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Tania Elizabeth
This dynamic entertainer has been playing the fiddle for almost all of her life, having started at the tender age of three. Her first memory of her childhood is walking up the big stairs of the Royal Conservatory of music in Regina, Saskatchewan, with a little violin case in one hand, and her mother's hand in the other. She started writing tunes at the age of 7. Tania was trained classically, but when she discovered fiddle music at age 8, her love of music took on a different meaning. At that time she met and began studying with Canadian Fiddle Champion Dean Marshall. At the age of 9, Tania became a member of the Calgary Fiddlers, the youngest by three years. She attended the Mark O'Connor fiddle camp in Nashville at the age of 10 and studied with many of North America's greatest fiddlers, including Mark O'Connor, Natalie MacMaster, and Darrol Anger. In the winter of '96 Tania recorded on the Calgary Fiddlers-' most recent CD - "Imprint" and toured with the group in Texas, Florida, and Alberta.

  A move to Victoria, BC meant meeting Daniel Lapp - an inspiring teacher who continues to draw out Tania's creative side. She joined the Dan Lapp Fiddleharmonic and the BC Fiddle Orchestra and started up her classical studies again. After being in several more groups, including the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra, and her own group - 7 Carrot Fiddle (which opened for Valdy) and recording on another album- "Echoes of the Red River Valley", Tania decided to take the route of a soloist. An entrepreneur at the age of 14, she started her own business, SwanSisters Promotions. Four 12 hour days in a home studio and every penny she every saved resulted in "Something - the CD before the next one". She learned how to market herself through "how to" books and landed many performances and the attention of Teen Magazine, Girl's Life Magazine, Focus on Women, and local radio and newspaper. The reviews were great.

 

In March 1999, Tania was given an album by the name of "Wild Blue" (Eileen Ivers), which turned her whole world upside down. Until then, she had been playing traditional music, but upon her discovery, began experimenting with world beat rhythms and improvisation. In June and July, Tania was able to test her ideas out at the Midsummer Festival (Smithers, BC) and the Folk on the Rocks Festival (Yellowknife, NWT) were she was a headliner. The response from festival organizers and the audiences was outstanding. Festival organizers stated she was the "surprise hit of the festival." With her energetic performances combined with her rapport with the audiences, the crowds danced and yelled for more

  "This is the second year in a row that Tania Elizabeth changed the Smithers Festival from being a bit better than staying at home to a truly memorable experience. Last year it was not just her skill, but her enthusiasm that was inspirational. This year, wow, what a show! She had easily the best band there, (and) was the best from a listener's perspective." -Rob MacDonald.

  Her new album, This Side Up, was recorded in September 1999 at Nomad Studios on Salt Spring Island. It is an innovative recording that reflects the new path she is exploring. She worked with co-producer Paul Brosseau and co-arranged the album with her fellow band members. The results are outstanding and the reviews are magnificent. Plans are in the works for a Canadian tour and an international tour that includes Australia -her place of birth.

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Tania Elizabeth
This Side Up

Released: 1999
Produced by: Tania Elizabeth & Paul Brosseau
Recorded at Nomad Music, Salt Spring Island, Canada

How many 18-year-olds can boast that they have produced two solo albums, released those albums on their own independent record label, and have toured internationally to promote them? Only Tania Elizabeth. Tania was born December 22nd, 1983 in Melbourne, Australia, and before she was three and a half, she was playing songs on a tiny violin. By age nine, she knew that she wanted to pursue a career as a fiddle player - and pursue she did.

By age 10, Tania was playing in the prestigious Calgary Fiddlers and had recorded on their most recent album - "Imprint". In the following year, Tania recorded with Calvin Vollrath and became familiar with the styles of the Metis. In mid 1998, she released her first solo album - "Something, the CD before the next one". 1998 was a year that was marked with more than amazing record sales and exciting new creative ventures for the young, rising star. It also marked her biggest accomplishment thus far - the birth of her record company and label, SwanSisters Records.

In December 1999, Tania Elizabeth released a second CD, "This Side Up" which featured her high-energy Celtic-based sound. Known and respected for her ability to improvise, Tania Elizabeth shines on this album, which she co-produced with Gemini-Award winner Paul Brosseau of Nomad Studios. During the days preceding the CD release concert and the concert itself, YTV filmed what would later be one-half of an episode called "YTV To the M@x"

Everyone had something to say about this young woman, but the highest compliment came from one of her all-time heroes, Mark O'Connor - "Tania - your CD is very good and a great production too. Nice arrangements and Forrest (his son) liked it a lot too."
Another new development that year was the beginning of what will be a long relationship with Save The Children Canada. Tania has committed her name and $1.00 from the sale of This Side Up to Save the Children Canada's "Out from the Shadows and Into the Light" Program. The Program is aimed at alleviating what Tania calls, "One of the world's worst crimes; the sexual exploitation of children." Tania also acts as an advocate on behalf of the cause.

A grueling month and a half tour across Canada in the summer of 2000 brought her from her home in Victoria, BC, all the way to PEI and back. If you didn't see her in concert, you may have caught her on CBC Radio and Television, Canada AM, CityTV, and many local television and radio stations, as well as local newspaper and magazines.

Tania spent February 2001 through April in Australia, opening for the Furey Brothers and headlining at major festivals, as well as playing several blissful gigs with Ember Swift and Lyndell Montgomery. May, June, and July saw Tania playing at Disney World (with the band Fiddlestix), the Butchart Gardens, and teaching at the Mark O'Connor Fiddle Camp in Nashville, TN (as the Celtic instructor). August was spent in rehearsals with the Martin Mayer Band, and September to November, touring with them across China.

In late November, Leonard Podolak, the leader of Winnipeg-based band Scrüj MacDuhk, contacted Tania and asked her to join what James O'Connor of the Winnipeg Sun called "An innovative new Celtic band that's blowing the town apart."

Founded in 1995, Scrüj MacDuhk (nominated in 2000 for a Juno Award in the Roots-Music category) has played everywhere from the smallest pubs to the largest music festivals around the world. Manfued Jaeger of the Winnipeg Free Press calls Scrüj ".Among the best in the business. The players rip you out of your seat and get you toe tapping with Jigs and Shanties, delivered with volume, conviction, and split second timing" Tania is currently touring and preparing to record with Scrüj on their upcoming album.

Her new album, This Side Up, was recorded in September 1999 at Nomad Studios on Salt Spring Island. It is an innovative recording that reflects the new path she is exploring. She worked with co-producer Paul Brosseau and co-arranged the album with her fellow band members. The results are outstanding and the reviews are magnificent.

+Shipping

Tania Elizabeth
Something

Released: 1998
Recorded on Salt Spring Island, Canada
Produced by: Tania Elizabeth

A fiddler by the age of 3 (on, she admits, a very small fiddle), this native Australian went on to master the instrument at a very young age. Now transplanted to British Columbia, Canada, Tania was only 15 when she released this, her first CD. Not only does she play the fiddle, she also produced the album herself, did her own mixing and arrangements. Wow, what a debut!