Halifax, NS – Halifax singer-songwriter Mo Kenney joins Symphony Nova Scotia for a stunning  night of music on Friday, October 21 at 7:30 pm at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium in Halifax.

With her warm voice, rich songwriting, and growing stockpile of local and national awards, Mo Kenney is one of Nova Scotia’s hottest rising stars. She’s a “self-confident and talented songwriter” (Rolling Stone, Germany), and her “smart songwriting” (The Guardian), “excellent guitar work” (The Revue), and “instinctual melodic power pop” (Irish Times) have earned her rave reviews worldwide.

Mo’s first appearance with Symphony Nova Scotia was in 2013 as a guest of Halifax icon Joel Plaskett, a longtime supporter of her career. Both performances of that concert were audience favourites, selling out well in advance and earning enthusiastic feedback.

“This is one of the shows I’ve always dreamed of playing,” says Mo.

“After joining Joel Plaskett and the Symphony in 2013, and I’m thrilled to be playing my own show. Playing with the Symphony is an amazing experience and I am really looking forward to it. It’ll be one for the books.”

Praise for Mo Kenney includes:

• “Mo’s powerful voice and rock/folk sound seem to garner notoriety wherever she goes.” (Local Connections Halifax)
• “A confident and experimental-leaning musician.” (Exclaim!)
• “Kenney sings her face off, and consistently writes songs that capture the best of indie rock and singer-songwriter folk. I imagine Adele, playing a distorted guitar.” (The Walleye)
• “One of the most refreshing things about Mo Kenney is that her performance and stories are completely raw. There are no extravagancies to cover it up. Her talent is intensified by its simplicity; her stories are relatable yet mysterious.” (Soupe Kitchen)

This concert will be conducted by the award-winning Canadian conductor Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser, and the lineup includes:

• Field Song
• In My Dreams
• Wind Will Blow
• Dancing
• Sucker
• Five Years
• Scene of the Crime
• In My Lungs

All orchestral arrangements of Mo’s music are by Rebecca Pellett.

The concert will also feature orchestral versions of Sufjan Stevens’ Adlai Stevenson and Radiohead’s Let Down, with arrangements by conductor Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser.

This concert is part of the Halifax Pop Explosion, Halifax’s biggest annual pop music festival. For more details about this year’s HPX lineup, click here.

Tickets for Mo Kenney and Symphony Nova Scotia are extremely limited. Ticket prices begin at $30 (HST included), and you can save up to 35% by purchasing a ticket package. Tickets are available at the Dalhousie Arts Centre box office (6101 University Avenue, Halifax), at 902.494.3820, or online at symphonynovascotia.ca.

 

About Mo Kenney 

Mo Kenney is a Canadian singer-songwriter based in Waverley, Nova Scotia.

In My Dreams is the stunningly accomplished and exciting follow up to Mo’s much-decorated and universally-acclaimed self-titled debut. Released in Canada in 2014, and in the U.K., Germany, and Ireland in 2015, In My Dreams showcases an artist who has grown in every facet of her craft – as a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and performer.

The record swiftly secured an East Coast Music Award for Pop Recording of the Year in 2015, to sit alongside the same trophy that was bestowed upon its predecessor, which also took home a Canadian Folk Music Award for New/Emerging Artist of the Year and no fewer than three Nova Scotia Music Awards. Later in 2015, In My Dreams won four Music Nova Scotia Awards, taking home Recording of the Year, Pop Recording of the Year, Solo Recording of the Year, and Music Video of the Year for the video for its lead single, “Telephones”. This song was also nominated by CBC for Earworm of the Year.

As well as having toured in Canada with Joel Plaskett, Ron Sexsmith, Frank Turner, and extensively in her own right, Mo is no stranger to international audiences. She has played festivals in Iceland, England, Germany, Australia, and the U.K. In the fall of 2015, she promoted the release of In My Dreams with a tour throughout the U.K., Germany, and Ireland, and quickly returned to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland for an opening slot for Swedish indie rockers Friska Viljor a few short weeks later.

This is Mo’s second concert appearance with Symphony Nova Scotia after her sold-out, two-concert collaboration with Joel Plaskett in 2013.

 

About Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser, conductor

Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser has worked with some of the foremost conductors of this generation; among them are Mark Elder, Clark Rundell, Baldur Bronnimann, Arthur Post, and Kenneth Kiesler. He is currently Assistant Conductor of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony in Ontario. Previous to his appointment in Kitchener-Waterloo, he was Assistant and then Associate Conductor of the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra.

A passionate communicator, Daniel brings clarity and meaning to the concert hall, fostering deep connections between audiences and their performers. Daniel has appeared as a guest conductor with the Calgary Philharmonic, Eastern Sierra Symphony, and Rochester Philharmonic, and he appears regularly with Symphony Nova Scotia. Daniel has been re-invited to the San Francisco Symphony for this season.

Daniel earned the Faculty of Fine Arts Gold Medal at the University of Calgary along with a Bachelor of Education and a Diploma of Fine Arts in Advanced Wind Conducting. He studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England, where he earned the Royal Northern College’s James Kershaw Memorial Scholarship, Brierley Conducting Prize, David Frederick-Baker Memorial Prize, and the degree of Master of Philosophy in Music Performance.

He has been awarded the Canada Council for the Arts’ Jean-Marie Beaudet Prize for Orchestral Conducting and was recently awarded an RBC Royal Bank Emerging Artist Grant.

 

About Symphony Nova Scotia

Symphony Nova Scotia is Nova Scotia’s orchestra. Each year more than 50,000 audience members (including 15,000 young music lovers) join us in communities across Nova Scotia for performances of the music they love – from baroque and classical to pop and rock and folk. Under the inspirational leadership of Music Director Bernhard Gueller, Symphony Nova Scotia is one of the most broadcast orchestras in the country, with over 20 commercial releases and multiple East Coast Music Awards. Visit symphonynovascotia.ca to learn more, listen online, or get tickets today!

###

For more information, please contact:

Heidi MacPhee
Director of Communications and Marketing, Symphony Nova Scotia
902.421.5264
[email protected]
symphonynovascotia.ca