Just Niveh

Over the past year and a half I’ve been reading khōréō, a quarterly e-magazine of speculative fiction featuring themes of diaspora and migration. Inspired, I wrote a short story to send in for their latest round of submissions. While it was not accepted, it was a really good experience for me to work on honing and polishing a piece of writing with the intention of submitting it. Big thanks to my pal Nikki Foy for giving guidance and suggestions throughout this process!

As it was written with this specific magazine in mind (and also because I’m not overly familiar with the world of literary magazines and don’t know where else it would fit), after its rejection I decided just to post it here for the people who said they’d like to read it. Please enjoy: Just Niveh.

,

Far Cry 6

,

I’ve been at Ubisoft for 8 months now and a few weeks ago they finally announced the game I’ve been working on! It’s Far Cry 6, the latest instalment of one of Ubisoft’s biggest franchises, which is very exciting. It’s been great to see all the hype around the game that’s already happening, and I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone thinks when it’s released in February.

The transition to working from home was a tough one - mentally, mostly, physically it was fairly smooth - but four months in and counting, everything’s settled into a routine. Voice Designers, as it turns out, wear many hats, and so learning all the various facets of the position has been probably a little more challenging than it would have been in the office. But I’m finally feeling comfortable and even valuable as an employee, and I’m finding the work to be rewarding and challenging and different every day, which keeps me on my toes. My background in film and TV prepared me well in some ways, but in other ways it’s so totally different.

It’s going to be a busy summer and fall as we prepare for launch!

Marla

Ubisoft

When I left my studio job for freelancing, it wasn’t necessarily because freelancing was my final goal - it was because I didn’t want to take a job just because I NEEDED one, but because it was a job I really wanted. Well, I found something that piqued my interest enough to roust me out of my cozy home office - at the end of November, I started as a Voice Designer for Ubisoft Toronto.

I’ve never worked in video games, nor have I ever worked for a large company, so it’s been a big adjustment, but it’s great so far! I can walk to work, all of my coworkers are really supportive, there’s a lot of great company culture, and the work is really interesting so far, even if I’m still learning the ropes (and will be for awhile yet)!

That also means that my website will go back to being more for my music than a professional hub - and I have a new video to share, so stay tuned. :)

Marla

Dec. 12: Countermeasure in Markham

This fall has been an exciting one for Countermeasure - we’ve had a mini-tour of southern Ontario, with three subscription-series shows at beautiful soft-seat theatre venues. In November we played Guelph’s River Run Centre, which was gorgeous, as well as Peterborough’s Showplace Performance Centre, where the audience was warm in welcoming back the two Peterborough natives in the group.

Lastly, and perhaps most exciting because it’s closest to home, we’ll be playing at the Flato Markham Theatre next week on December 12. Tickets are still available and can be purchase here. This is the first time we’ve had the chance to do a two-act show multiple times in a short time frame, so it’ll be extra-fine tuned for Thursday!

Photo by Scott Murdoch

Photo by Scott Murdoch

Hope to see you there!

Marla

,

A Woman for All Seasons

,

I’m please to share that my one of my songs for voice and piano, called Night, will be performed on Thursday, November 21 at the University of Toronto. Clarisse Tonigussi, U of T graduate and creator of the Canadian Women Composers Project, is curating a program of season-related songs by female Canadian composers to be performed by graduate students in the music program at U of T. Night contains autumn imagery and will be included in that section of the program.

Check out the details for the concert here.

Last time this piece was performed (by Clarisse herself) I was unable to make the concert so I’m please to be able to see it this time!

Marla

Japan Tour

It’s been a busy summer, but the highlight was definitely going to Japan with Countermeasure!

It’s always fun to tour with my second family, and this was a successful trip. Five gigs in just over a week, with some lead time at the front to sightsee around Tokyo. Our audiences were fantastic and we’re hoping to go back again next year!

A highlight from the trip was singing the song we’ve learned in Japanese, Love Letter From Canada (I kid you not, it was a hit in the ‘70s) with one of the original singers, Yoko Hatakana! How cute is she??

68685019_2882902545059105_5534138688872644608_n.jpg

またね、日本！

Marla

,

Your Turn to Roll

,

I was considering how to build upon the success of my Formula 1 video, and coincidentally, Countermeasure was looking for a fun new project, and that happy confluence is how this next video was born. To get in on the excitement of their ground-breaking Kickstarter, we decided to do a cover of Critical Role’s theme song, Your Turn to Roll.

The project was Elana’s brainchild, and she recruited me to do the arrangement. I threw it together and we recorded and released it within two weeks, and got a great amount of traction and recognition from within the community. Very exciting!

Enjoy!

Marla


,

Formula 1 Excitement

,

Recently I wrote an arrangement of Brian Tyler’s Formula 1 Theme for piano. It’s a great piece - very dramatic, always gets my blood pumping at the beginning of a race! I recorded a video of myself playing it and put it up on Youtube last weekend, in honour of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix this weekend.

Well, thanks to a little help from Reddit, the official Formula social media team noticed it and ended up posting it on their Youtube, Twitter and Facebook accounts. Cue my phone blowing up with notifications from excited fans from around the world! It’s been an exciting couple of days watching the video gain traction, with hundreds of thousands of views between all three sites.

I also gained a few hundred new subscribers on Youtube so I guess I’ll have to think carefully about what my next upload will be!

Here’s the video. Enjoy!

Marla

, ,

Open for Business

, ,

As of this week, I’m embarking on the journey of freelancing! It’s exciting to have the possibility of working on any kind of project. Currently the plan is to juggle a combination of contract audio work - editing, engineering, mixing, etc. - with freelance music gigs - arranging, composing, scoring, notation, etc. I’ve already made some contacts for the first and I’ve landed my first job for the second, so I’m hoping I can get up and running quickly.

To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what my ideal balance would be, so at this moment I will be taking anything that comes my way and applying to anything that looks intriguing to see what piques my interest the most.

I’m surprised I’m not more apprehensive about diving into the freelance world but mostly I’m just excited. It feels good that I’ve developed the skills and network of contacts that being able to do this is a feasible option, and I’m planning to take full advantage of that to build the most fulfilling career for myself as possible!

So if you or anyone you know need any of the above services or anything even remotely related - hit me up!

Marla

Seeing Sound: A Showcase of music by Canadian female composers

Earlier this year I was contacted by Clarisse Tonigussi of the Canadian Women Composers Project. She had heard of me through a friend of a friend and was interested in performing some of my music at a concert she had coming up in the fall in Toronto.

Fast-forward a few months later and that concert is fast approaching. Seeing Sound: Where Music and Visual Art Meet is promising to be a great night of art and music. Ms. Tonigussi, a soprano, will be performing over an hour of music by Canadian female composers, accompanied by pianist Narmina Efendiyeva. While she sings, artist Alexandria Harding-Costa will use the music as inspiration to paint a masterpiece that will be auctioned off at the end of the night, proceeds going to Sistering, a Toronto charity supporting at-risk women.

Two of my pieces will be on the program: There Will Come Soft Rains, which I wrote in university but has never been performed by a soprano (for which it was originally intended); and Night, a more jazz-influenced piece that is getting a brand-new classical spin. I’m very excited to see my music included in such a great event and it’s very unfortunate that family obligations will have me across the country while the concert is going on.

The concert will take place at Grace Church on the Hill in Etobicoke, 300 Lonsdale Rd., at 7pm on Saturday October 6th. Tickets can be purchased by clicking the event link above. I hope you will consider supporting such a great cause at what promises to be a highly enjoyable evening!

Marla

On the Job Hunt

I’ve been at Studio 18 just shy of five years now. It’s been a fantastic place to work - the people are amazing and I’ve learned so many useful skills.

However, I’ve decided recently that it’s time to move on. At the very least I’d like to move into a different genre of television. But I’m curious as to what else is out there. Maybe a further leap into film would be fun. Or something that uses similar skills in a different context, like sound for video games. I’m keeping myself open to any options that come my way!

What I’d really like, I think, is the chance to make more use of my music background. Music editing seems like a field that would be a lot of fun. Or maybe there are more music-related jobs out there I haven’t even thought of. I’m just beginning my job search journey… I’m excited to see what I will find!

Marla

, , , ,

Overdue Update

, , , ,

It came to my attention that I haven't updated my website in a long time, so I'm going to fill you in on everything that's happened in one fell swoop!

Countermeasure has been very busy lately - we just got back from Japan a couple of weeks ago! It was both a wildly successful tour and my first chance to see the country where my dad's side of the family came from. A life-changing experience, for sure!

I've started a mixed barbershop quartet called West Train! We competed in the Ontario District Barbershop Harmony contest in April and placed third in the province, a result we were very happy with given how we'd only pulled the group together a short while beforehand. Excited for future performances!

I've had probably my busiest spring at work to date, working on four different shows including season six of Top Chef Canada for the Food Network and season three of Home to Win for HGTV. Things are wrapping up just in time for us to start on season six of The Amazing Race Canada. Never a dull moment!

The musical I mentioned in my previous post went well and was a rewarding experience. I've also been taking voice lessons since I've been focusing on my singing so much lately, and they've been paying off. Not much to report on the writing/composing/photography front these days - too busy with everything else!

I'll do my best to keep this website more up to date but we all know that can be a struggle... :)

Cheers!

Marla

South Pacific

After a busy summer I'm finally getting back to some creative projects. I've been doing some arranging (for my friend Laura's Youtube channel, Stories 2 Songs), as well as undertaking some significant self-improvement efforts, like voice lessons and dance lessons. Why all these lessons, you ask? Well:

I was cast in a musical!

I'll be in the ensemble for Etobicoke Musical Productions' South Pacific, the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic. I've never been in a musical before so I'm very excited. I'm also finding it a great opportunity to better myself - I sing a lot and I've danced in the past but musical theatre is a different style than I'm used to for both, so I'm taking the chance to brush up on my skills.

The musical is playing at Meadowvale Theatre in Mississauga at the end of October. If you're interested, tickets can be purchased here!

Onwards and upwards!

Marla

,

The Funny Thing About Post Sound

,

The Amazing Race Canada aired tonight. As there often is for a big show, there was a little do put on by production company so that all the people who worked on it could get together and watch the premiere airing live on TV. 

For many at the production company, it's a wrap party, of sorts. Video editors and writers are all finished their jobs. For the team that was there for the shooting in May, it's more of a fun throwback, a payoff for a job well done in the past.

For me and the post-production audio team, we're just getting started. 

The Amazing Race Canada has an extremely accelerated schedule. On most shows, we sign off on a mix weeks, even months before it airs. But due to the time-sensitivity and confidentiality of Race, we finalize mixes only a week before air, sometimes less. So for us it's more of a "celebrate the beginning of a busy summer" kind of party.

The other funny thing, though, is that we've SEEN the final cut. Most of the people at that party have not. The location crew especially won't know the overall picture; they'll only know the one team they followed around for that particular leg of the race.

That means that I get to chuckle quietly to myself as everyone else roars with laughter at the quip of a person that they know well but I am just getting to know.

It's an interesting feeling. :)

Work Update

It's been awhile since I've mentioned what I'm doing at work! 

Airing right now is Top Chef Canada All-Stars, the Food Network reality show that pulls contestants from the first four seasons of the show. That was a fun one to work on. Pretty tense!

We're also working on season two of Home to Win which premieres next weekend. Home to Win is HGTV's flagship show where all of their star hosts (think Scott McGillivray, Bryan Baeumler, the Property Brothers, Mike Holmes, etc.) renovate a house and give it away at the end of the season.

I'm also working on a new series called The Art Show for CBC, the first show that I'm editing and mixing all on my own (usually I just do the edit - I've mixed some things here and there but never a whole series). Each 5-minute episode features a kid who talks a bit about what they like to do and then does a craft of some sort. It's really cute and I'm enjoying working on it!

The Amazing Race Canada begins filming soon and that'll take up most of the summer, as usual. That one's always a whirlwind!

Busy busy!

Marla

B.C. Tour

Countermeasure recently announced a B.C. Tour! It'll be our first time out to the west coast. I'm extra excited because I have a lot of family out there that I haven't seen in awhile, and who haven't seen me perform.

Our dates are as follows:

March 11 - Vancouver
March 12 - White Rock
March 14 - Nanaimo
March 15 - Sidney
March 17 - North Vancouver
March 18 - North Vancouver

For show locations, times, details, and ticket info, check out our (brand new!) website.

It's always a great time, touring with these folks. :)

Marla

Crank It Counter-Krokwise

Countermeasure was busy over the holidays with little caroling gigs and benefit concerts, but it's been awhile since we've had a show longer than a couple of songs. 

With that, I present:

Crank It Poster.jpg

This Sunday, a double-bill with the Harvard Krokodiloes who are here on tour. The show's at 3030, a bar in the Junction where Countermeasure's sound guy, Chris Poole, is the resident audio technician, so we'll have home field advantage! Should be a good show. You can buy tickets here. Hope to see you!

Marla