Shumaila Hemani
SPOTLITE SESSION
Shumaila Hemani, Ph.D. is an Ethnomusicologist, former Music Faculty at the Semester at Sea, Spring 2020 voyage, and a Canada-based Sufi singer-songwriter and acoustic composer. Her research expertise in sounds of religion has been awarded first Prize at the Society for Ethnomusicology meeting (2017) and Frank Henderson Prize in the study of Women and Religion.
As a performer, Shumaila crosses gender boundaries while singing Pakistani songs of Muslim heritage. She has performed at the World Odyssey (2020), Femme Wave Festival (2019), Canada's Music Incubator (2019) the University of Alberta (2016), and the Banff Arts Centre (2015). Calgary Herald described her music as “mesmerizing," and “emotionally nerve-striking,” and carrying “vocal virtuosity,” “expressing radically different inner existential visions,”(2015) and Edmonton Journal recognized Hemani’s music for “enriching” the city’s cultural life.”
Shumaila’s acousmatic compositions: Supplication and Sarang: Perils of Heavy Rainfall were premiered at Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM)’s 2020 Virtual Conference. Perils of Heavy Rainfall received Second Prize at Listening to COVID Contest by the Canadian Association for Acoustic Ecology. Her song Anticipating was featured in the Cross-Canada tour on Suicide Prevention Awareness and Hope (2020) and curated by many mental health and wellness playlists on Spotify. Radio Airplay's John Wright considered Anticipating as "prophetic" expressing “a visceral emotionality and a deep musicality expertly ushering listeners into a place of contemplation and consideration.”
During the first and second wave of COVID, Hemani produced short works for World of Stories by Alberta Musical Theatre presenting her new song: Awakening and a virtual livestream for CJSW Radio’s The Drop & the Turning. Supported by the Edmonton Arts Council's Cultural Diversity Award, Hemani will release her debut album Mannat (A prayer, A Wish) in March 2021 based on traditional Sufi repertoire learned from two master-musicians in Pakistan, and commissioned by the New Music, Edmonton, Between December 2020 and February 2021, Hemani premieres her new work for Alberta Musical Theatre, The Drop and the Turning, CJSW, New Music Edmonton, and release her upcoming album: MANNAT (a prayer, a wish).
Interview was conducted & filmed by Dylan Mohr with MVB Live.
