Projects
Stephanie Urquhart Quartet
Formed in 2014, the Stephanie Urquhart Quartet has performed across Canada, most notably at TD Edmonton International Jazz Festival, JazzYYC Festival, L’Off Festival de Jazz de Montréal, and Yardbird Festival of Canadian Jazz. The music has been featured in the 2017 and 2019 International Jazz Composer’s Symposiums in the United States of America.
Their debut album Concealment was nominated for Best Jazz Album by One World Music Awards. Reminiscent of Esbjörn Svensson Trio, Phronesis, Tigran Hamasyan, Concealment works on the boundaries between structurally determined and more freely improvised music, blending the melodic intimacy of traditional jazz music with modern complexities and virtuosic performances. Written as a reflection of her experiences with with depression, Concealment engages the listener with beautiful melodies and compositions telling Stephanie’s story about developing depression, and the healing and acceptance that followed.
“This music is what might be called a ‘high art.’ Like a musical wave that is balanced with rhythmic complexity that is very strong yet emotional and understandable. Stephanie has composed music that is engagingly joyous and always fresh sounding with beautiful melodies and orchestrations that never lose the audience or the players. The CD is written somewhat like a suite of pieces that tell the story through and evolving development of the material. The pieces have a variety of tempos, textures, and timbres that convincingly express the broad scope, the emotions, and insight of the composer and her bandmates. She is not afraid to play a (dead) slow tempo and pulls it off with great feeling and conviction for example one of my favourites: “Treading Water” is a case in point. But many of her pieces have tempo changes or perhaps a rhythmic style change to build the pieces through out—there is never a dull moment.” - Charlie Austin
Stephanie Urquhart Jazz Orchestra
Stephanie Urquhart Jazz Orchestra is the moniker for when Stephanie leads a Big Band with her own music whether in Edmonton or Montreal.
With intimate knowledge of the Big Band, Stephanie has an abundance of experience in the genre both as a player and composer. She started out playing trumpet in her jr. high school’s big band for 3 years, then trombone in her high school’s big band for 3 years where she also began transcribing big band charts and arranging music for the group. She then moved to Edmonton to attend MacEwan University’s music program where she played piano in the MacEwan Big Band 1 for 4 years, and started composing for big bands. Afterwards she moved to Montreal pursuing her Masters of Music at McGill University where she played piano in the McGill Jazz Orchestra 1 for her first year, and was the composer-in-residence for the same group her second year.
Though only casually still playing trumpet and trombone, Stephanie finds that her experiences playing in 3 different sections of the big band have immensely helped her writing and given her a unique perspective on the music.
Stephanie has also performed on piano with the Edmonton Jazz Orchestra, Yardbird Suite Jazz Orchestra, Don Berner Big Band, and has written for the MacEwan Generations Big Band, MacEwan Alumni/Faculty Big Band, McGill Jazz Orchestra I, River City Big Band, and the Seattle Women’s Jazz Orchestra.
Experience Points
Edmonton based video-game band, Experience Points, is a collaboration of Edmonton musicians. The critically acclaimed band has been performing live since early 2017 with notable shows such as performing with Video Games Live at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton, and opening for The Runaway Four at Bonus Stage 2019 in Vancouver. The bands first album Try Blowing on the Cartridge, a conglomeration of classic video game tunes, was released in September 2018, and their second, K.K. & The Sliders, was released November 2021 and features Animal Crossing music
“…they bring real ingenuity, talent and enthusiasm to the job.”
- Roger Levesque, The Edmonton Journal
“Video games arguably should be one thing: fun.
Experience Points brings that quality in spades with high-energy
covers that combine funk, jazz, and groove into a frenzy of
delightful twists on melodies with creative on-the-fly improvisation.”
- Chris Penwell, Vue Weekly
“Their music has a light, energetic, and whimsical tone that whisks a listener into an upbeat and fun atmosphere. Watching the band have fun on stage is contagious, leaving listeners tapping their feet to the rhythm or swaying with the sound. It’s easy to feel the personalities of the band members come to life in the music they play.”
- Atharv Vohra, The Gateway
“…if these people are going to make more music and release it,
I’m going to keep throwing money at them.”
- Josh Shenfield, Press Start to Join
Ruiqi Wang Double Quartet
Ruiqi Wang Double Quartet is an all-female band consisting of voice (Ruiqi Wang), piano (Stephanie Urquhart), bass (Summer Kodama), drums (Mili Hong), and string quartet (Craft Ensemble). In fall 2022, this ensemble recorded 11 tracks of music composed and arranged by Ruiqi. They will be release as Ruiqi’s debut album Subduing the Silence in October 2023.
Ruiqi’s music creates a unique and uncatagorizable sonic world that stands at the intersection of jazz and classical music. Drawing influences from composers such as Ornette Coleman, Abbey Lincoln, Béla Bartók, Maurice Ravel, John Hollenbeck and Meredith Monk, Ruiqi integrates her practice in Deep Listening practice developed by Pauline Oliveros, and her heritage in traditional Chinese music into her composition and improvisation style.
