Part of the Skylight Concert Series

The AGO Summer concert series launches with a collaboration with RPM (Revolutions Per Minute), showcasing two contemporary Indigenous artists. The New York-based White Mountain Apache composer and violinist Laura Ortman will perform a set of bold, melodic and experimental music. Ortman will be joined by Toronto-based Anishinaabe singer-songwriter Ansley Simpson, who recently won the inaugural BullsEye Music Competition for emerging Indigenous musical talent, presented by Slaight Music and the imagineNATIVE Film & Video Festival, performing songs from her haunting and poetic debut album, Breakwall.

Revolutions Per Minute is a global new music platform, creative collective, and record label dedicated to promoting Indigenous music from across Turtle Island and around the world.

ARTIST BIOS

LAURA ORTMAN

Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache) received the FIRST NATIONS COMPOSERS INITIATIVE Common Ground Award Grant for founding The Coast Orchestra, the all-Native American orchestra in 2008. They premiered to sold-out audiences at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and opening night of the Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival in New York. She musically collaborates with Native American artists and filmmakers, such as Alan Michelson, Nanobah Becker, Raven Chacon, Jock Soto, Sterlin Harjo and Blackhorse Lowe. She was a member of the acclaimed, genre-bending New York band STARS LIKE FLEAS who has performed at the Centre Pompidou and Museum of Modern Art and has recorded two solo albums playing violin, Apache violin, piano, electric guitar, samples, megaphone and organ.

https://thedustdiveflash.bandcamp.com/

ANSLEY SIMPSON

Ansley Simpson is an emerging Anishinaabe singer-songwriter from Toronto. A weaver of haunting vocals and poetics, her songs unfold as stories, immersing the listener in vibrant imagery and journeying us through themes of vulnerably, love, and the raw emotion of heartbreak. Ansley is a natural performer, holding audiences with stunning vocals matched by her warm, refined and intricate guitar playing. She also performs in her sister Leanne Betasamosake Simpson's band and was a composer and performer on her new album, f(l)ight. Ansley's own much anticipated debut album, Breakwall, was recently released in April 2017.

http://www.ansleysimpson.com/