Manitoba Live Music Event

About

The West End Cultural Centre is pleased to announce a new concert series called ‘Bring Your Own Mic’. This ticketed, livestream concert series will present the best of Manitoba Music from the WECC stage for our audiences to watch online.

We at the West End Cultural Centre understand the restrictions and complications that came with Covid-19. We were heartbroken to have to reschedule and cancel dozens of events on our spring & summer and even into our fall Calendar. However, we remain steadfast in our mandate to support local artists and bring great music to audiences in our community.

We have watched the rise of live-streaming and how it has allowed artists to stay connected with their fans. At the same time, we also realize that live-streaming is complicated for artists to use as a source of revenue. As we watch other industries slowly return to work, and we are acutely aware that the live music industry will be one of the last to go back to what we called normal. So we must adapt and change. 

So we’re asking music listeners, from Manitoba abroad, to join us for ‘Bring Your Own Mic’, a series of ticketed, live-streamed concerts by select Manitoba artists brought to our audiences through an accessible $2 paywall and streamed on Vimeo. The funds will go to artists in the same way they do when you attend an “in person” show. Each concert will be produced by the the West End’s skilled technicians; all Manitoba labour, and we are essentially turning the WECC into a television studio. “We are working to give audiences as close of an in-person show experience as we can” says WECC Artistic Coordinator Jorge Requena Ramos. “We knew that there was a way to do live-streaming right for both artists and audiences. We just had to figure out how.” 

At the WECC the safety of our patrons, performers, staff, and volunteers is one of our main priorities. For each livestream, we are ensuring performers arrive to a clean and already set up stage (and yes, as the concert series title suggests, we are asking them to bring their own microphones). The live stream will be produced by our in-house team With a minimal crew, we are still able to present a high-quality shows while still practicing appropriate social distancing. 

ABOUT RAYANNAH

Rayannah bends noise into music by running voice, breath, synth and percussion through loop pedals. Underscored by intricate beat-making, her evocative lyrics in French and English rise above dense soundscapes, pulling listeners into a world both dark and sweet.

Innovative on stage and in the studio, Rayannah unveiled her first full length album Nos repaires (Our Haunts) on March 8, 2019. This new collection of songs pursues and pushes the sounds and textures explored in Rayannah’s debut EP "Boxcar Lullabies."

Born and raised in Winnipeg, Rayannah has taken her electro-alternative sound across Canada and Europe. In 2019, Rayannah was named “Francophone Artist of the Year” and “Producer of the Year” along with her colleague Mario Lepage at the Western Canadian Music Awards. Rayannah and Mario were the first francophones ever to receive this honour.

Whether opening for Esperanza Spalding, Ariane Moffatt or Saul Williams, fronting her band or performing alone on stage, Rayannah shares something raw, intimate, and transcendent all at once.