“…an intense and engaging performer…” ~ Geoff Chapman – The WholeNote, Toronto.
Pianist and composer Michelle Grégoire’s music has been described as “ingenious”, “elegant”, “balanced”, and “original with great depth and imagination”. She has toured across Canada with her jazz quintet and her music is heard regularly on XM Radio and Galaxie satellite jazz programs. An active freelance musician since 1984, Michelle Grégoire maintains a solid reputation as a sideperson and band leader having backed up artists in all genres. She has worked regularly in the pit orchestras of local theatre companies like Theatre Calgary, StageWest, and Winnipeg’s Rainbow Stage. Grégoire holds two jazz degrees from St. Francis Xavier University (1988, 1990), a Master of Music degree in Jazz Studies from the Florida State University (1993) and has attended the Hugh Fraser Jazz Orchestra Residency in Banff where she worked with Maria Schneider in 2002 and Kenny Wheeler in 2004. Grégoire has also studied privately with world-renowned composer Bob Brookmeyer. Since the Fall 2014, she has been on faculty at Ambrose University in Calgary teaching Jazz Piano. More bio information here.
“Her ingenious creations are all of interest” ~ Toronto Star
“One of Canada’s most intriguing jazz composers” ~ Ottawa Citizen
News
New Video
Michelle Grégoire presents a brief tutorial on how to get the left hand going for playing solo piano, specifically how to navigate the left hand on non-ballad swing type tunes. These quick techniques allow you to work up a more automatic accompaniment so that you can focus on melody and improvisation in the right hand.