One Week in Havana by Glenda Rush Calzado

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Victor Swoboda, The Montreal Gazette, Montreal, Canada

"Glenda's style and sounds comfort the wounded and excite the lovers in all of us"

Michael Perlmutter, Instinct Entertainment,Toronto, Canada

BIOGRAPHY

Glenda Rush Calzado (Glenda Marlene Ruch) was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and grew up in Chomedey, Laval, Quebec. She has played guitar and bass since she was a child. She started playing music with her brothers in the garage of their parent's home. 'One Week in Havana' is Glenda's debut CD-EP promo disc - a collection of songs that encapsulate Glenda's musical journey and influence by all music that is labelled as 'Latin music': such as Spanish-Flamenco, boleros, and all music from Cuba.

'One Week in Havana' was produced by the duo of PERRY ALEXANDER PRODUCTIONS (Chris Perry and Adam Alexander) in Toronto, Canada. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=31532444. Having produced scores of independent talent, PERRY ALEXANDER are one of the most sought-after writing and production teams in the country, having written and produced hit singles such as Unpredictable - Keshia Chanté, Lets Go - Shawn Desman, Moviestar Rascalz, IE In Essence, Something More Ryan Malcolm, and Awake in a Dream by Kalan Porter- and other Canadian Idol tracks.

Glenda is a graduate of the Theatre Department at York University in Toronto, Canada. After completing her studies at York she returned to Montreal where she performed as a bass player with Montreal singer/artist/composer Hugh Ball and the various incarnations of his bands, Hugh Ball & The Martinis, and Hugh Ball & What It Is. Hugh had a contact with Montreal jazz label Justin Time Records, and this contract resulted in a variety of recordings and concerts until teh beand eventually broke up.

After this period, Glenda decided to work as a solo artist and started writing and producing her own music. She moved to Toronto and worked during the day in the music industry in marketing, PR, and sales - mainly in the areas of jazz and international music for PolyGram Records of Canada, Warner Music Canada, and Universal Music Canada. She also worked part time in a variety of film projects as an actress. But mainly she spent all of her spare time writing music and producing her music. Glenda also participated in many song writing events and gatherings, and was mentored through events at SOCAN - including great Canadian writers and artists like Marc Jordan and Shari Ulrich. Glenda received a FACTOR New Talent Demo Award for 2 original songs. This recording was produced by Dave Antonacci, at Room With a View studio in Toronto.

After these recording sessions, Glenda looked for different avenues for musical inspiration, and followed an inner calling towards flamenco guitar chords and sounds. She went to clubs that featured a variety of Toronto's best flamenco guitarists like Roger Scannura, Kevin Laliberte, Bill Katsioutas, and Juan Tomas. She studied Mexican and Cuban boleros, and discovered songs with lyrics and melodies of love and romance that deeply touched her and gave hera focus with her own compositions.

One evening, after seeing a performance by Roger Scannura, Glenda asked him for guitar lessons, and Roger invited her to attend and listen to him play at his dance company's classes. During one of these classes, Glenda recorded one of Roger's jams and this became the song 'Carmen's Mirror'. Roger encouraged Glenda to record her songs outside of her living room and her 8 track cassette studio set up..... Roger introduced Glenda to PERRY ALEXANDER and to lead guitarist Kevin Laliberte.

PERRY ALEXANDER's Chris Perry encouraged Glenda to record her songs initially as solo tracks with just voice and guitar. They recorded over 15 songs together. As they recorded song after song, they formulated a blend of acoustic guitar mixed with samples of Latin music, flamenco and beats. Chris invited PERRY ALEXANDER's Adam Alexander into the studio to participate. And then Kevin came in and added his lead guitar coloring and lead arrangements.

Glenda sent a demo tape to Michael Perlmutter, Music Supervisor at S.L. Feldman & Associates in Toronto. Michael placed one of Glenda's songs in a scene in the CBC Television program 'Drop The Beat'. This enabled Glenda to pursue a dream of traveling to Havana, Cuba, where she was deeply affected and inspired by the people as well as the music.

Since her travels to Havana, many evenings at the clubs on Calle Ocho in Miami, and after living in New York City, Glenda continues to immerse herself into the incredible variety of Latin music and culture. In New York she lived near El Barrio-Spanish Harlem, studied more Spanish, and participated in a variety of New York City singer songwriter events. During this time away from Montreal, she had a chance to write new repertoire in preparation for the launch of a full length CD due Summer 2007.

Glenda is currently based in Montreal, Canada and continues to write and play music, working with many great artists such as Haitian-Montreal based guitarist/composer, Toto Laraque, Montreal based flamenco guitarist/composer and Normand Vanasse.

Glenda also runs an independant music management agency:

Vivo Musique Internationale http://hometown.aol.com/glen89122/myhomepage/index.html

Thorugh Vivo Glenda has worked with a sensational list of artists & companies including Hilario Durna, Candido Camero, Randy Weston, Bet.e & Carlos Placeres, DK Ibomeka, Osmundo Calzado y La Gran Orquesta Cubana de Montreal, Jesus Alejandro El Nino Perez, Universal Music- Verve Music Group, to name some of a few.

For further information please contact:

Glenda at

Vivo Musique Internationale

glendavivo@hotmail.com

http://hometown.aol.com/glen89122/myhomepage/index.html

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