Annabelle Chvostek (born October 5, 1973) is a Canadian singer-songwriter based in Toronto, Ontario.

Life and career

Born in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

, she is the daughter of Canadian television producer

Milan Chvostek Milan Chvostek (October 4, 1932 – November 8, 2018) was a producer/director at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He worked on '' A Case for the Court'', ''The Lively Arts'', ''This Hour Has Seven Days'', '' Science Magazine'' and the CBC's f ...

(''

The Nature of Things ''The Nature of Things'' (also, ''The Nature of Things with David Suzuki'') is a Canadian television series of documentary programs. It debuted on CBC Television on 6 November 1960. Many of the programs document nature and the effect that hum ...

'') and journalist

Isobel Warren Isobel Warren (born May 7, 1935) is a Canadian author and journalist. Her journalism background is in newspapers and magazines, radio and television. She was founder of "Hands Magazine", at that time Canada's only national craft publication, and s ...

. Her first gig was with the

Canadian Opera Company The Canadian Opera Company (COC) is an opera company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest opera company in Canada and one of the largest producers of opera in North America. The COC performs in its own opera house, the Four Seasons Cen ...

when she was seven. She got her start in music singing with the Canadian Children's Opera Chorus and performing on television specials with

Anne Murray Morna Anne Murray (born June 20, 1945) is a retired Canadian singer. Her albums, consisting primarily of pop, country, and adult contemporary music, have sold over 55 million copies worldwide during her over 40-year career. Murray was the firs ...

and

Tommy Hunter Thomas James Hunter, CM, O.Ont (born March 20, 1937) is a Canadian country music performer, known as "Canada's Country Gentleman". Career In 1956, he began performing as a rhythm guitarist on the CBC Television show, '' Country Hoedown''. ''Th ...

. She played

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

with her dad and joined in on her mother's repertoire of

Canadian folk songs Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

. At age 14 she started dabbling in audio production and multitrack composition with a four-track tape recorder and a house full of musical instruments and objects to make noise with. At 16 she began writing and performing songs accompanied by guitar. She moved to Montréal in 1995 to study Interdisciplinary Fine Arts at

Concordia University Concordia University (French: ''Université Concordia'') is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College and Sir George Williams University, Concordia is one of the th ...

, and in 1997 released her first recording, '' 1am to 5am''. She launched her singer-songwriter career there with opening sets for

Dar Williams Dorothy Snowden "Dar" Williams (born April 19, 1967) is an American pop folk singer-songwriter from Mount Kisco, New York. Hendrik Hertzberg of ''The New Yorker'' has described Williams as "one of America's very best singer-songwriters." She ...

, Penny Lang,

Veda Hille Veda Hille (born August 11, 1968) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, keyboardist and tenor guitar player from Vancouver, British Columbia. She writes songs about love and tragedy, as well as about topical British Columbia subjects. ...

Kinnie Starr Alida Kinnie Starr (born 1970) is a Canadian multidisciplinary recording artist. Early life Starr was born and raised in Calgary, where she attended Western Canada High School. Her ancestry is French, German, Irish and indigenous, specificall ...

and

Tegan and Sara Tegan and Sara () are a Canadian indie pop duo formed in 1998 in Calgary, Alberta. The band is led by identical twin sisters Tegan Rain Quin and Sara Keirsten Quin (born September 19, 1980). Both musicians are songwriters and multi-instrumental ...

, and started touring Canada sharing the stage with

Rae Spoon Rae Spoon is a Canadian musician and writer. Their musical style has varied from country to electronic-influenced indie rock and folk punk.Po' Girl Po' Girl is a Canadian music group whose style derives from folk, country and jazz. The band evolved from a series of jam sessions, in 2000, between Trish Klein of The Be Good Tanyas and Allison Russell, then of Fear of Drinking. The two met up ...

Bob Snider Bob Snider is a Canadian singer/songwriter. Snider grew up in Toronto and later moved to Bear River, Nova Scotia, Canada. Upon returning to Toronto in the 1980s, he befriended Bob Wiseman and other songwriters in the Toronto open stages at Fat A ...

and many more. After joining The Wailin' Jennys in November 2004, she toured throughout North America, the UK, and Australia, including the 2006 Edmonton Folk Music Festival, featuring a surprise mainstage set with

Bruce Cockburn Bruce Douglas Cockburn ( ; born May 27, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist. His song styles range from folk to jazz-influenced rock and his lyrics cover a broad range of topics including human rights, environmental issues, p ...

. There were multiple appearances on

A Prairie Home Companion ''A Prairie Home Companion'' is a weekly radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor that aired live from 1974 to 2016. In 2016, musician Chris Thile took over as host, and the successor show was eventually renamed '' Live from ...

, including a PBS broadcast on

Great Performances ''Great Performances'' is a television anthology series dedicated to the performing arts; the banner has been used to televise theatrical performances such as plays, musicals, opera, ballet, concerts, as well as occasional documentaries. It is p ...

, live at

Tanglewood Tanglewood is a music venue in the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937. Tanglewood is also home to three music schools: the ...

alongside

Garrison Keillor Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (; born August 7, 1942) is an American author, singer, humorist, voice actor, and radio personality. He created the Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) show '' A Prairie Home Companion'' (called ''Garrison Keillor's Radio ...

and

Meryl Streep Mary Louise Meryl Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress. Often described as "the best actress of her generation", Streep is particularly known for her versatility and accent adaptability. She has received numerous accolades throu ...

, and a collaboration with Keillor and

Bonnie Raitt Bonnie Lynn Raitt (; born November 8, 1949) is an American blues singer and guitarist. In 1971, Raitt released her self-titled debut album. Following this, she released a series of critically acclaimed roots-influenced albums that incorporate ...

. Chvostek has undertaken numerous collaborative projects in music, dance, and new media. She has created songs in collaboration with the bands Millipede and Lake of Stew and with electroacoustic composer

Ned Bouhalassa Ned Bouhalassa (born 25 August 1962 in Le Mans, France) is a composer of film scores, television scores, and electroacoustic music. Bouhalassa is a Canadian citizen, and has been living in Montreal since 1967. In 1993, he began composing tel ...

. Her multi-disciplinary performance in 2004 with Anna Friz, ''

The Automated Prayer Machine ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...

'', toured Europe and Canada. She has produced soundscores for choreographers in Montréal and New York, including five works for choreographer

Aviva Geismar Aviva plc is a British multinational insurance company headquartered in London, England. It has about 18 million customers across its core markets of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada. In the United Kingdom, Aviva is the largest gener ...

/Drastic Action. Her self-produced first full-length CD ''

Full Stop The full stop ( Commonwealth English), period ( North American English), or full point , is a punctuation mark. It is used for several purposes, most often to mark the end of a declarative sentence (as distinguished from a question or exclam ...

'' in 2000 was included as a number 7 spot on the national

campus radio Campus radio (also known as college radio, university radio or student radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively created or produc ...

charts. That year, she also collaborated with

to produce Bija, an experimental electro-acoustic project. She was a finalist of the CBC big break awards and released ''

Water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as ...

'' in 2003 with support from the

Canada Council The Canada Council for the Arts (french: Conseil des arts du Canada), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It acts as the federal government's principal in ...

. In 2005 she created a stripped-down solo EP called ''

Burned My Ass ''Burned My Ass'' is an album released in 2004 by Annabelle Chvostek. The initial track, "Devil's Paintbrush Road", was re-worked by The Wailin' Jennys for the album ''Firecracker A firecracker (cracker, noise maker, banger) is a small e ...

'', hit No. 1 in the roots category on the national campus radio charts, and helped land her a job with

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...

roots A root is the part of a plant, generally underground, that anchors the plant body, and absorbs and stores water and nutrients. Root or roots may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''The Root'' (magazine), an online magazine focusing ...

harmony trio

the Wailin' Jennys The Wailin' Jennys are a Canadian music group. They have released several albums and received two Juno Awards. The group has been featured several times on the American Public Media program ''A Prairie Home Companion'' and their album ''Fire ...

, with whom she sang alto and played guitar, mandolin, and violin. The songs she contributed to the band's repertoire include "The Devil's Paintbrush Road", "Swallow", "Apocalypse Lullaby", and "Firecracker", all of which appear on the Wailin' Jennys'

June June is the sixth month of the year in the Julian calendar, Julian and Gregorian calendars and is the second of four months to have a length of 30 days, and the third of five months to have a length of less than 31 days. June contains the summ ...

2006 release, ''

Firecracker A firecracker (cracker, noise maker, banger) is a small explosive device primarily designed to produce a large amount of noise, especially in the form of a loud bang, usually for celebration or entertainment; any visual effect is incidental to ...

'', produced by

David Travers-Smith David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

. She left the Jennys in 2007 to return to composition and solo performance. In 2008 Annabelle Chvostek released "

Resilience Resilience, resilient, resiliency, or ''variation'', may refer to: Science Ecology * Ecological resilience, the capacity of an ecosystem to recover from perturbations ** Climate resilience, the ability of systems to recover from climate change * ...

" produced by Roma Baran (

Laurie Anderson Laurel Philips Anderson (born June 5, 1947), known as Laurie Anderson, is an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician, and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and ...

) and Vivian Stoll (Isis). It was nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award in the Contemporary Album of the Year category and includes a co-write with Bruce Cockburn. Annabelle's 2012 album ''Rise'' was produced by Don Kerr and was nominated for a JUNO Award and a Canadian Folk Music Award. In 2015 she released ''Be The Media'', produced by Jeff Oehler of Beehive Production. Her latest release ''String of Pearls'' was co-produced by David Travers-Smith, Fernando Rosa, and Annabelle Chvostek. It was recorded in Canada and Uruguay and features tango, classical, and jazz musicians from both countries.

Discography

* ''1am to 5am'' (cassette tape; 1997) * '' Bija'' (2000) * ''

'' (2000) * ''

'' (2003) * ''

'' (2004) * '' What is Indie? (compilation)'' (2006) * '' Firecracker (The Wailin' Jennys)'' (2006) * ''

'' (2008) * '' Live From Folk Alley'' (2011) * ''

Rise Rise or RISE may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * '' Rise: The Vieneo Province'', an internet-based virtual world * Rise FM, a fictional radio station in the video game ''Grand Theft Auto 3'' * Rise Kujikawa, a vide ...

'' (2012) * '' Be the Media'' (2015) * ''String of Pearls'' (2021) *
Primavera III: the vessel
' (2022)

References

External links

Official web site

The Wailin' Jennys
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chvostek, Annabelle 1973 births Living people Musicians from Toronto Canadian people of Slovak descent Canadian classical guitarists Canadian women singer-songwriters Canadian folk guitarists Canadian women folk guitarists Canadian folk singer-songwriters Canadian folk violinists Canadian rock violinists Canadian lesbian musicians Canadian LGBT singers Canadian LGBT songwriters Singers from Montreal Canadian women guitarists 21st-century Canadian composers 21st-century Canadian women singers 21st-century Canadian guitarists 21st-century Canadian violinists and fiddlers The Wailin' Jennys members Lesbian singers Lesbian songwriters 20th-century Canadian LGBT people 21st-century Canadian LGBT people Canadian women composers Canadian women violinists and fiddlers 21st-century women guitarists