About

Join Musique Royale for our final Cookie Concert before summer break, “Sketches and Sound”. For this unique concert, young students in Grades 2 to 4 at Bridgewater Elementary School have drawn Graphic Scores that will be interpreted by the four featured musicians, Nicola Miller, saxophone; Tim Crofts, keys; Erin Donovan, percussion; and Pete Johnston, bass. The program will feature interpretations of these Graphic Scores along with other standard repertoire. Cookies are served following the hourlong concert, and all ages are welcome!

About the Artists

Nicola Miller – saxophone

Saxophonist and Composer Nicola Miller is based on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, where she has become a vital part of the maritime creative music ecosystem. Weaving endless sonic curiosity into a jazz foundation, the music she plays and writes effortlessly traverses boundaries of style and approach.

Miller has appeared in performances alongside a diverse cross-section of artists including Nicole Rampersaud, Charlotte Hüg, Nicholas D’Amato, India Gailey, Enrique Luna, Sam Wilson, Uri Caine, Tim Crofts, Glenn Patscha, and Nick Halley. She’s been featured at Guelph Jazz Festival, Open Waters and Halifax Jazz Festivals and also performed in contexts that span Berlin’s Volksbühne and Jazz Am Helmholtzplatz to Acadia University’s Physics Department. She is the recipient of the 2025 Paul Cram Creation Award as well as ArtsNS Emerging Artist Award.

In December 2024 she launched her debut recording as leader Living Things on Richmond, Virginia’s Cacophonous Revival Records, a critically acclaimed imprint devoted to various strains of experimental music. The release sees her gathering an all-star cast to perform her compositions, including Canadians Doug Tielli, Nicholas D’Amato, and Nick Fraser, alongside the celebrated reeds player and composer Frank Gratkowski, whom Miller regards as her mentor. The album was nominated for MusicNS Jazz Recording of the Year.

She also appears on acclaimed recordings such as Enrique Luna’s La Luna Ensamble 1 (as featured in Enciclopedia Fonográfica del Jazz en México by Antonio Malacara), Joyfultalk’s Familiar Science (Constellation Recordings) and Jon Mckiel’s HEX (You’ve Changed). Pitchfork praised her contribution to the title track of the latter remarking “it’s the free-floating saxophone that tilts the song just off its axis”

Miller’s compositions have been commissioned by the UpStream Orchestra, an improvising large ensemble founded by the legendary Paul Cram, and the Alkali Collective.

Tim Crofts – keys

Tim Crofts was born and raised in Mi ’ kma ’ ki, unceded ancestral home of the Mi ‘ kmaq. A first generation Canadian of British and Indian descent, Halifax improviser Tim Crofts is a traditional non-traditionlist, and/or a non-traditional traditionalist. Tim explores the full sonic capabilities of the acoustic piano through extended techniques and a wide range of piano preparations. He is able to coax a variety of colour and extreme dynamic contrast through employing traditional and non-traditional techniques in tandem. He has performed in numerous settings and collaborated with numerous new music, and improvised organizations including suddenlyLISTEN, Upstream, and the Creative Music Workshop. Crofts is also committed to teaching and mentoring in creative music, and the development of a personal voice.

Erin Donovan – percussion

Erin Donovan is an active musician, composer, show creator and collaborator who has worked across Canada as an orchestral percussionist (Calgary Philharmonic, Symphony Nova Scotia, Canadian Opera Company Orchestra), contemporary percussionist (Alkali Collective, Upstream, Continuum New Music, Saltwater Percussion), and composer for many dance works including for choreographers Yvonne Ng (tiger princess dance projects), Susanne Chui (Mocean Dance) and with her trio BOG (with poet Basma Kavanagh and dancer Susanne Chui).

Pete Johnston – bass

Pete Johnston was born in Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada, and is the son of a high school music teacher and a Baptist Church pianist. He studied music composition and double bass at Dalhousie University, alternating scholarly endeavours with tours of North America as part of the Johnny Favourite Swing Orchestra, with whom he won a Juno Award in 1999. After completing his studies at Dalhousie in 2000 Pete moved to Toronto and began working as a freelance musician, guitar teacher, novel editor, and telemarketer. Following several lost years in the part-time employment trenches, Pete returned to the academy, completing a Master’s degree in composition in 2005 and a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology in 2009, both at York University. As part of his doctoral research he spent the 2006/07 academic year in London, England, where he performed for Queen Elizabeth II. Since completing his Ph.D. Pete has resumed his work as a freelance bassist and music educator in Toronto, which includes performing regularly with the groups See Through 4, Stranger Still, and Molehill. In 2011 Pete had the great fortune of being awarded a Chalmers Professional Development Grant from the Ontario Arts Council to study with renowned bassists Barre Phillips and Gary Peacock. He currently teaches at Toronto Metropolitan University and University of Toronto.

For more please visit:
https://www.hearhereproductions.ca/