphony Orchestra at the Conexus Arts Centre (Oct 1), debut at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, perform with R&B diva Jully Black, record new songs on Glenn Gould’s grand piano (at the CBC studios in Toronto) with Danny Michel as producer, and debut at the Regina Folk Festival. Somewhere amindst that, he’ll tour the country.
Jeffery is a musical descendant of Beethoven through teacher-student lineage (seriously…see below for the full story). He was a student of the Royal Conservatory of Music and received his licentiate diploma in piano performance from Trinity College, London when he was 19.
THE BEETHOVEN CONNECTION: His musical prowess and flare at the piano has an incredibly famous connection – it’s true. While studying at the conservatory of music at the University of Regina, Jeffery worked with one Frank Crumly, who had been taught by Thomas Manshardt, who previously had been taught by Howard Wells, who was a student of Leschetizky (acknowledged as the greatest teacher of all time), who was taught by Czerny, who, you guessed it, was taught by Beethoven. A similar lineage through Manshardt connects Jeffery to Chopin. Quite the pedigree.
Visit www.jeffstraker.com for more info + tour dates. www.twitter.com/jefferystraker www.facebook.com/jeffery.straker.music
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