Ease into the holidays with this gorgeous winter-inspired concert, as Juno Award-winning songwriter, pianist and vocalist Laila Biali welcomes us in with warm, jazz-infused melodies.
A residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity inspired Biali to create Wintersongs, a “musical love letter to the season” (Stir). Her resulting album is an unfolding ode to nature, textured and subtle as a field of wind-written snow.
Biali’s thoughtful and compelling musical storytelling is complemented by silken vocals and confident, sophisticated arrangements which blend jazz, classical, and contemporary influences.
Please gather with us to appreciate the delicate wonder of the season, brought to fresh life through Biali’s captivating music.
About Wintersongs
This reflective album was composed in a serene cabin surrounded by snow-capped mountains during a writing retreat in the heart of Canada’s Rocky Mountains. Wintersongs is praised by NUVO Magazine for its “endless range of sonic offerings and interpretations of winter … with the warmth and grandeur of the orchestra that captures the season so profoundly.”
“Masterfully mixes jazz and pop, bringing virtuosity and unpredictability to songs that are concise and catchy.”
Multi award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter, pianist and national radio host Laila Biali has headlined festivals and venues spanning five continents from New York City’s Carnegie Hall to Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts, and supported international icon Sting.
Her seasonal album, Wintersongs, was nominated for a 2025 Juno Award — Biali’s fifth nomination as a solo artist. In 2020, she was honoured by SOCAN Music with the Hagood Hardy Award for Excellence in Songwriting. The previous year, Biali’s eponymous release won her a Juno for “Vocal Jazz Album of the Year” and top prize at the Canadian Songwriting Competition. She was the youngest-ever double winner at Canada’s National Jazz Awards, named “SOCAN Composer of the Year” and “Keyboardist of the Year” in 2006.
Biali is the host of CBC Music’s weekly national radio show, Saturday Night Jazz.
Please join us!
“It is the ultimate task given to the musician, whether as singer or instrumentalist, to create a unique signature or fingerprint that is instantly recognisable as their own. What is surprising and delightful in Laila Biali is that both as vocalist and pianist she accomplishes this with equal aplomb. She is an exciting and unique talent, and I admire her greatly.”
