Beyond the Pale makes its debut tour to Australia this month, with shows in Sydney (Mar 31), Castlemaine (Apr 2&3), Melbourne (Apr 7) and Apollo Bay (Apr 8&9). The band will also return to the Bay area on the way to Australia, with shows in Berkeley (Mar 26) and San Francisco (Mar 27). See the upcoming shows page for all details.

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Beyond the Pale’s CD “Postcards” has won two Canadian Folk Music awards, for Instrumental Ensemble of the Year and Pushing the Boundaries.  The band attended the gala awards show in Winnipeg this past weekend and performed in the CFMA nominee showcase the night before the awards. These are the group’s second and third CFMA wins, following their previous nod for Instrumental Ensemble in 2005 with the CD “Consensus.” The group is honoured to have been recognized and expresses its deepest appreciation to the organizers and jurors of the CFMAs.

Beyond the Pale’s CD “Postcards” leads the pack with 4 nominations from the 2010 Canadian Folk Music Awards, including Ensemble of the Year, Best World Music Ensemble, Best Instrumental Group, and “Pushing the Boundaries,” which recognizes innovation. BTP’s previous CD “Consensus” was the 2005 CFMA winner for Best Instrumental Group. Click here to read the CBC news release.
BTP will perform in Winnipeg Nov 19 as part of the CFMA nominee Showcase at West End Cultural Centre, and later at Aqua Books. See Upcoming Shows for more details.

Sunday August 8, 2010, 5:30pm – FREE
Sirius Stage, Harbourfront Centre,235 Queens Quay West, Toronto

Beyond the Pale performs as the closing act of Harbourfront Centre’s “What is Classical” Festival. The concert will feature the group’s complete program of reinterpretations of music by Mozart, originally commissioned by CBC Radio Two in 2006 to commemorate the great composer’s 250th birthday.

Beyond the Pale has deconstructed and reconstructed a number of well-known and lesser-known Mozart pieces, including the 21st piano concerto (Elvira Madigan), 25th Symphony, and various selections from the Requiem. In this daring program, Mozart meets funk, reggae and bulgar grooves, odd-meter Balkan time signatures, and improvisations based in the vernacular of Klezmer and east European folk styles. Instruments rarely heard in Mozart’s music, such as accordion and mandolin, reinvigorate his melodies with fresh musical inflections. Compositions originally intended for symphony orchestras and choirs are reduced and recycled within an intimate small folk group context. This is not a superficial “pop” approach, but a deeply considered and sensitively rendered concept in which Mozart melodies are recast within folk forms and given new contemporary life.

On June 5, 2010, Beyond the Pale will be performing as special guests with the Toronto Children’s Chorus at Koerner Hall. The concert, entitled “Around the World in 80 Minutes,” will feature a short set by BTP, as well as the premiere of a new commissioned work by Martin van de Ven entitled “Being Margolia,” written for BTP and the choir. For more information visit the Koerner Hall website.

We’re pleased to announce that our latest CD release “Postcards” has been voted “Best CD of 2009″ in the Multi-Genre category of the Indie Acoustic Project, an esteemed American acoustic music competition whose past winners include such innovators as David Grisman, Mike Marshall and Chris Thile.

BTP returns this month to Europe, performing on March 11 at one of the world’s most prestigious Klezmer Festivals, in Fuerth, Germany, followed by a concert at the 11th International Akkordeon Festival in Vienna, Austria. The latter show will be available for live online streaming, as it happens, from Emap.fm, live internet radio.

We’re thrilled to be heading back to California for our first shows there since 2006. We’ll be playing at the beautiful Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles (Feb 4) and returning to our old haunt at Dizzy’s Jazz Club in San Diego (Feb 6), followed by our debut performances in the San Francisco Bay area at Berkeley’s fabled Freight and Salvage Coffeehouse (Feb 7) and the Don Quixote Music Hall in Santa Cruz (Feb . Please check the upcoming shows page for links and show details.

BTP hits the road this week with a few more CD release shows for “Postcards,” in Montreal and Ottawa, followed by our first-ever shows in Boston and two more shows in New York City. Check the Upcoming Shows page for all details.

The official CD release concert for our new album “Postcards” will take place October 1, 8:30pm, at Lula Lounge, 1585 Dunda St. West. The show is presented as part of the Small World Music Festival. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door and can be purchased online from the Small World website. For dinner reservations & guaranteed seating, call 416 588-0307. The CD is available online from Borealis Records and is also available on Itunes.