www.juliemichels.com | www.mcctoronto.com

There is chemistry between Julie Michels and her audience.  Rising out of her love for interpretation and her penchant for bringing songs from other genres into the jazz oeuvre, this chemistry is rooted in her instinctive ability to vocalize arrangement and instrumentation. Michels’ intense, original and joyous sound grabs familiar melodies from every decade and welds them to original and wonderfully thick chords influenced by every international tradition. Her ability to phrase a lyric and improvise over a melody gives every song a clarity that stays in your mind long after the band stops playing. She studied with legendary bassist Richard Davis and has worked with George Koller, Ottawa’s Chelsea Bridge, Kevin Barrett, Michael Danso and her bands Sutra and the Human Music Project. Garnering remarkable responses from packed houses at many popular jazz venues (including The Montreal Bistro, Top of the Senator and The Rex), Hugh's Room, The National Arts Centre and Statlers Lounge, she is also no stranger to Canadian and European music festivals. Julie's CD’s include ‘Singing Naked’, ‘Live at Statlers’, the soundtrack for ‘Pivoting Echoes’ (for Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, one of Canada’s premier dance companies), with her latest appearance on the big band jazz release, "Seriously Happy”, rounded out by years of work as a studio singer on many projects in many genres, including the award-winning “Ancient Voices”. Julie Michels’ big, multi-coloured voice is the perfect compliment to every genre she touches. She will play this year’s ‘Open Door’ Festival of Music Benefit with The MCC (Metropolitan Community Church) of Toronto Choir. Their vision is to be a bridge for all people, based on core values of advocacy, caring, celebration, compassion, courage, diversity, faith, joy, leadership and spirituality. With a stage full of spectacularly spirited voices, they’re not to be missed!