Lucky 7 Performance Series Fosters Collaboration in Winnipeg Music Scene

Winnipeg is renowned for its music and arts scene, which has a certain DIY ethos and an openness to collaboration. Local music fans have a new opportunity to see that in action with pilot performance series Lucky 7.

Launched in February by bassis/composer/musician/teacher Ashley Au, the vision behind Lucky 7 is to create a space that fosters collaboration and community-building for performers, in an environment that encourages audiences to engage with music that is unfamiliar and exciting.

Au's idea is to bring together two artists/ensembles from different backgrounds, disciplines, and genres to play a show. Au describes it like a kind-of musical blind date, one that hopes to cultivate a more sustainable nightlife for performers and venues in a different kind of setting for audiences. 

The concerts feature two individual sets from each artist followed by one set where the two collaborate live. 

The first instalment featured Gabriela Ocejo & Matt Foster and Savant Flaneur at artist-run gallery aceart inc. in the heart of the Exchange District. 

The second instalment will return to aceart inc. on May 23 with Marisolle Negash and cellist Natanielle Felicitas. 

Habesha/Filipina-Canadian multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Marisolle Negash is an independent R&B artist from Winnipeg. Classically trained from the age of 9, she is equal parts powerful technique and fluid writer. Hooking her audience with dissonant harmony and poignant questions, she is a performer of vulnerability and abandonment. Debuting her work at the TD Winnipeg International Jazz Festival in 2017, Negash has been adding to her catalogue as she prepares to release her debut EP. 

Natanielle Felicitas is an experienced freelance collaborator whose intuitive style resonates with a broad range of audiences and performers alike. Comfortable with crossing genres, she draws from her classical training to accompany musicians from folk music to experimental noise projects. Currently collaborating and touring with Raine Hamilton, Felicitas has also worked with JP Hoe, KEN Mode, Joanne Pollock, Madeleine Roger, and more. She's also part of experimental trio Civvie, which improvise ambient and gritty music with amplified bassoon, cello, and weaving loom. 

Stay tuned for a third installment this September, and more dates to be announced.