Published on 29 September 2023
by Aline Fablet
Thomas Hellman joins us on October 14, 2023 at 8 p.m. in Le Studio Desjardins, Place des Arts.
Born of a Texan father and a French mother, Thomas possesses the language and heritage of both France and the Americas.
Discover this artist who already visited us in 2014, and whom we can’t wait to welcome a second time for his latest show, Mythomane.
Now is your chance to find out a little or a lot more about him!
Here are 5 interesting facts about this musician and man of letters.
His career began in 1998 with a first album, Something Wrong, which was very discreet and little-known. His second album, Stories from Oscar’s Old Café, released in 2002, was more radiant and well received by Montreal critics. In 2005, he released L’appartement, an album that won him critical acclaim. In this VOIR article, Francis Hébert says of Hellman that he “can be proud of having produced one of the most striking albums of Quebec chanson in recent years”.
In 2006, Thomas Hellman received a Coup de Coeur award from the Festival d’été de Québec for his dazzling transposition of the intimate universe of an emerging songwriter to the big stages, according to Justin Time Records.
Thomas Hellman then produced Rêves américains, his seventh album. This two-volume musical project is a series of stories inspired by American history. Released in 2015 and 2018, these two albums take us from the conquest of the West to the crisis of the 1930s, through songs inspired by period blues, folk and gospel that Thomas narrates in French and sings in English. Each little story is in itself an American dream.
In 2022, Thomas Hellman embarks on a new epic. The project was born out of a family camping trip that unfortunately took place, for the most part, in the rain. Noticing the boredom of his daughter and nieces, Thomas decided to keep them occupied by telling them stories from the Greek odyssey. These new interpretations of ancient Greek fables give rise to Mythomane, his next show.
We welcome Thomas Hellman on Saturday, October 14 with an unclassifiable show that draws on oral storytelling, intimate theater and folk concert. Accompanied by the multi-instrumentalist Olaf Gundel, Hellman brings to life the world’s greatest stories, the ancient myths that founded our civilization, with a charming simplicity that makes them otherwise eternal.
This show is presented in partnership with:
October 17 – Patricia Cano presents…
The great performer from Sudbury with Peruvian roots is a force of nature. Gifted with a fascinating voice and a charismatic presence, she knows how to captivate a room and transport it far away, to exotic yet familiar lands of feeling.
Lady Son (aka Yeti Ajasin)
Her sweet, powerful contemporary voice is often compared to the most striking and legendary on the Canadian music scene. With her Nigerian, Italian and Jewish origins, her songs transport us with messages of everyday life, love and issues that concern us all. Coming from a rich tradition of Afro-Cuban music, Lady Son is one of the leading artists of Toronto’s thriving “La Habana del Norte” community, and has shared the stage with many giants of Afro-Cuban music such as Los Van Van, Oscar D’Leon, Alfredo de la Fé and Ricardo Lemvo.
