Canadian actress, playwright, and jazz singer Andrea Menard and guest conductor Charles T. Cozens will team up with the Regina Symphony Orchestra for a swingin’ night of Big Band music. Charles T. Cozens will join the RSO as guest conductor for the evening.

Andrea Menard

Andrea Menard is an extremely versatile, powerhouse performer who crosses cultural and language boundaries by speaking from her heart. Menard is a true renaissance woman; she is an actor, a singer, a writer, and an ambassador, excelling in the four creative areas of her life that make up her own personal medicine wheel.

This multi-talented, Métis (Native Canadian) singer/songwriter and actress dazzles audiences on screen and stage, singing alone or accompanied by a 50-piece orchestra, or struggling to conquer obstacles in her magnetic television roles in Rabbit Fall and Blackstone.

Andrea Menard’s commanding presence as a strong Métis woman resonates in the strong characters she plays on television. And her voice, which is lyrical, raw, and reminiscent of the jazz and blues singers of the 1940's, captures the depth, humour and wisdom of her ancestors.

Menard’s most recent album, Sparkle, is featured in a 70-minute, television holiday special, called Sparkle: An Evening with Andrea Menard. The show, which was broadcast on APTN during the 2010 and 2011 holiday season, garnered a 2011 Gemini nomination her outstanding performance. Her first music video, Evergreen, was nominated for “Best Music Video” at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards and was screened at several international film festivals.

Menard’s second album, Simple Steps, describes her experiences and reflections of her place in the world as a proud Métis woman. The 12 original songs, written with long-time collaborator and producer Robert Walsh, honour the music Menard grew up with. Simple Steps won multiple awards for its outstanding performance and production and the second single, “100 Years,”  hit charts on radio stations nationally and internationally.

The Velvet Devil. Menard's debut CD features original jazz songs from her hit one-woman musical stage play, The Velvet Devil, that continues to take Canada by storm. In 2006, The Velvet Devil was made into an award-winning television movie for CBC, produced by WestWind Pictures (Little Mosque on the Prairie) and for which Menard was nominated “Best Performance by an Actress” at the Gemini Awards.

Andrea recently landed a role in the medical drama, Hard Rock Medical, shooting in Northern Ontario, and is also part of the all-star cast of Blackstone, the edgy dramatic series about politics on a reserve. She is well-known for her award-winning lead roles as Constable Tara Wheaton in the supernatural crime drama, Rabbit Fall, Kokum and Sarah in the stop-motion animation tv series, Wapos Bay, and Amanda Strongeagle in the gritty dramatic series, Moccasin Flats. All three performances garnered nominations for Gemini Awards in the “Best Actress in Leading Dramatic Role in a Continuing Series” category.

Recently, Andrea Menard is in the process of recording her new album, Lift and co-writing a mini-series about the awakening human and our reclamation of indigenous knowledge and divine feminine power.
    
Visit her website at
http://www.andreamenard.com