Lori Freedman

Since the early 1990s Lori Freedman has stood out as a leading presence in Canada’s avant-garde scene, working across contemporary composition and free improvisation to raise the profile of the bass clarinet. She has appeared with orchestras nationwide, introducing numerous pieces composed specifically for her, while also touring as an improviser throughout North America and Europe. Her most widely recognized partnership remains the avant-garde jazz duo Queen Mab.

Freedman began her professional life inside orchestras, holding positions with both the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. By the late 1980s and early 1990s she had already begun interdisciplinary collaborations with dancers and visual artists and was exploring MIDI controllers together with electro-acoustic techniques; her playing appears on Daniel Scheidt’s 1991 album Action/Réaction.

In 1992 she formed Queen Mab with pianist Marilyn Lerner. The pair’s performances have been noted for their uncommon beauty, instinctive rapport, and near-telepathic responsiveness; they have played at many Canadian jazz and new-music festivals and issued two recordings, Barbie’s Other Shoe (1997) and Close (2000). Freedman has also performed with the Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band, an ensemble that represents one of her lighter projects.

The Freddie Stone Award came to her in 1998, given “for the demonstration of outstanding leadership, integrity, and excellence in the area of Contemporary Music and Jazz.” The following year she issued her debut solo disc, Huskless!, devoted to contemporary works for bass clarinet. Three months spent in Amsterdam during 2001 allowed her to develop pieces with Louis Andriessen and Misha Mengelberg and to perform alongside European improvisers Maggie Nichols, Luc Houtkamp, Ab Baars, Kaffe Matthews, and Ig Henneman.

Afterward she relocated from the West Coast to Montreal, where she established ties with the Ambiances Magnétiques circle. In July 2002 she introduced the Lori Freedman Trio, featuring Nicolas Caloia and Danielle P. Roger, and shortly thereafter released her first solo recording as an improviser, À un Moment Donné.