 Music,
it’s always been about music....at the age
of 5, Liz learned to play piano and later, taught
herself to play the guitar....
Singing set her apart, lyrics let her express herself
without having to say it.... “I grew up listening
to Tchaikovsky, The Beatles,
Count Basie, Smokey Robinson;
I was influenced as a songwriter by Joni
Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot.
And I wanted to sing like Aretha Franklin....”
Liz
started performing her own material in coffeehouses
and graduated to singing with local bands in clubs.
One of the best known of those bands was The Bug
Alley Band. She also sang with White Kids (with
Sas Harris) in various clubs around Montréal
& began singing jingles and teaching singing.
With the vocal quartet General Jive, she sang
at Le Festival Internationale de Jazz de Montréal.
In
1988 with the band United Press, Liz won the Yamaha
Battle of the Bands and went to Tokyo to compete
in The World Final Band Explosion and in 1994
with Another Life she opened for The Queen of
Soul, Aretha Franklin at Toronto's Hummingbird
Centre.
In
1992, Liz was asked to participate in Canada's
125th birthday celebration; on Parliament Hill,
in front of The Queen of England and thousands
of other people, she sang a line from our national
anthem, en français, along with other Canadian
luminaries such as Gino Vanelli and Randy Bachman.
There was a TV special, "With Glowing Hearts"
on CTV that documented the event.
In
1995, Liz went to entertain the Canadian UN Peacekeepers
in Croatia and Bosnia during the on-going civil
war. “This was an amazing experience - the
troops were so appreciative & we were treated
like royalty”. Born in Montréal,
Liz now lives in Toronto digging the diversity.
Watching
hockey, cheering for The Habs, now she roots for
The Leafs & has sung the national anthems
at many hockey games.
Liz
has travelled to Japan, France, The British Isles,
through the States and across Canada....”Ireland
felt like home to me; there’s even a well-known
flute player named Seamus Tansey from County Sligo!
But I still haven’t been to half the places
I want to see....” |
