Shirantha Beddage

Toronto
Jazz Performer, Composer, Educator

Shirantha Beddage is a Jazz performer and composer with two Juno Award nominations for his jazz albums Identity (2013) and Momentum (2017). As a composer, Beddage was awarded the Rising Star Award at the Montreal Jazz Festival. He has also received recognition at the Canadian Songwriting Competition and has composed and performed music for the TV series Fargo. As a baritone saxophonist, Beddage was awarded one of the first doctoral degrees in Jazz Studies from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Beddage serves as Course Lead of Music Theory in the Bachelor of Music degree at Humber College, where his innovative teaching methods earned him recognition as an Apple Distinguished Educator. Beddage has performed with numerous jazz groups in the Canada and the United States.

Memories of… Laurentian Ski Hill 

As a child in North Bay, I participated in a number of sporting activities, both curricular and extra-curricular. Though I enjoyed sports, I never seemed to excel at any of them. I recall taking part in swimming lessons, kayaking, tennis, squash, badminton, and basketball; there was even a coordinated ice-dance routine at Memorial Gardens, set to the song "Kung Fu Fighting"! My favourite athletic misadventures, however, were at Laurentian Ski Hill. Among them: skiing down the "Maples" backwards (by accident), taking a wrong turn down an un-groomed path, only to emerge onto a ramp which catapult me face first into the snow, and hitting my head on the "bunny hill" T-Bar, resulting in a trip down to the chalet in a body bag. From my vantage point in the body bag, all I could see was the clear blue sky; it was a beautiful view. Needless to say, I'm thankful that my current line of work requires minimal hand-leg coordination.