Tin Can Telephone
Welcome (EP)Prizes, Premieres, Performances!
Film Tours World! Chamber Music Premiere! Gigs in Alberta!
Film Tours World! Chamber Music Premiere! Gigs in Alberta!
Things have been so busy since my last update that it feels as though I must have been caught in a time vortex. Let’s catch up. Here goes:
The Man That Got Away, the short movie-musical-documentary I co-wrote and starred in (trailer below), made a very successful premiere at the Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival) in February; it won the DAAD Short Film prize, the only moneyed prize for shorts at the festival! With such fortuitous beginnings, it has gone on to play festivals all over the world, including Edmonton, Austin, Kyiv, Toronto, Zürich, Freiburg, Vancouver, Stockholm, London UK, Calgary, Mexico City, Krakow, Belfast, Valencia, Milan, Rio de Janeiro, Sarajevo, Los Angeles, and the Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival, where the film won Best Short Film. Upcoming screenings are in Melbourne, Russia, Croatia, Hong Kong, Austria, Portugal, Romania, and Turkey. The film will also screen at Beach Pride Uganda, that country’s first ever LGBT film festival.
It’s been an honour to be part of a project that has already seen such international acclaim and attention. The soundtrack album, complete with bonus remixes by Chad VanGaalen, Cadence Weapon, Bebop Cortez and others, is now available worldwide on iTunes and at CD Baby. You can stream all the songs for free at CBC Music.
In July, I sang and played piano in a new theatrical chamber music piece, “The Bohemians in Brooklyn,” created and performed with CBC host and trombonist Tom Allen, cabaret performer Patricia O’Callaghan, and harpist Lori Gemmell. The piece tells the story of the Brooklyn, NY brownstone where W.H. Auden, Benjamin Britten, Gypsy Rose Lee and others lived and made art. Through narration and music by the inhabitants and their friends, as well as six original tunes, we tell the story of the establishment and eventual disbandment of the notorious artists’ residence. Sex, gossip, heartbreak, intrigue, and some truly beautiful music make for an absorbing and entertaining evening. We premiered at Music Niagara and Chamberfest Ottawa, and are now booking other venues and presenters. Stay tuned for further performances!
Up next, a series of shows in Canmore, AB. The Songs of Bryce Kulak is a revue of original tunes by yours truly, performed in an intimate art-gallery setting. If you’re close by in Alberta or BC, join me Friday through Sunday evenings at 7:30pm August 10th through 19th, and I shall sing and play for you! Tickets should be booked in advance through the Carter-Ryan Gallery; click for all the details!
More exciting news to follow. Thanks for your continued support; I hope to see you in Canmore!
A World Premiere in Germany
"The Man That Got Away" at the Berlin International Film Festival
In spring of 2009 I began collaborating on a movie-musical short film with Trevor Anderson, director and producer at Dirt City Films. (Click to read more about the film!) We wrapped up production in fall of 2011. I composed music for six new songs, and also wound up starring in the film as Trevor's great uncle Jimmy. The soundtrack was recorded at Doug Organ's Edmontone Studio, and we shot entirely on location in a spiral parking garage in downtown Edmonton. Now, after a lot of hard work and much anticipation, we are gearing up for our big trip to Berlin for the film's world premiere at the 62nd Berlinale film fest! It's the only Canadian short accepted into the festival. Needless to say, I'm super excited to watch the film on the big screen with a live audience. There will be several opportunities to catch the film during the festival, and we've also been invited to a special screening and artists' talk at the Canadian Embassy. It's exciting!
Of course, Berlin isn't the only place you can catch a screening of "The Man That Got Away." There will be a private screening, for crew and supporters, in Edmonton on February 25th. To receive an invite, donate to our CD soundtrack fundraising campaign on IndieGoGo. There are various rewards available for each donation level (including copies of my album "Tin Can Telephone"), so check out the perks!
Because the budget for the film is gone, I'm paying my own way to be at the premiere in Germany. To that end, I'm playing a fundraising show at Le Balluchon Raymond (click for details!) in Toronto, on Thursday January 26th, doors at 7:30pm, show at 8pm. Tickets are $20 at the door (fundraiser!); come, and I'll sing for you. You'll even get to hear a sneak preview of the soundtrack!
More announcements to follow on other festivals where you can see the film.
Photography That Rocks
Check out my hubby's shots of me and my friends
Aren't these just beautiful? They're by the lovely and talented Max Telzerow, my partner of almost 10 years. What an eye, and what a guy! On his flickr stream. Check soon for the imminent release of The New MaxSnaps.com
Complaints Choir Documentary Now Online!
Harbourfront Centre's World Stage festival, May 2011
As part of Harbourfront Centre's World Stage festival, I composed and directed the Toronto Complaints Choir Song with over 120 participants. The media attention was overwhelming; see below. We had a lot of fun rehearsing with the choir, doing surprise performances all over Toronto, and making this video together! The complete Song video will be online soon. Stay tuned for reunion news…
Toronto Complaints Choir
Harbourfront Centre's World Stage festival, March 2011
As the composer and leader of the Toronto Complaints Choir, it was my job to distill the essence of over 1000 complaints submitted by the public into a song. It's almost 8 minutes long! Now I'm conducting the choir, also made up of members of the public, in performances all over Toronto the week of March 21st. Check out lifestinks.ca to learn about the project. The National Post is running a series of diary entries that I've written about the choir; pick up a copy or search "Bryce Kulak" on their website March 21 - 25 to read the installments. There will be video documentation of the final product on YouTube, so stay tuned.
In the meantime, take a look at the following videos and links:
National Post article
City News video
Toronto Star article
Globe & Mail photos from a rehearsal CBC article and rehearsal video Now available on iTunes! Visit The Yukon Experience for more information. The lyrics:
Live in Peace Know yourself Live in Peace! Love yourself I wanna let it all out Live in Peace! Find your place and And you will know that you are free © 2010 Bryce Kulak & Celia McBride (SOCAN) Oh my goodness. It was a busy summer. Apologies for the lack of updates since March. That's what happens when you are proposing before an audience, workshopping in Whitehorse during summer solstice, playing piano outdoors, and trudging a folding bicycle by train to Niagara. It takes up a lot of time! Here's a list of recent and upcoming projects so we're all on the same page: • The Big Idea Cabaret: I Like Boys! at Statlers, May 8 & 9 2009 • Divine Dinner Music at Statlers, May 27 & July 22 2009 • Workshop presentation of "A Dry Spell" and "Lamentation", Sour Brides Theatre, Whitehorse, June 2009 • New music for "The Menaechumus Twins", Theatreworks' Stone Circle Project, July –August 2009. • My review from Eye Weekly: "Bryce Kulak provides melodramatic underscoring and tuneful music hall-like songs." Just what I was going for! • Music intern for "Maria Severa" by Paul Sportelli and Jay Turvey at the Shaw Theatre Festival, Niagara-on-the-Lake, August–October 2009 • Cabaret with Colin Maier for HarbourKIDS!, October 10-12 2009 • "Dark Places", Les Coquettes Nouveau Burlesque, Revival, October 25 2009 There are also stirrings of a new recording; nothing official yet, but keep checking back! There's a new newsletter! Quick, everyone else already has one! You should subscribe. It's really fun and everyone is doing it. Go on, read the latest issue and you'll see what I mean. Hit the subscribe button when you're done. You'll be even more popular.
Also, a gig! Join Bryce and friends for a fabulous evening of cabaret! (Here's the facebook event.) Songs will include Kulak originals, plus a song or two you've never heard before… All with superb multi-instrumentalism by the astounding Colin Maier, with FAMOUS guest performers Patricia Zentilli (A New Brain, Little Shop of Horrors), Michael Hughes (recently at Statlers!), and Lily Ling (she's a piano wiz-kid!). WHAT could be better than a night like this?
Statlers is a fantastic piano bar. It's a little slice of NYC about 50 stumbles from the Wellesley subway. They even have a new piano (not that old clunker they used to have!) and a great sound-system, with awesome food and drinks. You're gonna love it. Oh, and you MUST RESERVE TICKETS if you plan to come!
THE FINE PRINT:
Bryce Kulak and Friends: The Big Idea!
Visit Statlers website for more information. Bryce has been "blogged!" He describes the experience as "warm, damp, and slightly messy, but not unpleasant." Read about his recent performance at Hugh's Room on Amanda Campbell's excellent theatre blog. Scroll down the blog a little further (just a little further down, please) to read about The Black Rider. Bryce was recently featured as a guest on CBC Radio One's national program GO!, hosted by Brent Bambury. He performed two songs live, including the new "You're My Man (Dream Song)", that are now downloadable from GO!'s website. A YouTube video by a fan has also been posted. Check out that enormous piano! Further to the story below, Bryce and D.C. Anderson (veteran cabaret singer-songwriter and Phantom cast-member) have collaborated on a new song called "What's Happened Since". The song was recorded by D.C. in New York for his forthcoming album. Visit D.C.'s website, where D.C.'s interpretation of Bryce's song "Tin Can Telephone" is currently featured as song of the month. Jurgen Gothe, host of CBC Radio 2's popular show DiscDrive, played Tin Can Telephone today. Thanks to the magic of computers and the internet, you can listen to a clip along with Mr. Gothe's lovely commments here. D.C. Anderson, a performer in the U.S. touring company of The Phantom of the Opera, has recorded Bryce's song Tin Can Telephone and released it on his new CD, Our Story. You can buy the CD through D.C.'s website; all the songs are great! Bryce is awfully flattered to have the song recorded by such an accomplished artist.
Here's a neat tidbit: if you click on the bottom right corner of the music player on this page, you can open it in a popup window. Then continue listening as you browse this site, or other sites on the whole wide internet! I know we've been out of touch for a while, but tonight is Chinese New Year, so we wish you 恭喜发财 (Gōngxǐ fācái)! Since January, Bryce has been scouring the shops for fantastic deals during a clearly extended boxing-season. You should see the cheap, cute sweaters he's found! In the spirit of all things new and affordable, we invite you to do some bargain-hunting of your own. Did you know that Bryce's album(s) are now available on many more online stores? Click below to begin your hunt:
What started out as a recital planned for a church in Edmonton became a full-blown concert with lights, sound, and stripping in a legitimate theatre, followed by a mini-tour of Alberta. Bryce would like to thank Amy Seeley, everyone who made the Edmonton CD Release possible, the media who agressively publicized it, and everyone who came to see him sing and act silly. It was a truly memorable evening. Let's do it again soon! If you missed the concert in Edmonton, be comforted by the news that select footage of the event will be released on YouTube in the coming weeks. To get a taste of Bryce in the meantime, click here to Google him. You know you want to.
Following his release recital in Edmonton, Bryce and his opening artist Amy Seeley will be heading 1.5 hours south for an afternoon concert in Red Deer, Alberta. The details: Sunday, November 18, 2007
The cost of tickets is yet to be announced, but your firstborn child isn't involved.
At the beginning of October, it was Bryce's two-year anniversary of moving to Toronto. It's about time, therefore, that he make his first visit back to Edmonton! Bryce will be playing a CD release recital there on THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15TH
Thanks for waiting so patiently. Bryce is pleased to announce this event, and especially thrilled that it will be opened by the sweet and sexy songstress Amy Seeley, a beloved Edmonton ex-pat flying back from Portland. The venue is The Westbury Theatre at the Transalta Arts Barns, and tickets are for sale through the Fringe Theatre Adventures box office (online or in person). Use a red Sharpie on your "Firemen 2007" calendar!
All grown up, Bryce can now update his own gosh-darn website! (Special thanks to his gorgeous web mistress, and the glorious cellist on both his albums, Hannah Donovan.) You can expect more regular updates to the site from now on, so check back often. Of late, Bryce was a performer in The Spiegel Show in Toronto, a completely mad cabaret-vaudeville-burlesque extravaganza with singing, dancing, tasteful vintage stripping, trapeze, drinks and grub. The show was extended thrice to the delight of sold-out crowds. You can visit the Gallery page to see pictures of Bryce performing in the Spiegeltent, shirtless no less! Toronto is crossing its collective fingers that the Tent will make a return next summer...In other news, there are at least two major theatre projects for which Bryce will be composing the scores, so keep your hungry eyes on this space, or quickly and painlessly subscribe your own darn self to the Bryce Kulak Newsletter. ALL of us here at brycekulak.com thank you for visiting! You may not be aware of it, but you've already fallen in love with Jeff Kulak, Bryce's younger brother. He is the clever little man who devised the illustrations for both of Bryce's albums, and in fact did the entire stunning design for Tin Can Telephone. A graduate of the University of Alberta's art and design program, he also studied for a year at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. As a graphic designer and illustrator, he leaves his indelible, beautiful, quirky mark on everything he creates. Jeff freelances in Edmonton, and you'll surely want to check out his website. A bit more trivia: Kara, the third and final of the Kulak offspring, has toured the world as a dancer with Edmonton's Shumka. You can now get your greedy little fingers on all sorts of Bryce Kulak gossip (and legit news) simply by subscribing to the Bryce Kulak Newsletter. The latest issue can be viewed online here. It will tell you all about Bryce's latest activities, why the word iTunes is making him squeal with glee, where to get your own copy of his new album release, and how big he is compared to a piano. Who needs The National Enquirer when you have the Bryce Kulak Newsletter in your inbox?"Live In Peace" Lyrics
The Anthem of the Yukon Experience, Vancouver Olypmics 2010
Live in Peace
Find your place and you will
Know that you are free
Love easily
Find your place and you will
Know that you are free
Live in Peace!
Live in Peace and we will
Know that we are free
Laugh easily
Find your place and you will
Know that you are free
I wanna let it all go
And find out who I can be
I see the same thing in you
We gotta look in our hearts
And find our destiny
Frozen by the dark
Light it with your Soul
It holds the spark
Live in Peace!
Live in Peace and you will
Know yourself
You will laugh most easily
You will find your place and you will
Know that you are free
Find your place and
Find your place and
Find your placeCelebrating Success, Preparing for the Future
October 9th, 2009
A Gig! A Newsletter!
March 5th, 2009
Statlers, 487 Church Street (south of Wellesley)
Sunday March 22 2009
Doors at 7pm
Show 8 - 9pm
No Late Admittance
$10 cover, $10 Food/Drink Minimum
LIMITED SEATING
(You don't wanna stand all night, do ya?)
So RESERVE at statlerscabaret@live.com or 416 962 1209
Blogged!
January 27th, 2009
Free Bryce, courtesy of CBC Radio 1
January 24th, 2009
Anderson/Kulak Collaboration
January 1, 2009
CBC: Burgeoning Bryce
July 9th, 2008
Phantom Sings Kulak, + Bonus Tidbit
April 1, 2008
Shop Around
February 6, 2008
Amazon.com
Tradebit
PayPlay
MusicIsHere
GreatIndieMusic
Hard-copies of Tin Can Telephone are also availble in Edmonton at blackbyrd myoozik, and in Toronto at Bounty (Harbourfront Centre). Happy shopping!Thank You
December 1, 2007
Concert in Red Deer
November 8, 2007
2:00 PM
The Snell Auditorium, Downtown Library
Lower Floor, 4818-49 St.
Red Deer, ABUPDATE: Edmonton-Bound!
November 1, 2007
I Can Do It All by Myself!
August 23, 2007
3 for 3
August 23, 2007
As big as a piano?
June 10, 2007