I love working on projects large and small that integrate a wide variety of skills and people. Some of these projects are:
- Cafe des Voix – a performance workshop to make singing opportunities available and accessible to the community. Find out more about Cafe des Voix here
- Stories to Songs – a project that teams up songwriters and seniors to create a song with the seniors narrative. Find out more about Stories to Songs here
- Dogtown the Musical – a new musical written by Roy Ness and Grant Simpson was brought to life at the Yukon Arts Centre and ran from Sept 6-10th, 2022. Read more about it here.
- Silent Movie Nights – I have been playing piano behind silent movies since I was a young teenager. I used to put our home movies on and improvise music behind them. I love playing for them because you are completely in the moment improvising mood music to some of the funniest and most beautiful filmography in history. Find out when the next silent movie night is.
- Jonesy & Simpson – is my duo with my partner Shauna Jones whose voice is perfect for the 1920s, 30s and 40s music that we love to play together. More about Jonesy & Simpson here:
- Piano playing – is one of my favorite things to do. And piano playing has taken me from Vancouver Island where I grew up, to the Yukon, Alaska, Mexico, USA, Caribbean, Korea, China and across Canada many times. Find my piano albums here:
- Producing Albums: I enjoy producing recordings of other artists. In 2019 we completed “Broccoli Farm” a kids album by the one and only Claire Ness. Claire is an outstanding artist and a quintessential entertainer. Broccoli Farm was the recipient of the 2020 Canadian Folk Music Awards for Best Kids Album of the Year. It was also recently the recipient of the Western Canadian Music Award for Children’s Album of the Year. Check out Claire Ness here
- Creator of Podcasts and Radio Shows. I have produced several podcasts including “Wednesday Night Folk” with Mitch Podolak, The Vaudeville Podcast and “The Prairie Vaudeville Radio Show” Find out more about Podcasts and Radio Shows I have produced here:
- Composing, Arranging and Sound Design are all things that are constantly going on behind the scenes while life and other gigs roll along. These are the projects that require solitude and a slowing down of time and are essential to the balance in my life. Find out more about my compositions and sound design projects here:
- Other Instruments: Although Piano is my home – I spend a lot of time on guitar, banjo, musical saw, ukulele, various synths, organs, Theremins, accordion, concertina, recorders, tin whistles and bells and bongs. I love sound and I love mixing rustic acoustic sounds with synthesized sounds that I create. My mind is definitely a full-time musical playground – and I guess I never left the playground.
If you want to know about me as a musician, producer, composer and performer – my personal CV is available here: Grant Simpson CV 2021