Home » Jazz Musicians » Kathleen Gorman

Kathleen Gorman

Kathleen is a talented pianist /vocalist and composer who grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in a musical family where creative expression was encouraged. Piano lessons started at age six, and years of classical studies gave her a solid musical foundation. She began performing and writing in her teens. After composing a theme for CTV for the Winter Olympics, she moved to Montreal to pursue Jazz piano, arranging and composition studies, completing a BFA ( Concordia University, Montreal) followed by McGill for advanced study in composition and orchestration. She continuously worked as a pianist/vocalist for several years in clubs in Montreal, before settling in Toronto, where she began performing weekly, and also set up a home studio, for recording projects and teaching. She is a Toronto based pianist/vocalist, as well as a composer/arranger and Jazz educator, teaching jazz piano, theory and composition. She has trained with numerous Jazz artists: Jazz piano studies with: Jan Jarczyk, Jon Ballantyne, and Hilario Duran. Vocal Jazz workshops with: Sheila Jordan, Barry Harris, Kurt Elling, Jeri Brown. Kathleen is a member of the IAJE, SAC, and SOCAN.

Her 2009 release, "Brand New Day" is a collection of jazz/blues originals with some of Toronto’s top jazz musicians, including Henry Heillig (bass), Rob Piltch (guitar), Ben Riley ( drums) Dennis Kelde ( Hammond B organ), Colleen Allen ( sax), Eric St-Laurent (guitar), Marc Pizer (drums) and long time collaborator Kirk Starkey (cello). These self produced and arranged songs feature Kathleen on piano, Rhodes and vocals, beautifully recorded and mixed by Jeremy Darby. "Brand New Day" is available at CDBaby, Itunes and Amazon.com This CD has received international airplay and repeatedly featured locally on Jazz FM 91.1 and CBC radio. One track was placed as source music for a current TV program called "Flashpoint", seen in Canada and the US. Kathleen's latest CD, entitled " I Can See Clearly Now" was released in January, 2017, and contains exciting jazz arrangements of classic songs ( Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Elvis, Billie Holiday, ) as well as a beautiful solo piano version of Harold Arlen's " Over the Rainbow ", and three intimate originals piano pieces. The group instrumental " Influence" is a tribute to the Blue Note Records of the late 1950s, featuring horns and a solid rhythm section of outstanding players. Performing often in Toronto, Kathleen is a band leader whose live shows are highly entertaining, soulful and engaging.

Kathleen Gorman: I Can See Clearly Now

Read "I Can See Clearly Now" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
August 7, 2017

I Can See Clearly Now testifies to the durability and pliability of everlasting songs while also opening up the floor to new ones. Kathleen Gorman, a pianist-vocalist-composer based in Toronto, fronts a quintet on a trip through six covers and four originals, speaking to truth through her own music and smartly-arranged renditions of some time-tested classics. When Gorman sings of seeing clearly now on her arrangement of the album-launching title track, it's immediately evident that she's not ...

321

Album Review

Kathleen Gorman: Brand New Day

by Jerry D'Souza
June 11, 2009

Toronto-based Kathleen Gorman wears several cloaks. She is a composer, singer, pianist, and arranger. Her first CD, Brand New Day, conclusively profiles her talents with songs possessing a wide range, and Gorman does them justice in bringing out the feelings that lie in the lyrics.

Gorman sings with a compact sense of rhythm and development, letting her creative sense light a fire under the songs. What emerges is an expressive singer who is at home in jazz, blues and the ...

REVIEWS FOR " BRAND NEW DAY" CD

"A brilliant composer and lyricist, the talented Kathleen Gorman invites us on a journey of the heart, exposing universal intimacies which resonate from the opening note of "Brand New Day"to the closing instrumental,"Ain't The Way". Soulful, poignant and uplifting. Kathleen takes her rightful place as a blues and jazz diva, producing one of the best new original albums of the year. " — Paula Arab, Calgary Herald Columnist / Editorial Board.

"........ a wonderful talent. " Sheila Jordan

" Her voice has a certain sophistication and grace: A beautiful, refined and elegant instrument which conveys love and a certain sense of longing. Ms. Gorman is a song stylist who has crafted her very own, singular approach to the art of singing which is remarkable as we live in an age where singers usually don't embrace individuality and often emulate the vocal stylings of others." - Steve Getz, THE JAZZ NETWORK

Primary Instrument

Piano

Location

Toronto

Willing to teach

Advanced only

Credentials/Background

Bachelor of Music ( Concordia University, Montreal) in Jazz piano / composition Graduate studies in composition ( McGill University, Montreal, 1990 ) ARCT Diploma in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory, Toronto Private Jazz piano studies with: Jan Jarczyk, Jon Ballantyne, Hilario Duran Vocal Jazz workshops with: Sheila Jordan, Barry Harris, Kurt Elling, Karrin Allison, and Bobby McFerrin Composition studies with: Brian Cherny, Bengt Hambraeus, Allen Crossman A member of SOCAN, ORMTA and SAC ONLINE Music Lessons offered