Manitoba Music

Heather is undoubtedly one of Manitoba's best-known and well-rounded musicians. Her career has spanned over 3 decades and taken her around the world. She performs to both children and adults and has garnered numerous awards including JUNO nominations, a WCMA Award, and Parent's Choice Gold Awards. She has also been awarded both the Order of Canada and the Order of Manitoba.

In 1976 Heather formed her own recording company. Mother of...

Heather is undoubtedly one of Manitoba's best-known and well-rounded musicians. Her career has spanned over 3 decades and taken her around the world. She performs to both children and adults and has garnered numerous awards including JUNO nominations, a WCMA Award, and Parent's Choice Gold Awards. She has also been awarded both the Order of Canada and the Order of Manitoba.

In 1976 Heather formed her own recording company. Mother of Pearl Records, Inc. She was one of the first Canadian musicians to make her own album and helped to start the trend of independent labels in Canada. The Canadian independent recording industry has become one of the most vibrant parts of the Canadian music business. She has gone on to record 14 albums, selling close to 200,000 copies world wide from her rural based company in southern Manitoba.

Heather Bishop is a well known name at all the major Canadian Folk Festivals as well as all the Children's Festivals in this country. She has performed with almost every major symphony orchestra in Canada as well as a few in the USA. Heather was a regular guest performer on the internationally acclaimed Fred Penner Show. She has also been a regular performer at the two largest Women's festivals in the USA since their inception.

Internationally, Heather has toured Scotland, Wales, and Australia. She has done well in Australia, touring there several years in a row.

Heather has always believed that music is one of the most effective tools for change and has dedicated her career to addressing the issues facing our society that need changing. She has been a champion of women's rights and gay rights, sacrificing gain in her own career to stand behind her truth and her beliefs. Heather was the first publicly 'out' Lesbian to perform at major Canadian Folk Festivals, thereby breaking down the barriers for Gays and Lesbians in the music industry.

To try to record the sheer number of benefit performances Heather has given and the diversity of the causes that she has generously supported with her music would be an impossible task. Suffice it to say that she is always called upon and readily gives her time to any worthy cause needing her talents.

She has been awarded the prestigious YWCA Woman of the Year Distinction Award, the Spirit of Smith Street Award for outstanding community service to the Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and Transgendered Communities, and the Manitoba Award for the Gay Community.

In her spare time Heather donates her energy to numerous worthy causes. She gave a month of her time driving her own support vehicle for Habitat for Humanity's Bike Atlanta trip which raised over a quarter of a million dollars. She was a founding member of Manitoba Music and currently remains on the board. In addition she sits on the board of Manitoba Film and Music.

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Heather Bishop website