Bourgie Hall presents

Gino Sitson: Echo Chamber

Singer and ethnomusicologist of Cameroonian origin, Gino Sitson draws from his eclectic background to create fascinating sounds interweaving African songs, jazz, and chamber music.

Award-winning, New York-based vocal virtuoso Gino Sitson is originally from the Bamiléké region of Cameroon, Central Africa. His family comes from a long line of musicians known as Ntontas (“players of horns”) and his mother is a vocalist and choir director. He and his siblings were introduced to blues, jazz and African traditional music early in life.

Mr. Sitson is a pioneer of a new generation of multi-culturally influenced African musicians who are integrating into their musical styles their own exciting yet bewildering welter of “in-between” living experiences (north/south, tradition/modernity, 20th/21st century). His daring musical project combines in a most innovative way jazz, gospel, blues and traditional African polyphonies, polyrhythms and melodies. By freely combining his trademark vocal acrobatics with a breathtakingly creative command of oral and body percussions and miscellaneous effects, Mr. Sitson forged an eloquent vocabulary capable of communicating far beyond any limits of language or custom. Through his vocal wizardry, he stunningly creates an endless range of sounds and atmospheres. Sitson’s seamless four- octave range travels from a soulful, resonantly masculine tenor with woodwind-like overtones to a high-soaring, nearly genderless spiritual wail, a feat that recalls Brazil’s Milton Nascimento, another deep-rooted yet restlessly protean, jazz-inflected shape-changer.

In 2008, Mr. Sitson was invited by Bobby McFerrin to take part in a special project that took place at the Carnegie Hall (“Instant Opera”). He appeared in the 2009 PBS documentary film “The Music Instinct: Science and Song”, featuring Bobby McFerrin, Daniel Levitin, Oliver Sacks, Daniel Barenboim, and Yo-Yo Ma. A member of Chamber Music America, he is regularly engaged for movie scores and commercials. He has also appeared several times on TV and also composed music for the noted children’s TV show, Dora The Explorer (Nickelodeon).

Aside from musical performances, Gino leads vocal workshops served by his amazing vocal technique, his musical knowledge and his desire to share his love for vocal explorations. Gino has developed workshops for professional as well as non-professional singers, and also for children. A researcher in musicology, his work focuses on music cognition, expressive properties of the voice and the process of transmitting music from the “black” diaspora. Among them, he is particularly interested in Gwoka music from Guadeloupe. Mr Sitson earned a PhD in musicology at the Paris-Sorbonne University. He is a UNICEF CAMEROON Goodwill Ambassador and an Associate Researcher at IReMus (Institut de Recherche en Musicologie: Paris-Sorbonne, CNRS, BnF, Ministère de la culture).

Musicians
Gino Sitson, voice, composition, and body percussion
Jody Redhage, voice and cello
Lev « Ljova » Zhurbin, viola
Peter Hess, voice and clarinet

Thursday October 28, 2021 at 8:00 pm
To purchase your tickets visit: www.mbam.qc.ca