Paul Cram (Atlantic) (2005–14)

“For years we talked about the need for an orga­ni­za­tion that stood up for seri­ous music in Cana­da that dared to look beyond Europe for its inspi­ra­tion. CNMN speaks for our brave new world.” [2008]

“I believe that CNMN must facil­i­tate inde­pen­dent cre­ators and fledg­ling orga­ni­za­tions who may play many roles as per­form­ers, com­posers and admin­is­tra­tors across a spec­trum of gen­res. CNMN must bring them togeth­er with estab­lished insti­tu­tions and orga­ni­za­tions for the mutu­al ben­e­fit for all. Look­ing for­ward to orga­niz­ing new out­reach ini­tia­tives that will bring the new music com­mu­ni­ty clos­er to edu­ca­tors and com­mu­ni­ty ini­tia­tives in the inter­est of future gen­er­a­tions of lit­er­ate, fear­less and inde­pen­dent musi­cians. I’m includ­ing seniors look­ing for new hori­zons in this vision.” [2012]

As an award-win­ning com­pos­er, sax­o­phon­ist, clar­inet­tist, impro­vis­er and intre­pid explor­er, Paul Cram con­tin­ues to strength­en, chal­lenge and refine his voice. He began his career play­ing sax in R&B bands and bur­lesque hous­es before study­ing com­po­si­tion with Elliot Weis­gar­ber at the Uni­ver­si­ty of British Colum­bia and jazz great Sam Rivers at Banff. He debuted   nation­al­ly with the release of “Blue Tales in Time” on Sackville/Onari Records, toured with the Paul Cram Trio, and start­ed the Paul Cram Orches­tra (PCO) before record­ing his 2nd Juno Nom­i­nat­ed release: Beyond Beng­hazi (recent­ly re-released on CD Baby/iTunes). In Nova Sco­tia he has worked pro­fes­sion­al­ly as a free­lance com­pos­er in the­atre, dance and film for many years.  His score for the CBC movie “One Heart Bro­ken into Song” won him the pres­ti­gious FIPA D’OR (France). In 2002, the new PCO record­ed “Campin Out,” live at the Vic­to­ri­av­ille Fes­ti­val to rave reviews. After a stun­ning per­for­mance in Lis­bon and the release of “Live in Lis­bon” he is explor­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties inter­na­tion­al­ly. Today’s musi­cal projects include: Paul Cram Trio plus Aper­ture Trio equals 5 Flavours, Star­ry Nights Mul­ti-band, and A Love Upstream Nonet con­tem­po­rary music ensem­ble. Mr. Cram is run­ning for his third term as a SOCAN board mem­ber and brings his expe­ri­ence as co-founder/ad­min­is­tra­tor of sev­er­al inde­pen­dent composer/improviser dri­ven orga­ni­za­tions across Cana­da: Vancouver’s New Orches­tra Work­shop (Co-founder), Toronto’s Con­tem­po­rary Music Projects (Artis­tic Direc­tor) and Hemi­spheres Music (Co-artis­tic Direc­tor) and Upstream Music Asso­ci­a­tion of Hal­i­fax (Co-founder/Artis­tic Direc­tor). Cur­rent­ly, he sits on the board of the Cana­di­an New Music Net­work, a new nation­al orga­ni­za­tion that speaks with a uni­fied voice for cre­ators and   dis­sem­i­na­tors of all kinds of art music. He is also a mem­ber of the Screen Com­posers Guild of Cana­da, Cana­di­an League of Com­posers and Cana­di­an Music Centre.

www.paulcram.com/