about sandy

Sandy Scofield is Metis/Cree/Saulteaux artist/composer based in
Vancouver. She has been performing professionally since 1986 and
hails from four generations of fiddlers and singers. She recently
released her fourth album Nikawiy Askiy (Mother Earth in Cree) in
April 2007 on Arbor Records/EMI Canada. Amongst her previous three
recordings, she has won four Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards,
received two consecutive Juno nominations and took home the 2003
Western Canadian Music Award for Ketwam, featuring songs by Sandy,
Lisa Sazama and Shakti Hayes.

Sandy has fronted many bands in her day - from rockabilly to cajun
and zydeco to highly accomplished folk-rock, jazz and vocal ensembles.
She has performed nationally and internationally in Seoul Korea,
Australia, Vienna Austria, France, Washington DC's Smithsonian
Institute as well as touring Germany. She has composed for theatre
and dance and her voice and songs have appeared in numerous films and
documentaries.

She is described as "a complex artist who can effortlessly move from
centuries old aboriginal vocal styles to satiny pop to robust rhythm
& blues and rock. Like a transforming trickster, Sandy uses melody and
beautiful harmonies to carry weighty messages. Her keen ear for
original arrangements, her experience articulated in powerful lyrics,
and her beautiful vocal instrument combine to form a growing body of
incisive musical works which touch contemporary audiences of all
cultures. She is also blessed with a sense of humour and a born
theatricality, both of which find their way out on stage."

Summer 2007 she will be in Ghana Africa studying African Music and
will be performing at the Canadian High Commission on July 1 in Accra,
Ghana. Her women's group Iskwew with singers Brenda Hanson and
Kym Gouchie have been invited to perform at the Third Annual
International Chihuahua Festival in Mexico in August of 2007.

by publicist Ellie O'Day

Media contact: Ellie O'Day 604.731.3339 ellie@oday.org

discography

Nikawiy Askiy / 2007 / Arbor
Ketwam / 2002 / Kokum
Riel's Road / 2000 / Arpeggio
Dirty River / 1994 / Arpeggio

compilations

2004 JUNO's Compilation

Exposed Roots / 2003 / Canada Council

2003 Western Canadian Music Awards compilation (going into 15,000 cases of Big Rock beer in Alberta and Saskatchewan)

Tandem Music compilation (from Ketwam) /2003

Redwire Magazine sampler (from Ketwam) / 2003

"Get High," (from Riel's Road) on the Skin Tight Blues / Sweetgrass Records, distributed by EMI Music, Canada / 2002

Westcoast Sacred Music Festival Compilation / Festival /1999

Westcoast World Music Compilation / Pacific Music Industry Association /1999

Grrrls With Guitars / Aural Traditions / 1999

Mariposa Festival Compilation / Festival

New Women’s Voices Compilation / CBC Variety Records

Routes West Compilation / Festival

Save Howe Sound / Fluid Records

film & theatre

The People Go On, documentary by Loretta Todd. Screened at Toronto‚s International HOT DOCS Festival 2003;

They Call Me Chief, a documentary on First Nations athletes in the NHL,features Sandy's award-winning "Beat the Drum." (broadcast nationally on Global TV 2002/2003);

Turtle Tales 45 minute show commissioned for 2003 Vancouver International Children's Festival;

In collaboration with award winning composer Russell Wallace (Banff Centre’s Chinook Winds), 70 minutes of music and soundscape for Blackfoot choreographer Byron Chief Moon’s dance company‚s ensemble piece Quest for inclusion in the 2004 International Dance Festival, Ottawa ON;

Original Music for Namgis Playwright Laura Cranmer’s play DP’s Colonial Cabaret, Bellfry Theatre, 2002

One song for Kwin’cxen Rainbow Native Youth Theatre Players, 2003-09-14 Wawatay, playwright Penny Gummerson, original music (while a work-in-progress), Performance Works

Urban Tattoo, playwright Marie Clements, original music (while a work-in-progress), Firehall Theatre

I Witness Soundscape in collaboration with Ben Cardinal, Glen Gould and Fara Plamer for Floyd Favel (Dead Dog Café), commissioned by the Edmonton Art Gallery

Journey of Spiritual Healing, filmmaker Sheila Jordon for documentary about former Canuck hockey player Gino Odjick

In collaboration, soundscape for choreographer Santa Aloi’s Pulse dance performance, Simon Fraser University 2002

radio & television

Channel M, World Beats Interview, 2004

The New Canoe, Global TV, 2004

Indian Time Three Variety TV show with Buffy Sainte Marie, Derek Miller and Shingoose, Bravo and Global broadcasts 2003;

Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) Buffalo Tracks, Beyond Words, Into The Music 2000-2003;

CityTV City Pulse, Toronto with Duke Redbird, 2003;

First Story, Global TV, 2002

Star TV interview and performance, St. John’s Newfoundland, Toronto broadcast, 2002;

Many CBC, NPR, Northern Native Broadcasting and Campus radio stations

festivals & events

Folk festivals –Toronto’s Mariposa; Vancouver Folk Music Festival;Winnipeg Folk Festival; Whitehorse’s Frostbite; Dawson City Music Festival; Yellowknife’s Folk on the Rocks; Bella Coola’s Discovery Coast; Harbourfront World Music Festival; Haida Gwaii’s Edge of the World; Seattle's Bumbershoot; Comox Filberg Festival; Harrison Festival of the Arts; Mukwas Geezis Festival at Toronto’s Harbourfront; Caravan World Rhythms; Honouring Our Words International Writers’ Festival; North Vancouver’s Under the Volcano; Vancouver’s Sacred World Music Festival; Salmon Arm’s Roots and Blues Festival; Vancouver’s Trade and Convention Centre Canada Day Celebration; Mission Folk Festival; David Suzuki Foundation; Powell River’s Sunshine Folk Festival; Western Front Annual View from the Front.

Aboriginal Festivals - Australia's N'gan Girra Aborigine Festival, National Aboriginal Music Awards at Skydome (performer and presenter); Museum of Civilization, Prince Rupert Headliner, Vancouver Robson Centre‚ Nov.2001, Edmonton's Dreamspeakers International Aboriginal Festival; 2002 Winnipeg Indigenous Games; Surrey Pow Wow; Mount Currie Colours Festival; Semiahmoo First Nations Salmon Festival; National Arts Centre with Tom Jackson and Susan Aglukark; First Peoples’ Cultural Festival, Squamish Rec Centre; 1997 Victoria Indigenous Games.

forums & workshops

Guest Speaker for Lower Fraser Valley Aboriginal Society Nicomkel Elementary School, Langley BC, 2004

Native Youth music mentorship workshops,
Penticton, BC for Okanagan Native Youth 2003

Moberly Lake, BC,
at Saulteaux Reserve for Cree Native Youth, 2003

World Music Symposium,
Britannia High School, Vancouver, BC, 2003

Guest Lecturer on Aboriginal Women in Music,
Langara College, Vancouver, BC 2003

University of British Columbia’s Humanities Program,
Musqueam Reserve, 2002

Okanagan Youth Career Opportunites lecturer and workshop mentor,
Penticton, 1998

BC Festival of the Arts for Indigenous Service Arts Organization,
Powell River, 1997