John Stetch
{{Short description|Canadian pianist}}{{Infobox musical artist
| name = John Stetch
| birth_name = John Julian Stetchishin
| birth_date = 1966
| birth_place = Edmonton, Alberta
}}
John Stechishin, better known as John Stetch or John Julian (born 1966 in Edmonton, Alberta) is a Canadian jazz pianist and comedian.{{Cite web |title=John Stetch |url=https://justin-time.com/collections/john-stetch |access-date=2022-05-21 |website=Justin Time Records |language=en}} He is well known for impersonating Justin Trudeau and having been nominated for several Juno Awards.
Early life
Stetch's family is ethnically Ukrainian, and as a boy, Stetch played in ensembles at Ukrainian weddings and sang in community choirs.{{Cite web |title=John Stetch, jazz piano |url=https://musicbythesea.ca/portfolio-posts/john-stetch-jazz-piano/ |access-date=2022-05-21 |website=Music By The Sea |language=en-US}} He studied reed instruments early on but concentrated on piano from his teenage years onward. After graduating from McGill University in 1991, he relocated to New York City.{{Cite news |title=John Stetch on Piano Jazz |language=en |work=NPR.org |url=https://www.npr.org/2007/03/02/15033698/john-stetch-on-piano-jazz |access-date=2022-05-21}}
Career
Stetch's professional career has included performing and with Ed Jackson, Jan Jarczyk, Chris Kase, Rufus Reid, Akira Tana, Alain Trudel, Mark Turner, and Johannes Weidenmuller.
Stetch won the Du Maurier Grand Prix at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 1998, was second place in the 1993 Thelonious Monk Composer's Competition, and has been nominated for six Juno Awards in jazz.{{Cite web |title=Bio |url=http://www.johnstetch.com/bio |access-date=2022-05-21 |website=John Stetch |language=en-US}} Stetch was a faculty member at Cornell University and at the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra School of Music.
In March of 2021, Stetch was investigated for hosting a conspiracist party. Amidst social gathering restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he hosted a gathering in his apartment with approximately 14 people without masks, in close quarters. He has since been suspended by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra School of Music during investigations.{{Cite web |title=CityNews |url=https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2021/02/22/pianist-suspended-vso-stetch-covid/ |access-date=2022-05-21 |website=vancouver.citynews.ca}}{{Cite web |last=Molko |first=David |date=2021-02-25 |title=VSO suspends pianist under investigation by police for allegedly hosting 'unlawful' gathering |url=https://bc.ctvnews.ca/vso-suspends-pianist-under-investigation-by-police-for-allegedly-hosting-unlawful-gathering-1.5324899 |access-date=2022-05-21 |website=British Columbia |language=en}}
Discography
{{expand list|date=January 2021}}
- Rectangle Man (Terra Nova, 1992)
- Carpathian Blues (Terra Nova, 1994)
- Stetching Out (Terra Nova, 1996)
- Kolomeyka Fantasy (Global Village, 1996)
- Green Grove (Justin Time, 1999)
- Heavens Of A Hundred Days (Justin Time, 2000)
- Ukrainianism (Justin Time, 2002)
- Standards (Justin Time, 2003)
- Exponentially Monk (Justin Time, 2004)
- Bruxin
' (Justin Time, 2006) - TV Trio (2008)
- Fabled States (Addo Records, 2011)
- Off With The Cuffs (Addo Records, 2013)
- Improvisations (2015)
- Ballads (2019)
- Black Sea Suite (2019)
References
{{Reflist}}
- "John Stetch". The New Grove Encyclopedia of Popular Music (accessed via Oxford Music Online).
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Category:Canadian jazz pianists
Category:Musicians from Edmonton
Category:21st-century Canadian pianists