Sharon "Shari" Ulrich (born 17 October 1951) is a Canadian/American musician and songwriter. She has also worked as a television host, actress, film composer, and educator. A multi-instrumentalist, she plays

Violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

Mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

, guitar, piano, and

Dulcimer The term dulcimer refers to two families of musical string instruments. Hammered dulcimers The word ''dulcimer'' originally referred to a trapezoidal zither similar to a psaltery whose many strings are struck by handheld "hammers". Variants of ...

. She has been nominated for a

Juno Award The Juno Awards (stylized as JUNOS), or simply known as the Junos, are awards presented by Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in Canada's mu ...

four times, winning " Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year" in 1982. At the

15th Genie Awards The 15th Genie Awards were held on December 7, 1994 to honour Canadian films released in 1993. Actor Graham Greene hosted the ceremony. Building on the success of its Genie specials of the last two years, the academy and the CBC produced two show ...

in 1994, Ulrich, Graeme Coleman and David Graff received a

Genie Award The Genie Awards were given out annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to recognize the best of Canadian cinema from 1980–2012. They succeeded the Canadian Film Awards (1949–1978), known as the "Etrog Awards" for sculptor ...

nomination for Best Original Song, for the song "Every Road", which appeared in the film ''

Max Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (American dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (British dog), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of the OBE) * Max (gorilla) ...

''.

Early life

Ulrich was born in San Rafael,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

to Esther and Stanley Ulrich; she was the youngest of three children. Esther was proficient on piano, while Stanley (who worked in banking), played the recorder for relaxation. Shari picked up music early, playing violin at age nine. Stanley died when Shari was 10 years old, leaving Esther to raise their family as a single parent. Ulrich moved to

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

at the age of 18.

Career

Ulrich performed on the coffeehouse circuit around

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

in the early 1970s. In 1973, she met up with Rick Scott and Joe Mock, and together they formed Pied Pumkin which first performed that year. Ulrich toured with

Valdy Paul Valdemar Horsdal, (born 1 September 1945), commonly known as Valdy, is a Canadian folk and country musician whose solo career began in the early 1970s. He is known for "Rock and Roll Song", his first mainstream single. Valdy is the winner o ...

in 1976 as a member of The Hometown Band."Folk trio BTU serves up a solid set of new material on Tightrope Walk"
''The Guardian'', February 20, 2016 After they disbanded in 1978, the same year they won the

for "Most Promising Group of the Year", she went solo, and won a 1981 Juno Award for "Most Promising Female Vocalist" and received Juno nominations in the following two years for "Best Female Vocalist".''The Canadian Encyclopedia'': Shari Ulrich
/ref> Ulrich wrote for ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational television, educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation, and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Worksh ...

'' and composed theme music for several networks, including the

CBC CBC may refer to: Media * Cadena Baja California or Grupo Cadena, a radio and television broadcaster in Mexico * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada's radio and television public broadcaster ** CBC Television ** CBC Radio One ** CBC Music ** ...

. In 1989 she formed the

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

group

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter ...

along with Bill Henderson (

Chilliwack Chilliwack ( ) is a city of about 100,000 people and in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is located about east of the City of Vancouver in the Fraser Valley. The enumerated population is 93,203 in the city and 113,767 in the gr ...

) and

Roy Forbes Roy Charles Forbes (born February 13, 1953) is a Canadian folk music singer-songwriter, whose music bears heavy influences from classic American genres of acoustic blues and traditional Country music, country. Forbes is known for his high soulf ...

. In 2009, Ulrich joined Barney Bentall and Tom Taylor and formed BTU (Bentall Taylor Ulrich), releasing the album ''"Live" at Cates Hill'' followed by the studio album ''Tightrope Walk''. Ulrich continues to perform solo (often accompanied by daughter Julia Graff on violin, piano, mandolin, guitar, accordion and vocals). Graff also engineered and produced Ulrich's 2014 release "Everywhere I Go" and Bentall Taylor Ulrich's 2016 "Tightrope Walk", and 2019's "Back to Shore" (co-produced and engineered by Julia's partner James Perrella). She tours occasionally with the Pied Pumkin, UHF, BTU and the bluegrass group The High Bar Gang. She lives on

Bowen Island Bowen Island (; ), British Columbia, is an island municipality that is part of Metro Vancouver, and within the jurisdiction of the Islands Trust. Located in Howe Sound, it is approximately wide by long, and at its closest point is about w ...

, British Columbia.

Personal life

Ulrich was married (1989 - 1996) to musician, songwriter and artist David Graff, Julia Graff's father, who performs in his band as well. She is also a busy audio engineer, music editor in film and television, and videographer. Shari also has a son, Oregon architect Mike Magee, who was put up for adoption in 1967, and with whom she reunited in 2009.

Discography

Solo

* ''Long Nights'', 1980. (

A&M Records A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and functions as a branch of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Interscope-Geffen-A&M. Established in 1962 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, the label initially operated independent ...

) * ''One Step Ahead'', 1981. (

) * ''Talk Around Town'', 1982. (

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc. established in 1972, though MCA had released recordings under that name in the UK from the 1960s. The label achieved success in the 1970s through the 1980s, often by acquiring other ...

) * ''Every Road'', 1989. (

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

) * ''The Best of Shari Ulrich'', 1991. (Esther Records) * ''The View from Here'', 1998. (Esther Records) * ''Find Our Way'', 2010. (Esther Records) * ''Everywhere I Go'', 2014. ( Borealis Records) * ''Back to Shore'', 2019. ( Borealis Records)

Group

* ''The Pied Pumkin String Ensemble'' - Pied Pumkin, 1974. (Squash Records) * ''Pie Pumkin Allah Mode'' - Pied Pumkin, 1976. (Squash Records) * ''Flying'' - The Hometown Band, 1976. (

) (Re-released 2012) * '' The Hometown Band'' - The Hometown Band, 1977. (

) (Re-released 2012) * ''Pear of Pied Pumkin'' - Pied Pumkin, 1978. (Squash Records) * ''The Lost Squash Tapes'' - Pied Pumkin 1988. (Squash Records) * ''

'' -

, 1990. (Tangible Records) * '' UHF II'' -

, 1995. (Tangible Records) * ''Plucking DeVine'' - Pied Pumkin, 1998. (Squash Records) * Live' at Cates Hill'' - Barney Bentall, Shari Ulrich, Tom Taylor, 2009. (Independent) * ''Lost and Undone'' - The High Bar Gang, 2013. ( True North Records) * ''Tightrope Walk'' - Bentall Taylor Ulrich, 2016. ( Borealis Records) * ''Someday the Heart Will Trouble the Mind'' - The High Bar Gang, 2017. ( True North Records)"Shari Ulrich – A Woman of Constant Music"
. ''Folk Roots Radio'', April 27, 2016

References

External links

Official website

Pied Pumkin

BTU

Joe Mock

Rick Scott

Julia Graff
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ulrich, Shari 1951 births Living people American emigrants to Canada Canadian pop singers Canadian women singer-songwriters Musicians from British Columbia Naturalized citizens of Canada Juno Award for Breakthrough Artist of the Year winners Musicians from San Rafael, California Writers from San Rafael, California Writers from British Columbia Canadian Folk Music Award winners 20th-century Canadian women singers 21st-century Canadian women singers 20th-century Canadian singer-songwriters 21st-century Canadian singer-songwriters