Drummer / composer / band-leader Kelby MacNayr performs groundbreaking original music, soulful swinging jazz, reaching contemporary music and traditional music from around the world. A dynamic and creative musician MacNayr performs in Canada and abroad with leading musicians from New York, Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto & Europe. A faculty member of the renowned Jazz Port Townsend Festival under director John Clayton, staff at the Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival, Kelby follows his passion to create and collaborate, teach and learn. The Kelby MacNayr Quintet released The Measure of Light featuring Phil Dwyer, Dan Lapp, Miles Black & Tom Wakeling. Other projects include the Great American Songbook Trio featuring Louise Rose, the Swing Rhythm Kings and the SoulTet! MacNayr has performed with Phil Dwyer, Neil Swainson, Regina Carter, Jeffery Clayton, Marianne Trudel, Ingrid Jensen, Larry Fuller, John Clayton, George Colligan, Geoffrey Keezer and more.
Jazz
MacNayr is a featured performer on national radio and television in the US and Canada (NPR, CBC Radio, CBC Television) and has performed on over 50 recordings and at major festivals across Canada and the U.S. Maintaining an active regional and international performing career, MacNayr has performed and or recorded with many of North American’s finest musicians including:
MacNayr’s work has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, as a collaborating artist with Fadista Sara Marreiros, Indie-Pop group Elephant Island, songwriter Anne Schaefer, new Opera Company Out of the Box Productions and contemporary dance/ music ensemble triPOD Dance Collective.
Since 2009 MacNayr has been honoured to serve as one of two Canadians (alongside colleague Ingrid Jenson) on the faculty of the renowned Centrum Jazz Port Townsend Workshop (Wash.) and Festival under artistic director John Clayton and in 2013, joined the faculty and performance staff at the University of Idaho’s Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival. Kelby is the founding Artistic Director for the Art of the Trio Series (Victoria & Vancouver), and U-Jams’ Jazz at the Gallery Series and has served as Music Director in jazz, improvised music/ dance and theatre settings.
World Music
For the last decade MacNayr has explored a passion for World Musics studying and performing in the traditional musics of Cuba, Portugal, Brazil, Zimbabwe and West Africa and has been fortunate perform with some of the foremost performers and in each genre. This has led to performances and/ or recordings with Zimbabwean traditional musicians Garadziva Chigamba and Kokanai Mazite; West African master drummers Nii Tettey Tettey and Abraham Adzenyah; in Portuguese Fado and Brazilian MPB with Sara Marreiros; in the popular and folkloric music of Cuba with the Puentes Brothers, Son de Cuba, and La Candela; in North American folk music with Jane Sibery and Dan Wise; and in inter-cultural fusion groups with Kyoto-based members of Pro Musica Niponica and traditional Kagura and Taiko musicians.
Classical and New Music MacNayr has performed and recorded with symphony and chamber orchestras as well as in collaboration with contemporary composers, choreographers and dramaturges in an array of new and traditional settings. During his studies at the University of Victoria and the University of Toronto, MacNayr developed a specialty in contemporary works for percussion exploring the works of Cage, Cristos Hatzis and Per Norgard and collaborated with contemporary composers Douglas Schmidt and Christopher Butterfield.
Recent highlights include: Music Director & Composer-in-Residence: Sound In Silence Out of the Box Productions; Modern Dance Accompaniment for choreographers and companies including Alvin Ailey’s American Dance Theatre, Toronto Dance Theatre and Dance Theatre David Earle; Performance/ collaboration with triPOD Dance Collective with guest musicians Susana Hood and Nilan Peria and Composer and percussionist for “The Third Taboo; Othello in the 21th Century.” (Victoria-Banff-Vancouver) Out of the Box Productions.
Education
MacNayr holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Classical Percussion Performance from the University of Victoria and has pursued studies in jazz, world music and classical/new music at some of Canada’s leading institutions including the Banff Centre for the Arts, the University of Toronto and the Bud Shank Jazz Workshop.
MacNayr has studied under some of the great drummers in jazz as a student of Barry Elmes (Toronto), Joe LaBarbera (LA) and Alan Jones (Portland) Jeff Hamilton (LA), Ari Hoenig and Jim Black (NY). In classical percussion he has been fortunate to study under master percussionist Russell Hartenburger (U of T), Sal Ferreras and William Linwood (Uvic), and in World Music under Abraham Adzenyah (Banff), Leon Torres Quintero and with members of Los Munequitos de Matanzas and Afro-Cuba de Matanzas (Cuba). Kelby has conducted research in Portland OR, New York, NY and Matanzas, Cuba.
Education Outreach
MacNayr is a dynamic educator whose ability to communicate and inspire allows him to offer workshops in a wide array of settings (mixed ability, University and College level, elementary and seniors programs) on a range of topics from jazz, classical percussion, the music of Cuba and Improvised Music. He has been a Guest Lecturer and Artist in Residence and Clinician for numerous educational institutions, community and performing groups and facilitates grass-roots educational initiatives regionally and abroad. MacNayr has been a a member of the Vocal Faculty Centrum's Jazz Port Townsend Festival & Workshop (WA. USA) since 2009, the University of Idaho's Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival since 2013
MacNayr is a featured performer on national radio and television in the US and Canada (NPR, CBC Radio, CBC Television) and has performed on over 50 recordings and at major festivals across Canada and the U.S. Maintaining an active regional and international performing career, MacNayr has performed and or recorded with many of North American’s finest musicians including:
- (Canadian musicians); Phil Dwyer, Ian McDougal, Neil Swainson, Brad Turner, Miles Black, Tony Genge, Tony Wilson, Joel Miller, Brad Turner, Christine Jenson, Don Thompson, Hugh Fraser and George McFetridge.
- Award-winning American musicians; ; Jim Black, Ari Hoenig, Joe Sanders, Aaron Parks, Misha Piatigorsky, George Colligan, Geoffrey Keezer, Martin Wind (NY); Jim Cameron (Boston), Ellen Rowe (Mich.), Debbie Duncan (Minn.); Pacific Northwest musicians; Chuck Deardorf, the Bill Ramsey Sextet, Randy Porter, John Hansen, Dan Marcus (SEA); John Clayton, Storm Nilson, Adam Schoeder, Graham Dechter and John Moak (FL).
- And toured with; jazz vocalist and Minnesota State Treasure Debbie Duncan, Montreal pianist/ composer Marianne Trudel, Berlin bassist/ composer Scott White, Boston (Mass.) tenor saxophone Jim Cameron and his own Kelby MacNayr Quintet.
MacNayr’s work has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, as a collaborating artist with Fadista Sara Marreiros, Indie-Pop group Elephant Island, songwriter Anne Schaefer, new Opera Company Out of the Box Productions and contemporary dance/ music ensemble triPOD Dance Collective.
Since 2009 MacNayr has been honoured to serve as one of two Canadians (alongside colleague Ingrid Jenson) on the faculty of the renowned Centrum Jazz Port Townsend Workshop (Wash.) and Festival under artistic director John Clayton and in 2013, joined the faculty and performance staff at the University of Idaho’s Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival. Kelby is the founding Artistic Director for the Art of the Trio Series (Victoria & Vancouver), and U-Jams’ Jazz at the Gallery Series and has served as Music Director in jazz, improvised music/ dance and theatre settings.
World Music
For the last decade MacNayr has explored a passion for World Musics studying and performing in the traditional musics of Cuba, Portugal, Brazil, Zimbabwe and West Africa and has been fortunate perform with some of the foremost performers and in each genre. This has led to performances and/ or recordings with Zimbabwean traditional musicians Garadziva Chigamba and Kokanai Mazite; West African master drummers Nii Tettey Tettey and Abraham Adzenyah; in Portuguese Fado and Brazilian MPB with Sara Marreiros; in the popular and folkloric music of Cuba with the Puentes Brothers, Son de Cuba, and La Candela; in North American folk music with Jane Sibery and Dan Wise; and in inter-cultural fusion groups with Kyoto-based members of Pro Musica Niponica and traditional Kagura and Taiko musicians.
Classical and New Music MacNayr has performed and recorded with symphony and chamber orchestras as well as in collaboration with contemporary composers, choreographers and dramaturges in an array of new and traditional settings. During his studies at the University of Victoria and the University of Toronto, MacNayr developed a specialty in contemporary works for percussion exploring the works of Cage, Cristos Hatzis and Per Norgard and collaborated with contemporary composers Douglas Schmidt and Christopher Butterfield.
Recent highlights include: Music Director & Composer-in-Residence: Sound In Silence Out of the Box Productions; Modern Dance Accompaniment for choreographers and companies including Alvin Ailey’s American Dance Theatre, Toronto Dance Theatre and Dance Theatre David Earle; Performance/ collaboration with triPOD Dance Collective with guest musicians Susana Hood and Nilan Peria and Composer and percussionist for “The Third Taboo; Othello in the 21th Century.” (Victoria-Banff-Vancouver) Out of the Box Productions.
Education
MacNayr holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Classical Percussion Performance from the University of Victoria and has pursued studies in jazz, world music and classical/new music at some of Canada’s leading institutions including the Banff Centre for the Arts, the University of Toronto and the Bud Shank Jazz Workshop.
MacNayr has studied under some of the great drummers in jazz as a student of Barry Elmes (Toronto), Joe LaBarbera (LA) and Alan Jones (Portland) Jeff Hamilton (LA), Ari Hoenig and Jim Black (NY). In classical percussion he has been fortunate to study under master percussionist Russell Hartenburger (U of T), Sal Ferreras and William Linwood (Uvic), and in World Music under Abraham Adzenyah (Banff), Leon Torres Quintero and with members of Los Munequitos de Matanzas and Afro-Cuba de Matanzas (Cuba). Kelby has conducted research in Portland OR, New York, NY and Matanzas, Cuba.
Education Outreach
MacNayr is a dynamic educator whose ability to communicate and inspire allows him to offer workshops in a wide array of settings (mixed ability, University and College level, elementary and seniors programs) on a range of topics from jazz, classical percussion, the music of Cuba and Improvised Music. He has been a Guest Lecturer and Artist in Residence and Clinician for numerous educational institutions, community and performing groups and facilitates grass-roots educational initiatives regionally and abroad. MacNayr has been a a member of the Vocal Faculty Centrum's Jazz Port Townsend Festival & Workshop (WA. USA) since 2009, the University of Idaho's Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival since 2013
