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Laila Biali

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Multi award-winning Canadian jazz singer-songwriter, pianist and radio host Laila Biali tours Atlantic Canada from May 12 to May 21. Recently we spoke with Biali about her past, present and future. What are your roots? In terms of my heritage, Dad comes from Egypt and Mom is from Germany. They met on a beach in Vancouver and raised me and my three older sisters there.  When and why did you start playing music? My Mom tells the story of how I climbed up onto the piano bench to plunk out the melody to Sesame Street by ear when I was just 3.5 years old. It was then that she decided to enroll me in piano lessons rather than gymnastics classes. (I was a bouncy, energetic child, so that was the next logical choice!) Once I had begun formal classical lessons, I truly fell in love with the piano. My teacher, Juanita Ryan, who sadly passed away earlier this year, would loan me stacks of CDs to bring home and study. I listened obsessively, even while going to bed at night, ...
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A Man of Many Hats

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I n 2006, Arts East spoke with musician and author Neil Peart.  Neil Peart has been busy. Since returning to full-form in 2002, the 54 year old drummer for Rush, the Canadian mega-rock trio, has been preoccupied with a series of personal and professional projects; two studio albums, subsequent concert tours, DVDs, a website, and the writing of three books, including his latest work  Roadshow; Landscape with Drums. Speaking from a recording studio in Toronto where he and his bandmates Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson are at work on their 18th original studio album, Peart explains his motivations for chronicling his motorcycle journeys during Rush's 2004 thirtieth Anniversary tour. "This book works on different levels. On the one hand it became the logical culmination of so many desires to try and explain what it is really like to be a touring musician and the kinds of personal and artistic conflicts that exist in trying to survive and make a living doing something crea...
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Hal Tatlidil

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Halifax-based actor, musician and photographer Hal Tatlidil remains at the forefront of creativity in Atlantic Canada. Recently we spoke with him about his passion for the visual arts. What is your own heritage?   I'm Turkish. I was born in Istanbul, Turkey and grew up in Canada. Where do you currently reside, and how old are you now? I've been working between Vancouver, Toronto and Halifax for the past several years. What first inspired you to take up photography? Photography was never really a thought for me…I mean I've always been moved by images but I started as a musician and had found fair success in that, which turned me on to film and TV where I still work as an actor. I suppose I've always been a visual thinker and the fact that my great grandfather was a photographer, I'm sure that had something to do with it. One day, between gigs, I had a thought; that I would do headshots for other actors and friends and it all started with that… ...
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