It is an honour and privilege to announce that Louise Rose will bring you the Summertime Blues Sunday Soul and Gospel hour that is sure to uplift your spirits.
Louise was born in Pennsylvania and is a multi-talented pianist, vocalist, composer, songwriter, teacher and more. Louise was formally trained in piano, organ, voice, conducting and arranging. Her teachers included Oscar Peterson, Duke Ellington and Leonard Bernstein. Louise has worked with many prominent artists, including Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles. Some of her independent studies have been with Carmen McRae, Ella Fitzgerald and B.B. King. She has served as artist/mentor in residence at Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA and at The Frank DeMiero and Soundsation Vocal Jazz Camps.
Louise came to Victoria in the early 1970s at the invitation of the United Church of Canada, fell in love with Vancouver Island’s capital city and remained. She has since focussed her energies on music and community building – two things that go hand in hand for her. Louise has taught in the summer jazz workshop at the Victoria Conservatory of Music and at music camps and schools across North America. She has produced five albums and for five years hosted Let’s Sing Again, a television show now in rerun on Vision TV.
While Louise has made music with legends, equally inspiring for her is working with the community that has embraced her. In 1997 Louise founded, and is the conductor of the highly successful Victoria Good News Choir, which specializes in blues, gospel, semi-classical and jazz.
Louise states: “Music is the metaphor for life… there is absolutely nothing as marvelous as making music with one’s own body”. Singing is, for Louise, about making a joyful noise… with one’s heart and soul.
Nanaimo Blues Society acknowledges that we are on the traditional and unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples, the traditional territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation.
