Breakthrough

Andrea Curry (Christina Arsenault photo)

Andrea Curry was between classes when she heard the good news about her first East Coast Music Award nomination. A Cape Breton Post reporter had requested an interview with the Dalhousie music student, just as the nominations were being announced. 

"I thought it was really odd, so I called him back and asked - Did I get one?". And he said "No, you got three!". "I was jumping up and down in the halls, practically incoherent," she recalls. Based on the strength of her debut album, If It Doesn't Break Me, Curry is a contender for three major awards this year: female artist, pop recording, and CBC Galaxie Rising Star. The gala awards show, hosted by the cast from Trailer Park Boys, will broadcast live across Canada on Monday, February 27 at 8 pm.

If she wins on Monday, Curry won't have much time to celebrate.  "I have to come back and do a midterm right away!"

It's tricky finding the time to build career momentum as a fulltime student, she admits, "but the professors help you, so you don't get too far ahead of yourself. It's a fine balance there."

Curry spent the first two years of her degree studying jazz vocals at St. F.X. before switching to Dal in fall 2004. She's expanding her technical and performance toolbox with courses like Aural Perception, which "really strengthens your ear, and what you're hearing," she says. Dalhousie is also a great place to assemble a new band and start recording a new album. Curry's current lineup includes Dal music students Kinley Dowling on viola, Craig Jennex and Ben Duinker on percussion, alumna Kerrianne Ryan on cello, and St. F.X. grad Nick MacLean on electric guitar. Music has always flowed freely through Curry - as a tot, she sung herself to sleep and even now, many of her songs first appear as dreams. Her father is musical and her mother, who passed away last year, "was a huge part ... she was my main support."

Curry played the piano and trumpet in her school band, but things gelled when she got her first guitar at age 16. "I wrote a song - it was the first thing I did. I wasn't wasting any time on other people's music!" she says. "Growing up in Cape Breton, it never really occurred to me that music was anything special. It's so normal there. There are ridiculous amounts of talent, but often it never gets beyond the basement."

So the move to Halifax was a good one, but going home helps Curry chart her progress and stay humble. She hadn't played a Sydney show in more than a year, and on her last trip home, "people who hadn't heard me in awhile were saying things like, "oh, you can sing now!"

Six other musicians in the Dalhousie community are nominated for ECMAs this year: 

"The Art of the Guitar" is nominated for Instrumental Album of the Year. It's by Bach to Blues, a duo including Dal instructors Douglas Reach (BM '78) and Michael Scott (BM '02). 

Classical music nominees include Rhapsody in Red, by Rhapsody Quintet, which includes Dal instructors Shimon Walt (cello) and John Rapson (clarinet).

Sloan's All Used Up is up for Single of the Year. The Toronto band, which includes alumni Patrick Pentland (BA '91) and Jay Ferguson (BA '89), recently toured Spain and opened for The Rolling Stones in Boston.