Award-winning contemporary composer and singer/songwriter Carmen Braden is a dynamic force in the world of new music, hailing proudly from Yellowknife NWT. Carmen is a “multi-talented artist” (BK on the Scene) recognized as an “acoustic ambassador of the Canadian Subarctic” (Musicworks). She has played intimate theatres and main stage folk festivals, and smoothly jumps between genres of songwriting and composing. Her contemporary classical compositions are nationally recognized, with commissions and performances by world class ensembles and performers including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, James Ehnes and the Canadian Chamber Choir.
Carmen has released three studio albums: Seed Songs (2021), Songs of the Invisible Summer Stars (2019) and Ravens (2017) with the fourth due out in fall 2024. Carmen has been nationally recognized, winning the Western Canadian Music Award for Classical Composer of the Year in both 2020 and 2019. Additional nominations include Classical Album of the Year 2020 (East Coast Music Award - Songs of the Invisible Summer Stars), Classical Artist of the Year (WCMA 2019), and Classical Composition of the Year (WCMA 2017).
About her music: “a spacious and rich journey into how we as humans internalize and connect to our environment (The Sound Cafe - for Seed Songs) “Braden’s music is clear, and it is bright…this recording is captured psychogeography.” (Whole Note - for Songs of the Invisible Summer Stars); and her songwriting: is “quirky and clever…à la Joni Mitchell” (The WholeNote - for Ravens).
As an educator, Carmen regularly gives workshops, individual instruction, guest lectures and collaboration facilitation ranging from elementary-level to university graduate level, both online and in-person. Carmen has most recently begun to work as a producer in Yellowknife, and a presenter of unusual music concerts including the Longshadow Music Festival.
Carmen performs her quirky folk songs with jazz-inspired ensembles, often dipping seamlessly into her classical explorations. From intimate theatre stages to folkfest mainstages, Carmen brings sincerity and curiosity to her live performances. Carmen will be touring music from her body of work as a songwriter including the soon to be released A Hard Light.
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