Amy Mcconnell & William Sperandei at Jazz Bistro

Amy McConnell and William Sperandei received a 2014 JUNO Award nomination in the Vocal Jazz Album of the Year category for their debut album“Stealing Genuis”. Last year was a big year for McConnell and Sperandei. The pair reached the top of the Jazz charts across Canada, as well as received rave reviews in the Toronto Star, The Globe & Mail and The Whole Note (to name a few). To top it off, some even predicted this nomination! “For its jaw-dropping chutzpah~‘Stealing Genius’~deserves a Juno… Sperandei’s playing is lush and well-matched to McConnell voice. Pianist Mark Kieswetter’s arrangements are intuitively right and Douglas Romanow’s production brings a big-money feel” –Peter Goddard, Toronto Star...

read more

Amy McConnell and William Sperandei received a 2014 JUNO Award nomination in the Vocal Jazz Album of the Year category for their debut album“Stealing Genuis”. Last year was a big year for McConnell and Sperandei. The pair reached the top of the Jazz charts across Canada, as well as received rave reviews in the Toronto Star, The Globe & Mail and The Whole Note (to name a few). To top it off, some even predicted this nomination! “For its jaw-dropping chutzpah~‘Stealing Genius’~deserves a Juno… Sperandei’s playing is lush and well-matched to McConnell voice. Pianist Mark Kieswetter’s arrangements are intuitively right and Douglas Romanow’s production brings a big-money feel” –Peter Goddard, Toronto Star

AMY MCCONNELL has been performing from the age of nine months when she appeared in her first television commercial. Amy continued her childhood career as a regular on the TfO TV series “Téléfrançais” and in various professional theatrical productions such as “The Sound of Music” and “A Christmas Carol.” Amy went on to win a scholarship to study musical theatre performance at the American Academy of Musical and Dramatic Arts in Manhattan. Studying acting made Amy feel (and it has had this effect on countless actors before her) that what she really wanted to do was direct. Amy returned to Toronto to study film at Ryerson Polytechnic University and has since become an award winning film and commercial director. However, Amy has never been able to resist the siren song of… song and she splits her time between film and music. ”Stealing Genius” is her first album. Despite her anglophone name, Amy comes from a francophone background, is fluently bilingual and frequently performs in French. Known for her beautiful voice, impeccable intonation and emotional approach, Amy’s style encompasses jazz, pop and musical theatre.

WILLIAM SPERANDEI (trumpeter, pianist) is a Toronto musician, composer, arranger, and bandleader. His love of the trumpet began in grade school where he studied privately with Bram Smith. He continued his education at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, on a full scholarship and for two and a half years studied classical music and played in diverse ensembles including orchestra, wind ensemble, brass trio, and jazz ensemble, as well as leading his own jazz quintet. At the recommendation of Wynton Marsalis, Sperandei left Canada to continue his studies at the University of New Orleans under the direction of Ellis Marsalis. During the time he lived in Louisiana, he played with some of the best of the best including Nicholas Payton, Marcus Roberts, Ellis Marsalis, Harold Battiste, Victor Goines, Charmaine Neville, and Harry Connick Jr. and in 1992, two years prior to his graduation from the UNO, he opened for Wynton Marsalis at the Rome Jazz Festival. It was during the same 1992 European tour Sperandei undertook a stint teaching jazz improvisation at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. As a player, William has appeared on over 100 recordings in the classical, jazz, pop, electronic and film genres and has also arranged music for dozens of artists. William recently performed as the trumpet of Louis Armstrong in the live film score for the biopic “Louis” written by Wynton Marsalis.

MUSIC STARTS AT 9pm MUSIC CHARGE $15.00

show less