About The Workshop
Are you looking for a creative outlet or want to become the next Taylor Swift? Learn the basics of songwriting at this exciting workshop for aspiring songwriters ages 12-16. Join the Winspear Centre's Early Childhood Music Education specialist Kate Blechinger and the Edmonton Public Library’s inaugural Musician-in-Residence Mallory Chipman for a Youth Songwriting Workshop at the Winspear Centre. Participants will learn the basics of lyric and song writing including form, dynamics, and how to communicate stories and emotions through text.
Recommended for ages 12-16. We welcome songwriters of all experience levels for this workshop. Participants do not have to bring an instrument; however, they may if they wish. The workshop will take place in Studio B at the Winspear Centre.
Meet the Instructors
Kate Blechinger
Kate Blechinger is an award-winning singer, songwriter, musician, and music educator originally from Treaty 4 Territory, and now based on Treaty 6 Territory. At times poetic and playful, then introspective and honest, Kate’s music is a true hybrid of folk, jazz, and pop genres. With “a voice like liquid peace”, her lyrical observations of life, love, and loss shoot straight to the heart. Kate’s 2018 debut album, Under a Dancing Sky, features innovative folk-jazz arrangements of Joni Mitchell’s compositions alongside several of Kate’s original compositions. Kate won the Jazz Recording of the Year award at the 2019 Edmonton Music Awards for her version of ‘Night in the City’. Kate’s arrangements and compositions have been featured on CKUA Community Radio, CBC Radio-Canada, and CBC Radio Two, among other campus and community stations. Kate is grateful to have shared her unique twist of folk-jazz at various venues around Alberta and Saskatchewan, and is currently workshopping new music with plans to record a sophomore EP in 2024-2025.
Mallory Chipman
Mallory Chipman is an award-winning singer, songwriter, arranger, and producer from Treaty Six Territory in Canada. A true raconteuse, Chipman is revered for the way she artfully weaves story into song and expresses both power and vulnerability through her music. Genre knows no bounds within her catalogue, as she seamlessly traverses styles including folk, jazz, country, pop, rock, and experimental music. Alongside her current solo folk music project, Chipman plays with alt-country outfit, The Goddamsels. On May 5, 2023, Mallory released her latest album, a EP entitled As Though I Had Wings on Tunnel Mountain Records, which Amplify Magazine described as "some of the finest folk-rock currently being made". Her next release, a full length album entitled Songs to a Wild God, is slated for release in 2024. Mallory Chipman's performance career is balanced by her work as a songwriter, arranger, producer, and music scholar. In 2023, she was named Edmonton's inaugural Musician in Residence and celebrated as a member of Edify Magazine's Class of 2023 Top 40 Under 40.
