This Week on Finding Your Bliss: March 25th

Mar 20, 2023

By AM740 Staff

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Coming up this Saturday at 1pm on Finding Your Bliss, Life Coach and Bliss Expert Judy Librach is joined by Chris Thornborrow, an award-winning composer for film, theatre, and the concert stage. His work has been described as “heightened and brashly percussive” (Variety), “urgent, masterful” (NOW Magazine), “powerfully virtuosic” (Barcza Blog), and “elegiac music that casts a spell” (Hollywood Reporter). Recognition for his work includes the Karen Kieser Prize in Canadian Music, multiple SOCAN Awards for Audio Visual Composers, two DORA Award nominations, and the Louis Applebaum Composers Award Nomination. 

 

 

Chris composed the music for “Sleeping Giant”, which was nominated for the Critics Week Grand Prize and Golden Camera Award at the Cannes Film Festival, won the Best Canadian First Feature Award at the Toronto International Film Festival and has been broadcast internationally in 40 countries. It was also nominated for three Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Motion Picture.

He composed a unique noise-inspired electronic-classical fusion score for the film “We Ate the Children Last”. Based on a story by Yann Martel (“Life of Pi”), the film premiered at the Claremont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and was honoured as one of Canada’s Top 10 short films at the Toronto International Film Festival. In addition, Chris collaborated with Brandon Cronenberg on The Camera and Christopher Merk, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. 

 

 

His first full-length hybrid-musical “Hook Up” premiered to critical acclaim in 2019 and was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Opera. Commissioned and produced by Tapestry Opera, it was lauded as “beautiful, gut-wrenching, and absolutely riveting” (Mooney Theatre). Firmly established as a leading composer and facilitator in contemporary music theatre for young people, Chris regularly works with school boards and top arts organizations across Ontario. Through his work with the Canadian Opera Company’s After-School Opera Program, and the Canadian Children’s Opera Company, Chris has collaborated directly with thousands of students and co-written over 60 musical theatre works. He has also written and produced impactful educational videos on topics of performance, choral singing, and the creative process for the Gryphon Trio’s national school program, “Listen Up!” 

His instrumental music has been performed, recorded, and commissioned by Array Ensemble, the Bicycle Opera Project, Ensemble Paramirabo, Esprit Orchestra, junctQìn keyboard collective, Tapestry Opera, the Thin Edge New Music Collective, and The Toy Piano Composers, of which he was the Co-Founder and Artistic Director for eight seasons. As an avid fan of tabletop games, Chris composes original orchestral music for Dungeons and Dragons campaigns while serving as a game master.

 

 

Also back on the program with lots of exciting news, we have singer/songwriter extraordinaire, Jully Black! 

Jully Black is a true Canadian Icon. Named as one of ‘The 25 Greatest Canadian Singers Ever’, (CBC Music) she has been dubbed ‘Canada’s Queen of R&B Soul’ by fans and industry leaders alike. As a platinum-selling recording artist, her music career has yielded multiple singles reaching the Top 10 pop, R&B and dance music charts. She has taken home Juno and Gemini Awards, earned innumerable industry accolades, was hand selected to sing for the Queen of England and was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2021 (PILLARS OF EXCELLENCE – Arts & Entertainment). 

With her powerhouse vocals, hilarious personality and love of people, Jully Black truly is everyone, and unlike anyone. Her passion for philanthropy has taken her from the shantytowns of Bangladesh to the villages of South Africa and all across Canada. As a woman of faith, she champions important causes and uses her career as a platform to celebrate and inspire the greatness that lies within each of us.

As a songwriter, Jully has touched the hearts of her fans with her extensive music catalogue, her compositions for industry heavyweights, such as Destiny’s Child and Nas, and on collaborations with songwriter, musician and performance titans such as Ian Thornley (Big Wreck). She has shared the stage with superstars such as The Black Eyed Peas, Kanye West, Bon Jovi, Celine Dion, Elton John, Alicia Keys, Etta James, Juno Breakthrough Artist, Jessie Reyez, hot emerging Canadian trap artist Paris Richards at Rolling Loud Festival T.O. Jully also co-headlined Drake’s ‘Road to OVO Fest Tour’ – All Canadian North Stars with Choclair, Kardinal Offishall, Keshia Chante’, K-OS, Maestro Fresh Wes, Saukates, and Shawn Desmond to name a few. 

Jully is a major presence in the Canadian media and entertainment industry. As former host and correspondent for CTV’s etalk, Jully was chosen to interview global megastars such as Jay-Z, Oprah Winfrey, and former President Bill Clinton. Her music has been featured in film and television and she has personally appeared on, co-hosted and been featured on numerous national television programs and speaking platforms including the sizzling and immediately viral CBC ‘Canada Reads’ 2018 appearance, a much-lauded TED Talk, the Global TV feature ‘The First Time I Was Called A…’, CTV’s ‘Canadian Idol’. In 2022 Jully was a contestant on The Amazing Race Canada and she is the popular segment host of ‘Monday Motivation’ on Global TV’s #1 rated, nationwide morning program ‘The Morning Show’. 

Jully’s successful 2018 foray into creating and hosting ‘The Blackout with Jully Black’ (the critically acclaimed, provocative, ebullient and empowering weekly radio show on iHeartRadio – Newstalk1010) along with guest starring roles in the Canadian television crime drama series ‘The Coroner’ (2019) and ‘Diggstown’ (2021) and featured segments in the documentary film features with acclaimed directors and producers, serves to firmly establish her as the preeminent personality in the entertainment arena unlike anyone has in Canadian history. 

Steadfastly maintaining personal fitness and wellness goals remains a priority in Jully’s life. In 2018, she leveraged social media influence and innate leadHERship skill along with unwavering desire to be the bridge that everyone can cross and launched 100 Strong and Sexy (‘100SAS’); Canada’s largest female-founded, curated and led fitness challenge to date. 100SAS was birthed to honour Jully’s late mother; it is the largest Black-founded and led holistic wellness and lifestyle membership-based program with 600+ members of all races who have reclaimed their position of optimal mental, emotional, physical and spiritual

health. In 2020, Jully launched The Power Of Step (‘TPOS’) at the height of the global pandemic and it is now a wildly successful, full-fledged virtual Step Aerobics and Personal Transformation Coaching practice, with worldwide membership. 

With purpose-driven ideals and boundless spiritual fortitude, she continues to refine and reinvent her artistry. A phenom in Canadian entertainment, lifestyle and public speaking arenas, she is also the co-founder and keynote speaker for the renowned “Empowered In My Skin’ women’s empowerment summits, a vocal advocate for the LGBTQ+ communities, recipient of the prestigious BBPA Harry Jerome [Entertainment] Award (2018) and a powerful Personal Development Coach, Speaker Coach and Spiritual Mentor. 

With lead roles in theatre such as The Musical Stage Company’s signature concert feature “Uncovered” (with Music director, Reza Jacobs in collaboration with stars of Stratford, Shaw, Broadway and London’s West End, 2018), and a starring role in the critically acclaimed Mirvish Production of “Da Kink In My Hair” at the renowned Princess of Wales theatre in Toronto, Jully continues to magnify her expansive musical, theatre and television repertoire. 

Jully took the musical theatre world by storm in February, 2020 in her critically acclaimed, starring role as ‘Caroline’ in the Obsidian Theatre and The Musical Stage Company co-production of ‘Caroline, Or Change’ (books and lyrics by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning, Academy Award/Golden Globe/AACTA/ BAFTA Nominated, Tony Kushner). Extolled as “smart, dramatic, emotionally stirring” (NOW Toronto); a “rapturous, musical theatre debut” (The Star), “heavenly glorious” (OnStage Blog), “with the depth as an actor and genius as a singer” and with “applause that shook the leaves on the ceiling of the theatre” (Broadway World); Jully absolutely stunned audiences and critics alike and left her indelible mark on the gorgeous Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre and musical theatre community. 

In June, 2020 Jully won both the coveted Toronto Theatre Critics Award for Best Lead Performance in a Musical and The Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA) highly esteemed Dora Mavor Moore Award (the ‘Dora’) – which recognizes excellence in professional theatre, dance and opera in Toronto – in the Outstanding Performance in a Leading Role, Musical Theatre, category for her role in ‘Caroline, Or Change’. 

Jully released three new singles throughout 2022 from her long-awaited, critically-acclaimed, autobiographical full album ‘Three Rocks and a Slingshot’ (released Sept. 2022). With collaborations with megawatt songwriters and producers Gauntlette ‘VersaceP’ Alexander Jr. (Jully Black Musical Director, Drummer), Luther Brown Jr. (So You Think You Can Dance Canada and L.A.), Kareem James (Giant, GQ, Gap) and KickRaux (Jay-Z, Major Lazer, M.I.A. Ty Dolla Sign, Jack U [Skrillex & Diplo]), Jully entered and dominated the Canadian musical landscape that she has helped define throughout her career. Singles ‘No Relation’, ‘Half Empty’, and ‘Time for Jesus’ playlisted and charted across streaming platforms immediately; with ‘Half Empty’ charting at #1 on the iTunes R&B chart and the album charting at #1 on iTunes R&B chart and #3 on the iTunes ‘All Genre’ chart. 

And of course, Jully Black will share her story about Canada’s national anthem and how she changed Canadian history! With lots of news and a few top-secret projects to be announced very soon, Jully, truly, is doing it all!

Join us this Saturday at 1 PM on Finding Your Bliss. You can follow us @theblissminute on Instagram and Facebook. Or you can visit our online magazine at www.findingyourbliss.com and take one step closer to finding your bliss.

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